openssl(1) - OpenBSD manual pages

openssl(1) - OpenBSD manual pages
OPENSSL(1)
General Commands Manual
OPENSSL(1)
NAME
openssl
OpenSSL command line tool
SYNOPSIS
openssl
command
command_opt ...
command_arg ...
openssl
list-standard-commands
list-message-digest-commands
list-cipher-commands
list-cipher-algorithms
list-message-digest-algorithms
list-public-key-algorithms
openssl
no-
command
DESCRIPTION
OpenSSL
is a cryptography toolkit
implementing the Transport Layer Security (TLS) network protocol, as well as
related cryptography standards.
The
openssl
program is a command line tool
for using the various cryptography functions of
openssl
's crypto library from the shell.
The pseudo-commands
list-standard-commands
list-message-digest-commands
, and
list-cipher-commands
output a list (one entry per
line) of the names of all standard commands, message digest commands, or
cipher commands, respectively, that are available in the present
openssl
utility.
The pseudo-commands
list-cipher-algorithms
and
list-message-digest-algorithms
list all cipher
and message digest names, one entry per line. Aliases are listed as:
from => to
The pseudo-command
list-public-key-algorithms
lists all supported
public key algorithms.
The pseudo-command
no-
command
tests whether a
command of the specified name is available. If
command
does not exist, it returns 0 and prints
no-
command
; otherwise it
returns 1 and prints
command
. In both cases, the
output goes to stdout and nothing is printed to stderr. Additional command
line arguments are always ignored. Since for each cipher there is a command
of the same name, this provides an easy way for shell scripts to test for
the availability of ciphers in the
openssl
program.
Note
no-
command
is not able to
detect pseudo-commands such as
quit
list-
...
-commands
or
no-
command
itself.
ASN1PARSE
openssl asn1parse
-i
-dlimit
number
-dump
-genconf
file
-genstr
str
-in
file
-inform
der
pem
txt
-length
number
-noout
-offset
number
-oid
file
-out
file
-strparse
offset
The
asn1parse
command is a diagnostic
utility that can parse ASN.1 structures. It can also be used to extract data
from ASN.1 formatted data.
The options are as follows:
-dlimit
number
Dump the first
number
bytes of unknown data in hex
form.
-dump
Dump unknown data in hex form.
-genconf
file
-genstr
str
Generate encoded data based on string
str
, file
file
, or both, using the format described in
ASN1_generate_nconf(3)
. If only
file
is present then the string is obtained from the default section using the
name “asn1”. The encoded data is passed through the ASN.1
parser and printed out as though it came from a file; the contents can
thus be examined and written to a file using the
-out
option.
-i
Indent the output according to the "depth" of the
structures.
-in
file
The input file to read from, or standard input if not specified.
-inform
der
pem
txt
The input format.
-length
number
Number of bytes to parse; the default is until end of file.
-noout
Do not output the parsed version of the input file.
-offset
number
Starting offset to begin parsing; the default is start of file.
-oid
file
A file containing additional object identifiers (OIDs). If an OID (object
identifier) is not part of
openssl
's internal
table, it will be represented in numerical form (for example 1.2.3.4).
Each line consists of three columns: the first column is the
OID in numerical format and should be followed by whitespace. The second
column is the "short name", which is a single word followed by
whitespace. The final column is the rest of the line and is the
"long name".
asn1parse
displays the
long name.
-out
file
The DER-encoded output file; the default is no encoded output (useful when
combined with
-strparse
).
-strparse
offset
Parse the content octets of the ASN.1 object starting at
offset
. This option can be used multiple times to
"drill down" into a nested structure.
CA
openssl ca
-batch
-cert
file
-config
file
-create_serial
-crl_CA_compromise
time
-crl_compromise
time
-crl_hold
instruction
-crl_reason
reason
-crldays
days
-crlexts
section
-crlhours
hours
-crlsec
seconds
-days
arg
-enddate
date
-extensions
section
-extfile
file
-gencrl
-in
file
-infiles
-key
password
-keyfile
file
-keyform
pem
der
-md
alg
-multivalue-rdn
-name
section
-noemailDN
] [
-notext
-out
file
-outdir
directory
-passin
arg
-policy
arg
-preserveDN
-revoke
file
-selfsign
-sigopt
nm:v
-ss_cert
file
-startdate
date
-status
serial
-subj
arg
-updatedb
] [
-utf8
-verbose
The
ca
command is a minimal certificate
authority (CA) application. It can be used to sign certificate requests in a
variety of forms and generate certificate revocation lists (CRLs). It also
maintains a text database of issued certificates and their status.
The options relevant to CAs are as follows:
-batch
Batch mode. In this mode no questions will be asked and all certificates
will be certified automatically.
-cert
file
The CA certificate file.
-config
file
Specify an alternative configuration file.
