NAME

       CA.pl - friendlier interface for OpenSSL certificate programs

SYNOPSIS

       CA.pl -? | -h | -help

       CA.pl -newcert | -newreq | -newreq-nodes | -xsign | -sign | -signCA | -signcert | -crl |
       -newca [-extra-cmd parameter]

       CA.pl -pkcs12 [certname]

       CA.pl -verify certfile ...

       CA.pl -revoke certfile [reason]

DESCRIPTION

       The CA.pl script is a perl script that supplies the relevant command line arguments to the
       openssl(1) command for some common certificate operations.  It is intended to simplify the
       process of certificate creation and management by the use of some simple options.

       The script is intended as a simple front end for the openssl(1) program for use by a
       beginner. Its behaviour isn't always what is wanted. For more control over the behaviour
       of the certificate commands call the openssl(1) command directly.

       Most of the filenames mentioned below can be modified by editing the CA.pl script.

       Under some environments it may not be possible to run the CA.pl script directly (for
       example Win32) and the default configuration file location may be wrong. In this case the
       command:

        perl -S CA.pl

       can be used and the OPENSSL_CONF environment variable can be set to point to the correct
       path of the configuration file.

OPTIONS

       -?, -h, -help
           Prints a usage message.

       -newcert
           Creates a new self signed certificate. The private key is written to the file
           newkey.pem and the request written to the file newreq.pem.  Invokes openssl-req(1).

       -newreq
           Creates a new certificate request. The private key is written to the file newkey.pem
           and the request written to the file newreq.pem.  Executes openssl-req(1) under the
           hood.

       -newreq-nodes
           Is like -newreq except that the private key will not be encrypted.  Uses
           openssl-req(1).

       -newca
           Creates a new CA hierarchy for use with the ca program (or the -signcert and -xsign
           options). The user is prompted to enter the filename of the CA certificates (which
           should also contain the private key) or by hitting ENTER details of the CA will be
           prompted for. The relevant files and directories are created in a directory called
           demoCA in the current directory.  Uses openssl-req(1) and openssl-ca(1).

           If the demoCA directory already exists then the -newca command will not overwrite it
           and will do nothing. This can happen if a previous call using the -newca option
           terminated abnormally. To get the correct behaviour delete the directory if it already
           exists.

       -pkcs12
           Create a PKCS#12 file containing the user certificate, private key and CA certificate.
           It expects the user certificate and private key to be in the file newcert.pem and the
           CA certificate to be in the file demoCA/cacert.pem, it creates a file newcert.p12.
           This command can thus be called after the -sign option. The PKCS#12 file can be
           imported directly into a browser.  If there is an additional argument on the command
           line it will be used as the "friendly name" for the certificate (which is typically
           displayed in the browser list box), otherwise the name "My Certificate" is used.
           Delegates work to openssl-pkcs12(1).

       -sign, -signcert, -xsign
           Calls the openssl-ca(1) command to sign a certificate request. It expects the request
           to be in the file newreq.pem. The new certificate is written to the file newcert.pem
           except in the case of the -xsign option when it is written to standard output.

       -signCA
           This option is the same as the -sign option except it uses the configuration file
           section v3_ca and so makes the signed request a valid CA certificate. This is useful
           when creating intermediate CA from a root CA.  Extra params are passed to
           openssl-ca(1).

       -signcert
           This option is the same as -sign except it expects a self signed certificate to be
           present in the file newreq.pem.  Extra params are passed to openssl-x509(1) and
           openssl-ca(1).

       -crl
           Generate a CRL. Executes openssl-ca(1).

       -revoke certfile [reason]
           Revoke the certificate contained in the specified certfile. An optional reason may be
           specified, and must be one of: unspecified, keyCompromise, CACompromise,
           affiliationChanged, superseded, cessationOfOperation, certificateHold, or
           removeFromCRL.  Leverages openssl-ca(1).

       -verify
           Verifies certificates against the CA certificate for demoCA. If no certificates are
           specified on the command line it tries to verify the file newcert.pem.  Invokes
           openssl-verify(1).

       -extra-cmd parameter
           For each option extra-cmd, pass parameter to the openssl(1) sub-command with the same
           name as cmd, if that sub-command is invoked.  For example, if openssl-req(1) is
           invoked, the parameter given with -extra-req will be passed to it.  For multi-word
           parameters, either repeat the option or quote the parameters so it looks like one word
           to your shell.  See the individual command documentation for more information.

EXAMPLES

       Create a CA hierarchy:

        CA.pl -newca

       Complete certificate creation example: create a CA, create a request, sign the request and
       finally create a PKCS#12 file containing it.

        CA.pl -newca
        CA.pl -newreq
        CA.pl -sign
        CA.pl -pkcs12 "My Test Certificate"

ENVIRONMENT

       The environment variable OPENSSL may be used to specify the name of the OpenSSL program.
       It can be a full pathname, or a relative one.

       The environment variable OPENSSL_CONFIG may be used to specify a configuration option and
       value to the req and ca commands invoked by this script. It's value should be the option
       and pathname, as in "-config /path/to/conf-file".

SEE ALSO

       openssl(1), openssl-x509(1), openssl-ca(1), openssl-req(1), openssl-pkcs12(1), config(5)

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright 2000-2021 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.

       Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License").  You may not use this file except
       in compliance with the License.  You can obtain a copy in the file LICENSE in the source
       distribution or at <https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.