bionic (1) pki---gen.1.gz

NAME

       pki --gen - Generate a new RSA or ECDSA private key

SYNOPSIS

       pki --gen [--type type] [--size bits] [--safe-primes] [--shares n] [--threshold l] [--outform encoding]
                 [--debug level]

       pki --gen --options file

       pki --gen -h | --help

DESCRIPTION

       This sub-command of pki(1) is used to generate a new RSA or ECDSA private key.

OPTIONS

       -h, --help
              Print usage information with a summary of the available options.

       -v, --debug level
              Set debug level, default: 1.

       -+, --options file
              Read command line options from file.

       -t, --type type
              Type of key to generate. Either rsa, ecdsa, ed25519 or bliss, defaults to rsa.

       -s, --size bits
              Key length in bits. Defaults to 2048 for rsa and 384 for ecdsa.  For ecdsa only three  values  are
              currently supported: 256, 384 and 521.

       -p, --safe-primes
              Generate RSA safe primes.

       -f, --outform encoding
              Encoding  of  the  generated  private key. Either der (ASN.1 DER) or pem (Base64 PEM), defaults to
              der.

   RSA Threshold Cryptography
       -n, --shares <n>
              Number of private RSA key shares.

       -l, --threshold <l>
              Minimum number of participating RSA key shares.

PROBLEMS ON HOSTS WITH LOW ENTROPY

       If the gmp plugin is used to generate RSA private keys the key material is read from /dev/random (via the
       random  plugin).  Therefore, the command may block if the system's entropy pool is empty.  To avoid this,
       either use a hardware random number generator to feed /dev/random or use OpenSSL (via the openssl  plugin
       or  the command line) which is not as strict in regards to the quality of the key material (it reads from
       /dev/urandom if necessary). It is also possible to configure the devices used by  the  random  plugin  in
       strongswan.conf(5).   Setting  libstrongswan.plugins.random.random  to  /dev/urandom forces the plugin to
       treat bytes read from /dev/urandom as high grade random data, thus avoiding the blocking. Of course, this
       doesn't change the fact that the key material generated this way is of lower quality.

EXAMPLES

       pki --gen --size 3072 > rsa_key.der
              Generates a 3072-bit RSA private key.

       pki --gen --type ecdsa --size 256 > ecdsa_key.der
              Generates a 256-bit ECDSA private key.

SEE ALSO

       pki(1)