-create_serial
If reading the serial from the text file as specified in the configuration
fails, create a new random serial to be used as the next serial
number.
-days
arg
The number of days to certify the certificate for.
-enddate
date
Set the expiry date. The format of the date is [YY]YYMMDDHHMMSSZ, with all
four year digits required for dates from 2050 onwards.
-extensions
section
The section of the configuration file containing certificate extensions to
be added when a certificate is issued (defaults to
x509_extensions
unless the
-extfile
option is used). If no extension section
is present, a V1 certificate is created. If the extension section is
present (even if it is empty), then a V3 certificate is created. See the
x509v3.cnf(5)
manual page for details of the extension section
format.
-extfile
file
An additional configuration
file
to read certificate
extensions from (using the default section unless the
-extensions
option is also used).
-in
file
An input
file
containing a single certificate
request to be signed by the CA.
-infiles
If present, this should be the last option; all subsequent arguments are
assumed to be the names of files containing certificate requests.
-key
password
The
password
used to encrypt the private key. Since
on some systems the command line arguments are visible, this option should
be used with caution.
-keyfile
file
The private key to sign requests with.
-keyform
pem
der
Private key file format. The default is
pem
-md
alg
The message digest to use. Possible values include
md5
and
sha1
. This option also
applies to CRLs.
-multivalue-rdn
This option causes the
-subj
argument to be
interpreted with full support for multivalued RDNs, for example
"/DC=org/DC=OpenSSL/DC=users/UID=123456+CN=John Doe". If
-multivalue-rdn
is not used, the UID value is set
to "123456+CN=John Doe".
-name
section
Specifies the configuration file
section
to use
(overrides
default_ca
in the
ca
section).
-noemailDN
The DN of a certificate can contain the EMAIL field if present in the
request DN, however it is good policy just having the email set into the
altName
extension of the certificate. When this
option is set, the EMAIL field is removed from the certificate's subject
and set only in the, eventually present, extensions. The
email_in_dn
keyword can be used in the configuration
file to enable this behaviour.
-notext
Don't output the text form of a certificate to the output file.
-out
file
The output file to output certificates to. The default is standard output.
The certificate details will also be printed out to this file in PEM
format.
-outdir
directory
The
directory
to output certificates to. The
certificate will be written to a file consisting of the serial number in
hex with ".pem" appended.
-passin
arg
The key password source.
-policy
arg
Define the CA "policy" to use. The policy section in the
configuration file consists of a set of variables corresponding to
certificate DN fields. The values may be one of "match" (the
value must match the same field in the CA certificate),
"supplied" (the value must be present), or "optional"
(the value may be present). Any fields not mentioned in the policy section
are silently deleted, unless the
-preserveDN
option is set, but this can be regarded more of a quirk than intended
behaviour.
-preserveDN
Normally, the DN order of a certificate is the same as the order of the
fields in the relevant policy section. When this option is set, the order
is the same as the request. This is largely for compatibility with the
older IE enrollment control which would only accept certificates if their
DNs matched the order of the request. This is not needed for Xenroll.
-selfsign
Indicates the issued certificates are to be signed with the key the
certificate requests were signed with, given with
-keyfile
. Certificate requests signed with a
different key are ignored. If
-gencrl
or
-ss_cert
are given,
-selfsign
is ignored.
A consequence of using
-selfsign
is
that the self-signed certificate appears among the entries in the
certificate database (see the configuration option
database
) and uses the same serial number
counter as all other certificates signed with the self-signed
certificate.
-sigopt
nm:v
Pass options to the signature algorithm during sign or certify operations.
The names and values of these options are algorithm-specific.
-ss_cert
file
A single self-signed certificate to be signed by the CA.
-startdate
date
Set the start date. The format of the date is [YY]YYMMDDHHMMSSZ, with all
four year digits required for dates from 2050 onwards.
-subj
arg
Supersedes the subject name given in the request. The
arg
must be formatted as
type0
value0
type1
value1
type2
...
characters may be escaped by ‘\’ (backslash), no spaces are
skipped.
-utf8
Interpret field values read from a terminal or obtained from a
configuration file as UTF-8 strings. By default, they are interpreted as
ASCII.
-verbose
Print extra details about the operations being performed.
The options relevant to CRLs are as follows:
-crl_CA_compromise
time
This is the same as
-crl_compromise
, except the
revocation reason is set to CACompromise.
-crl_compromise
time
Set the revocation reason to keyCompromise and the compromise time to
time
time
should be in
GeneralizedTime format, i.e. YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ.
-crl_hold
instruction
Set the CRL revocation reason code to certificateHold and the hold
instruction to
instruction
which must be an OID.
Although any OID can be used, only holdInstructionNone (the use of which
is discouraged by RFC 2459), holdInstructionCallIssuer or
holdInstructionReject will normally be used.
