NAME

       CA.pl - friendlier interface for OpenSSL certificate programs

SYNOPSIS

       CA.pl [-?]  [-h] [-help] [-newcert] [-newreq] [-newreq-nodes] [-newca] [-xsign] [-sign] [-signreq]
       [-signcert] [-verify] [files]

DESCRIPTION

       The CA.pl script is a perl script that supplies the relevant command line arguments to the openssl
       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.

COMMAND 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".

       -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".

       -newreq-nodes
           is like -newreq except that the private key will not be encrypted.

       -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.

       -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.

       -sign, -signreq, -xsign
           calls the ca program 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 -signreq 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.

       -signcert
           this option is the same as -sign except it expects a self signed certificate to  be  present  in  the
           file "newreq.pem".

       -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".

       files
           one or more optional certificate file names for use with the -verify command.

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 -signreq
        CA.pl -pkcs12 "My Test Certificate"

DSA CERTIFICATES

       Although the CA.pl creates RSA CAs and requests it is still possible to use it with DSA certificates  and
       requests using the req(1) command directly. The following example shows the steps that would typically be
       taken.

       Create some DSA parameters:

        openssl dsaparam -out dsap.pem 1024

       Create a DSA CA certificate and private key:

        openssl req -x509 -newkey dsa:dsap.pem -keyout cacert.pem -out cacert.pem

       Create the CA directories and files:

        CA.pl -newca

       enter cacert.pem when prompted for the CA file name.

       Create a DSA certificate request and private key (a different set of parameters can optionally be created
       first):

        openssl req -out newreq.pem -newkey dsa:dsap.pem

       Sign the request:

        CA.pl -signreq

NOTES

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

       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 demoCA directory if it already exists.

       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  changed to point to the correct path of the
       configuration file "openssl.cnf".

       The script is intended as a simple front end for the openssl 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 command directly.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       The  variable  OPENSSL_CONF if defined allows an alternative configuration file location to be specified,
       it should contain the full path to the configuration file, not just its directory.

SEE ALSO

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

1.0.1f                                             2014-01-06                                        CA.PL(1SSL)