CA.PL(1)							      OpenSSL								  CA.PL(1)

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 and certificate are written to the file "newreq.pem".

       -newreq
	   creates a new certificate request. The private key and request are written to the file "newreq.pem".

       -newreq-nowdes
	   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 file-
	   name 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 com-
	   mand 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 writ-
	   ten 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)

0.9.7a								    2001-01-11								  CA.PL(1)