-crl_reason
reason
Revocation reason, where
reason
is one of:
unspecified, keyCompromise, CACompromise, affiliationChanged, superseded,
cessationOfOperation, certificateHold or removeFromCRL. The matching of
reason
is case insensitive. Setting any revocation
reason will make the CRL v2. In practice, removeFromCRL is not
particularly useful because it is only used in delta CRLs which are not
currently implemented.
-crldays
days
The number of days before the next CRL is due. This is the days from now
to place in the CRL
nextUpdate
field.
-crlexts
section
The
section
of the configuration file containing CRL
extensions to include. If no CRL extension section is present then a V1
CRL is created; if the CRL extension section is present (even if it is
empty) then a V2 CRL is created. The CRL extensions specified are CRL
extensions and not CRL entry extensions. It should be noted that some
software can't handle V2 CRLs. See the
x509v3.cnf(5)
manual page for details of the extension section
format.
-crlhours
hours
The number of hours before the next CRL is due.
-crlsec
seconds
The number of seconds before the next CRL is due.
-gencrl
Generate a CRL based on information in the index file.
-revoke
file
file
containing a certificate to revoke.
-status
serial
Show the status of the certificate with serial number
serial
-updatedb
Update the database index to purge expired certificates.
Many of the options can be set in the
ca
section of the configuration file (or in the default section of the
configuration file), specified using
default_ca
or
-name
. The
preserve
option
is read directly from the
ca
section.
Many of the configuration file options are identical to command
line options. Where the option is present in the configuration file and the
command line, the command line value is used. Where an option is described
as mandatory, then it must be present in the configuration file or the
command line equivalent (if any) used.
certificate
The same as
-cert
. It gives the file containing
the CA certificate. Mandatory.
copy_extensions
Determines how extensions in certificate requests should be handled. If
set to
none
or this option is not present, then
extensions are ignored and not copied to the certificate. If set to
copy
, then any extensions present in the request
that are not already present are copied to the certificate. If set to
copyall
, then all extensions in the request are
copied to the certificate: if the extension is already present in the
certificate it is deleted first.
The
copy_extensions
option should be
used with caution. If care is not taken, it can be a security risk. For
example, if a certificate request contains a
basicConstraints
extension with CA:TRUE and the
copy_extensions
value is set to
copyall
and the user does not spot this when the
certificate is displayed, then this will hand the requester a valid CA
certificate.
This situation can be avoided by setting
copy_extensions
to
copy
and including
basicConstraints
with CA:FALSE in
the configuration file. Then if the request contains a
basicConstraints
extension, it will be
ignored.
The main use of this option is to allow a certificate request
to supply values for certain extensions such as
subjectAltName
crl_extensions
The same as
-crlexts
crlnumber
A text file containing the next CRL number to use in hex. The CRL number
will be inserted in the CRLs only if this file exists. If this file is
present, it must contain a valid CRL number.
database
The text database file to use. Mandatory. This file must be present,
though initially it will be empty.
default_crl_hours
default_crl_days
The same as the
-crlhours
and
-crldays
options. These will only be used if
neither command line option is present. At least one of these must be
present to generate a CRL.
default_days
The same as the
-days
option. The number of days
to certify a certificate for.
default_enddate
The same as the
-enddate
option. Either this
option or
default_days
(or the command line
equivalents) must be present.
default_md
The same as the
-md
option. The message digest to
use. Mandatory.
default_startdate
The same as the
-startdate
option. The start date
to certify a certificate for. If not set, the current time is used.
email_in_dn
The same as
-noemailDN
. If the EMAIL field is to
be removed from the DN of the certificate, simply set this to
"no". If not present, the default is to allow for the EMAIL
field in the certificate's DN.
name_opt
cert_opt
These options allow the format used to display the certificate details
when asking the user to confirm signing. All the options supported by the
x509
utilities'
-nameopt
and
-certopt
switches can be used here, except
that
no_signame
and
no_sigdump
are permanently set and cannot be
disabled (this is because the certificate signature cannot be displayed
because the certificate has not been signed at this point).
For convenience, the value
ca_default
is accepted by both to produce a reasonable output.
If neither option is present, the format used in earlier
versions of
openssl
is used. Use of the old
format is strongly discouraged because it only displays fields mentioned
in the
policy
section, mishandles multicharacter
string types and does not display extensions.
new_certs_dir
The same as the
-outdir
command line option. It
specifies the directory where new certificates will be placed.
Mandatory.
oid_file
This specifies a file containing additional object identifiers. Each line
of the file should consist of the numerical form of the object identifier
followed by whitespace, then the short name followed by whitespace and
finally the long name.
oid_section
This specifies a section in the configuration file containing extra object
identifiers. Each line should consist of the short name of the object
identifier followed by ‘=’ and the numerical form. The short
and long names are the same when this option is used.
policy
The same as
-policy
. Mandatory.
preserve
The same as
-preserveDN
private_key
Same as the
-keyfile
option. The file containing
the CA private key. Mandatory.
serial
A text file containing the next serial number to use in hex. Mandatory.
