CA.pl(1)

     CA.PL(1)               0.9.6h (2000-08-24)               CA.PL(1)

     NAME
          CA.pl - friendlier interface for OpenSSL certificate
          programs

     SYNOPSIS
          CA.pl [-?]  [-h] [-help] [-newcert] [-newreq] [-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".

          -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

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              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

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          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)

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