This file must be present and contain a valid serial number.
unique_subject
If the value
yes
is given, the valid certificate
entries in the database must have unique subjects. If the value
no
is given, several valid certificate entries may
have the exact same subject. The default value is
yes
Note that it is valid in some circumstances for certificates
to be created without any subject. In cases where there are multiple
certificates without subjects this does not count as a duplicate.
x509_extensions
The same as
-extensions
CERTHASH
openssl certhash
-nv
dir ...
The
certhash
command calculates a hash
value of ".pem" file in the specified directory list and creates
symbolic links for each file, where the name of the link is the hash value.
See the
SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations(3)
manual page for how hash
links are used.
The links created are of the form "HHHHHHHH.D", where
each ‘H’ is a hexadecimal character and ‘D’ is a
single decimal digit. The hashes for CRLs look similar, except the letter
‘r’ appears after the period, like this:
"HHHHHHHH.rD". When processing a directory,
certhash
will first remove all links that have a
name in that syntax and invalid reference.
Multiple objects may have the same hash; they will be indicated by
incrementing the ‘D’ value. Duplicates are found by comparing
the full SHA256 fingerprint. A warning will be displayed if a duplicate is
found.
A warning will also be displayed if there are files that cannot be
parsed as either a certificate or a CRL.
The options are as follows:
-n
Perform a dry-run, and do not make any changes.
-v
Print extra details about the processing.
dir ...
Specify the directories to process.
CIPHERS
openssl ciphers
-hsVv
] [
-tls1_2
-tls1_3
] [
control
The
ciphers
command converts the
control
string from the format documented in
SSL_CTX_set_cipher_list(3)
into an ordered SSL cipher suite
preference list. If no
control
string is specified,
the
DEFAULT
list is printed.
The options are as follows:
-h
-?
Print a brief usage message.
-s
Only list ciphers that are supported by the TLS method.
-tls1_2
-tls1_3
In combination with the
-s
option, list the
ciphers which could be used if the specified protocol version were
negotiated.
-V
Verbose. List ciphers with cipher suite code in hex format, cipher name,
and a complete description of protocol version, key exchange,
authentication, encryption, and mac algorithms.
-v
Like
-V
, but without cipher suite codes.
CMS
openssl cms
-aes128
-aes192
-aes256
-camellia128
-camellia192
-camellia256
-des
-des3
-rc2-40
-rc2-64
-rc2-128
-CAfile
file
-CApath
directory
-CRLfile
file
-binary
-certfile
file
-certsout
file
-cmsout
-content
file
-crlfeol
] [
-data_create
-data_out
-debug_decrypt
-decrypt
-digest_create
-digest_verify
-econtent_type
type
-encrypt
-EncryptedData_decrypt
-EncryptedData_encrypt
-from
addr
-in
file
-inform
der
pem
smime
-inkey
file
-keyform
der
pem
-keyid
-keyopt
nm:v
-md
digest
-no_attr_verify
-no_content_verify
-no_signer_cert_verify
-noattr
] [
-nocerts
-nodetach
] [
-nointern
-nooldmime
] [
-noout
-nosigs
] [
-nosmimecap
-noverify
-out
file
-outform
der
pem
smime
-passin
src
-print
-pwri_password
arg
-rctform
der
pem
smime
-receipt_request_all
-receipt_request_first
-receipt_request_from
addr
-receipt_request_print
-receipt_request_to
addr
-recip
file
-resign
-secretkey
key
-secretkeyid
id
-sign
] [
-sign_receipt
-signer
file
-stream
-indef
-noindef
-subject
-text
-to
addr
-verify
-verify_receipt
file
-verify_retcode
cert.pem ...
The
cms
command handles S/MIME v3.1 mail.
It can encrypt, decrypt, sign and verify S/MIME messages.
The MIME message must be sent without any blank lines between the
headers and the output. Some mail programs will automatically add a blank
line. Piping the mail directly to sendmail is one way to achieve the correct
format.
The supplied message to be signed or encrypted must include the
necessary MIME headers or many S/MIME clients won't display it properly (if
at all). You can use the
-text
option to
automatically add plain text headers.
A "signed and encrypted" message is one where a signed
message is then encrypted. This can be produced by encrypting an already
signed message.
There are various operation options that set the type of operation
to be performed. The meaning of the other options varies according to the
operation type.
-encrypt
Encrypt mail for the given recipient certificates. Input file is the
message to be encrypted. The output file is the encrypted mail in MIME
format. The actual CMS type is EnvelopedData. Note that no revocation
check is done for the recipient cert, so if that key has been compromised,
others may be able to decrypt the text.
-decrypt
Decrypt mail using the supplied certificate and private key. Expects an
encrypted mail message in MIME format for the input file. The decrypted
mail is written to the output file.
-sign
Sign mail using the supplied certificate and private key. Input file is
the message to be signed. The signed message in MIME format is written to
the output file.
-verify
Verify signed mail. Expects a signed mail message on input and outputs the
signed data. Both clear text and opaque signing are supported.
-cmsout
Take an input message and write out a PEM encoded CMS structure.
-resign
Resign a message. Take an existing message and one or more new signers.
This operation uses an existing message digest when adding a new signer.
This means that attributes must be present in at least one existing signer
using the same message digest or this operation will fail.
-data_create
Create a CMS Data type.
-data_out
Output a content from the input CMS Data type.
-digest_create
Create a CMS DigestedData type.
-digest_verify
Verify a CMS DigestedData type and output the content.
-EncryptedData_encrypt
Encrypt a content using supplied symmetric key and algorithm using a CMS
EncryptedData type.
-EncryptedData_decrypt
Decrypt a CMS EncryptedData type using supplied symmetric key.
-sign_receipt
Generate and output a signed receipt for the supplied message. The input
message must contain a signed receipt request. Functionality is otherwise
similar to the
-sign
operation.
-verify_receipt
file
Verify a signed receipt in file. The input message must contain the
original receipt request. Functionality is otherwise similar to the
-verify
operation.
The remaining options are as follows:
-aes128
-aes192
-aes256
-camellia128
-camellia192
-camellia256
-des
-des3
-rc2-40
-rc2-64
-rc2-128
The encryption algorithm to use. 128-, 192-, or 256-bit AES, 128-, 192-,
or 256-bit CAMELLIA, DES (56 bits), triple DES (168 bits), or 40-, 64-, or
128-bit RC2, respectively; if not specified, 256-bit AES is used. Only
used with
-encrypt
and
-EncryptedData_encrypt
commands.
-binary
Normally the input message is converted to "canonical" format
which is effectively using CR/LF as end of line, as required by the S/MIME
specification. When this option is present, no translation occurs. This is
useful when handling binary data which may not be in MIME format.
-CAfile
file
A file containing trusted CA certificates, used with
-verify
and
-verify_receipt
-CApath
directory
A directory containing trusted CA certificates, used with
-verify
and
-verify_receipt
. This directory must be a standard
certificate directory: that is a hash of each subject name (using
x509
-hash
) should be
linked to each certificate.
-CRLfile
file
Allows additional certificate revocation lists to be specified for
verification. The CRLs should be in PEM format.
cert.pem ...
One or more certificates of message recipients: used when encrypting a
message.
-certfile
file
Allows additional certificates to be specified. When signing, these will
be included with the message. When verifying, these will be searched for
the signer's certificates. The certificates should be in PEM format.
-certsout
file
A file that any certificates contained in the message are written to.
-check_ss_sig
-crl_check
-crl_check_all
-extended_crl
-ignore_critical
-issuer_checks
-policy
-policy_check
-purpose
-x509_strict
Set various certificate chain validation options. See the
verify
command for details.
-content
file
A file containing the detached content. This is only useful with the
-verify
command. This is only usable if the CMS
structure is using the detached signature form where the content is not
included. This option will override any content if the input format is
S/MIME and it uses the multipart/signed MIME content type.
-crlfeol
Output a S/MIME message with CR/LF end of line.
-debug_decrypt
Set the CMS_DEBUG_DECRYPT flag when decrypting. This option should be used
with caution, since this can be used to disable the MMA attack protection
and return an error if no recipient can be found. See the
CMS_decrypt(3)
manual page for details of the flag.
-from
addr
-subject
-to
addr
The relevant mail headers. These are included outside the signed portion
of a message so they may be included manually. If signing then many S/MIME
mail clients check the signer's certificate's email address matches that
specified in the From: address.
-econtent_type
type
Set the encapsulated content type, used with
-sign
. If not supplied, the Data type is used. The
type argument can be any valid OID name in either text or numerical
format.
-in
file
The input message to be encrypted or signed or the message to be decrypted
or verified.
-inform
der
pem
smime
The input format for the CMS structure. The default is
smime
, which reads an S/MIME format message.
pem
and
der
format change
this to expect PEM and DER format CMS structures instead. This currently
only affects the input format of the CMS structure; if no CMS structure is
being input (for example with
-encrypt
or
-sign
) this option has no effect.
-inkey
file
The private key to use when signing or decrypting. This must match the
corresponding certificate. If this option is not specified then the
private key must be included in the certificate file specified with the
-recip
or
-signer
file.
When signing, this option can be used multiple times to specify successive
keys.
-keyform
der
pem
Input private key format. The default is
pem
-keyid
Use subject key identifier to identify certificates instead of issuer name
and serial number. The supplied certificate must include a subject key
identifier extension. Supported by
-sign
and
-encrypt
operations.
-keyopt
nm:v
Set customised parameters for the preceding key or certificate for
encryption and signing. It can currently be used to set RSA-PSS for
signing, RSA-OAEP for encryption or to modify default parameters for ECDH.
This option can be used multiple times.
-md
digest
The digest algorithm to use when signing or resigning. If not present then
the default digest algorithm for the signing key will be used (usually
SHA1).
-no_attr_verify
Do not verify the signer's attribute of a signature.
-no_content_verify
Do not verify the content of a signed message.
-no_signer_cert_verify
Do not verify the signer's certificate of a signed message.
-noattr
Do not include attributes. Normally when a message is signed a set of
attributes are included which include the signing time and supported
symmetric algorithms. With this option they are not included.
-nocerts
Do not include the signer's certificate. This will reduce the size of the
signed message but the verifier must have a copy of the signer's
certificate available locally (passed using the
-certfile
option for example).
-nodetach
When signing a message, use opaque signing. This form is more resistant to
translation by mail relays but it cannot be read by mail agents that do
not support S/MIME. Without this option cleartext signing with the MIME
type multipart/signed is used.
-nointern
Only the certificates specified in the
-certfile
option are used. When verifying a message, normally certificates (if any)
included in the message are searched for the signing certificate. The
supplied certificates can still be used as untrusted CAs however.
-nooldmime
Output an old S/MIME content type like
"application/x-pkcs7-".
-noout
Do not output the parsed CMS structure for the
-cmsout
operation. This is useful when combined
with the
-print
option or if the syntax of the CMS
structure is being checked.
-nosigs
Do not try to verify the signatures on the message.
-nosmimecap
Exclude the list of supported algorithms from signed attributes; other
options such as signing time and content type are still included.
-noverify
Do not verify the signer's certificate of a signed message.
-out
file
The message text that has been decrypted or verified or the output MIME
format message that has been signed or verified.
-outform
der
pem
smime
This specifies the output format for the CMS structure. The default is
smime
, which writes an S/MIME format message.
pem
and
der
format change
this to write PEM and DER format CMS structures instead. This currently
only affects the output format of the CMS structure; if no CMS structure
is being output (for example with
-verify
or
-decrypt
) this option has no effect.
-passin
src
The private key password source.
-print
Print out all fields of the CMS structure for the
-cmsout
operation. This is mainly useful for
testing purposes.
-pwri_password
arg
Specify PasswordRecipientInfo (PWRI) password to use. Supported by the
-encrypt
and
-decrypt
operations.
-rctform
der
pem
smime
Specify the format for a signed receipt for use with the
-receipt_verify
operation. The default is
smime
-receipt_request_all
-receipt_request_first
Indicate requests should be provided by all recipient or first tier
recipients (those mailed directly and not from a mailing list), for the
-sign
operation to include a signed receipt
request. Ignored if
-receipt_request_from
is
included.
-receipt_request_from
addr
Add an explicit email address where receipts should be supplied.
-receipt_request_print
Print out the contents of any signed receipt requests for the
-verify
operation.
-receipt_request_to
addr
Add an explicit email address where signed receipts should be sent to.
This option must be supplied if a signed receipt is requested.
-recip
file
When decrypting a message, this specifies the recipient's certificate. The
certificate must match one of the recipients of the message or an error
occurs. When encrypting a message, this option may be used multiple times
to specify each recipient. This form must be used if customised parameters
are required (for example to specify RSA-OAEP). Only certificates carrying
RSA, Diffie-Hellman or EC keys are supported by this option.
-secretkey
key
Specify symmetric key to use. The key must be supplied in hex format and
be consistent with the algorithm used. Supported by the
-EncryptedData_encrypt
-EncryptedData_decrypt
-encrypt
and
-decrypt
operations. When used with
-encrypt
or
-decrypt
, the supplied key is used to wrap or
unwrap the content encryption key using an AES key in the KEKRecipientInfo
type.
-secretkeyid
id
The key identifier for the supplied symmetric key for KEKRecipientInfo
type. This option must be present if the
-secretkey
option is used with
-encrypt
. With
-decrypt
operations the id is used to locate the relevant key; if it is not
supplied then an attempt is used to decrypt any KEKRecipientInfo
structures.
-signer
file
A signing certificate when signing or resigning a message; this option can
be used multiple times if more than one signer is required. If a message
is being verified then the signers certificates will be written to this
file if the verification was successful.
-stream
-indef
-noindef
The
-stream
and
-indef
options are equivalent and enable streaming I/O for encoding operations.
This permits single pass processing of data without the need to hold the
entire contents in memory, potentially supporting very large files.
Streaming is automatically set for S/MIME signing with detached data if
the output format is
smime
; it is currently off by
default for all other operations.
-noindef
disable
streaming I/O where it would produce an indefinite length constructed
encoding. This option currently has no effect.
-text
Add plain text (text/plain) MIME headers to the supplied message if
encrypting or signing. If decrypting or verifying, it strips off text
headers: if the decrypted or verified message is not of MIME type
text/plain then an error occurs.
-verify_retcode
Set verification error code to exit code to indicate what verification
error has occurred. Supported by
-verify
operation
only. Exit code value minus 32 shows verification error code. See
verify
command for the list of verification error
code.
The exit codes for
cms
are as follows:
The operation was completely successful.
An error occurred parsing the command options.
One of the input files could not be read.
An error occurred creating the CMS file or when reading the MIME
message.
An error occurred decrypting or verifying the message.
The message was verified correctly but an error occurred writing out the
signer's certificates.
An error occurred writing the output file.
32+
A verify error occurred while
-verify_retcode
is
specified.
CRL
openssl crl
-CAfile
file
-CApath
dir
-crlnumber
-fingerprint
] [
-hash
-hash_old
-in
file
-inform
der
pem
-issuer
] [
-lastupdate
-nameopt
option
-nextupdate
] [
-noout
-out
file
-outform
der
pem
-text
] [
-verify
The
crl
command processes CRL files in DER
or PEM format.
The options are as follows:
-CAfile
file
Verify the signature on a CRL by looking up the issuing certificate in
file
-CApath
directory
Verify the signature on a CRL by looking up the issuing certificate in
dir
. This directory must be a standard certificate
directory, i.e. a hash of each subject name (using
x509
-hash
) should be
linked to each certificate.
-crlnumber
Print the CRL number.
-fingerprint
Print the CRL fingerprint.
-hash
Output a hash of the issuer name. This can be used to look up CRLs in a
directory by issuer name.
-hash_old
Output an old-style (MD5) hash of the issuer name.
-in
file
The input file to read from, or standard input if not specified.
-inform
der
pem
The input format.
-issuer
Output the issuer name.
-lastupdate
Output the
thisUpdate
field. This option is
misnamed for historical reasons.
-nameopt
option
Specify certificate name options.
-nextupdate
Output the
nextUpdate
field.
-noout
Do not output the encoded version of the CRL.
-out
file
The output file to write to, or standard output if not specified.
-outform
der
pem
The output format.
-text
Print the CRL in plain text.
-verify
Verify the signature on the CRL.
CRL2PKCS7
openssl crl2pkcs7
-certfile
file
-in
file
-inform
der
pem
-nocrl
-out
file
-outform
der
pem
The
crl2pkcs7
command takes an optional
CRL and one or more certificates and converts them into a PKCS#7 degenerate
"certificates only" structure.
The options are as follows:
-certfile
file
Add the certificates in PEM
file
to the PKCS#7
structure. This option can be used more than once to read certificates
from multiple files.
-in
file
Read the CRL from
file
, or standard input if not
specified.
-inform
der
pem
The input format.
-nocrl
Normally, a CRL is included in the output file. With this option, no CRL
is included in the output file and a CRL is not read from the input
file.
-out
file
Write the PKCS#7 structure to
file
, or standard
output if not specified.
-outform
der
pem
The output format.
DGST
openssl dgst
-cdr
] [
-binary
digest
-hex
-hmac
key
-keyform
pem
-mac
algorithm
-macopt
nm
-out
file
-passin
arg
-prverify
file
-sign
file
-signature
file
-sigopt
nm
-verify
file
file ...
The digest functions output the message digest of a supplied
file
or
files
in hexadecimal
form. They can also be used for digital signing and verification.
The options are as follows:
-binary
Output the digest or signature in binary form.
-c
Print the digest in two-digit groups separated by colons.
-d
Print BIO debugging information.
digest
Use the specified message
digest
. The default is
SHA256. The available digests can be displayed using
openssl
list-message-digest-commands
. The following are
equivalent:
openssl dgst
-sha256
and
openssl
sha256
-hex
Digest is to be output as a hex dump. This is the default case for a
"normal" digest as opposed to a digital signature.
-hmac
key
Create a hashed MAC using
key
-keyform
pem
Specifies the key format to sign the digest with.
-mac
algorithm
Create a keyed Message Authentication Code (MAC). The most popular MAC
algorithm is HMAC (hash-based MAC), but there are other MAC algorithms
which are not based on hash. MAC keys and other options should be set via
the
-macopt
parameter.
-macopt
nm
Passes options to the MAC algorithm, specified by
-mac
. The following options are supported by HMAC:
key
string
Specifies the MAC key as an alphanumeric string (use if the key
contain printable characters only). String length must conform to any
restrictions of the MAC algorithm.
hexkey
string
Specifies the MAC key in hexadecimal form (two hex digits per byte).
Key length must conform to any restrictions of the MAC algorithm.
-out
file
The output file to write to, or standard output if not specified.
-passin
arg
The key password source.
-prverify
file
Verify the signature using the private key in
file
The output is either "Verification OK" or "Verification
Failure".
-r
Print the digest in coreutils format.
-sign
file
Digitally sign the digest using the private key in
file
-signature
file
The actual signature to verify.
-sigopt
nm
Pass options to the signature algorithm during sign or verify operations.
The names and values of these options are algorithm-specific.
-verify
file
Verify the signature using the public key in
file
The output is either "Verification OK" or "Verification
Failure".
file ...
File or files to digest. If no files are specified then standard input is
used.
DHPARAM
openssl dhparam
-2
-5
-check
] [
-dsaparam
-in
file
-inform
der
pem
-noout
-out
file
-outform
der
pem
-text
] [
numbits
The
dhparam
command is used to manipulate
DH parameter files. Only the older PKCS#3 DH is supported, not the newer
X9.42 DH.
The options are as follows:
-2
-5
The generator to use; 2 is the default. If present, the input file is
ignored and parameters are generated instead.
-check
Check the DH parameters.
-dsaparam
Read or create DSA parameters, converted to DH format on output.
Otherwise, "strong" primes (such that (p-1)/2 is also prime)
will be used for DH parameter generation.
DH parameter generation with the
-dsaparam
option is much faster, and the
recommended exponent length is shorter, which makes DH key exchange more
efficient. Beware that with such DSA-style DH parameters, a fresh DH key
should be created for each use to avoid small-subgroup attacks that may
be possible otherwise.
-in
file
The input file to read from, or standard input if not specified.
-inform
der
pem
The input format.
-noout
Do not output the encoded version of the parameters.
-out
file
The output file to write to, or standard output if not specified.
-outform
der
pem
The output format.
-text
Print the DH parameters in plain text.
numbits
Generate a parameter set of size
numbits
. It must be
the last option. If not present, a value of 2048 is used. If this value is
present, the input file is ignored and parameters are generated
instead.
DSA
openssl dsa
-aes128
-aes192
-aes256
-des
-des3
-in
file
-inform
der
pem
pvk
-modulus
] [
-noout
-out
file
-outform
der
pem
pvk
-passin
arg
-passout
arg
-pubin
] [
-pubout
-pvk-none
-pvk-strong
-pvk-weak
-text
The
dsa
command processes DSA keys. They
can be converted between various forms and their components printed out.
Note
: This command uses the traditional
SSLeay
compatible format for private key encryption:
newer applications should use the more secure PKCS#8 format using the
pkcs8
command.
The options are as follows:
-aes128
-aes192
-aes256
-des
-des3
Encrypt the private key with the AES, DES, or the triple DES ciphers,
respectively, before outputting it. A pass phrase is prompted for. If none
of these options are specified, the key is written in plain text. This
means that using the
dsa
utility to read an
encrypted key with no encryption option can be used to remove the pass
phrase from a key, or by setting the encryption options it can be used to
add or change the pass phrase. These options can only be used with PEM
format output files.
-in
file
The input file to read from, or standard input if not specified. If the
key is encrypted, a pass phrase will be prompted for.
-inform
der
pem
pvk
The input format.
-modulus
Print the value of the public key component of the key.
-noout
Do not output the encoded version of the key.
-out
file
The output file to write to, or standard output if not specified. If any
encryption options are set then a pass phrase will be prompted for.
-outform
der
pem
pvk
The output format.
-passin
arg
The key password source.
-passout
arg
The output file password source.
-pubin
Read in a public key, not a private key.
-pubout
Output a public key, not a private key. Automatically set if the input is
a public key.
-pvk-none
-pvk-strong
-pvk-weak
Enable or disable PVK encoding. The default is
-pvk-strong
-text
Print the public/private key in plain text.
DSAPARAM
openssl dsaparam
-genkey
-in
file
-inform
der
pem
-noout
-out
file
-outform
der
pem
-text
] [
numbits
The
dsaparam
command is used to manipulate
or generate DSA parameter files.
The options are as follows:
-genkey
Generate a DSA key either using the specified or generated
parameters.
-in
file
The input file to read from, or standard input if not specified. If the
numbits
parameter is included, then this option is
ignored.
-inform
der
pem
The input format.
-noout
Do not output the encoded version of the parameters.
-out
file
The output file to write to, or standard output if not specified.
-outform
der
pem
The output format.
-text
Print the DSA parameters in plain text.
numbits
Generate a parameter set of size
numbits
. If this
option is included, the input file is ignored.
EC
openssl ec
-conv_form
arg
-des
] [
-des3
-in
file
-inform
der
pem
-noout
-out
file
-outform
der
pem
-param_enc
arg
-param_out
-passin
arg
-passout
arg
-pubin
] [
-pubout
-text
The
ec
command processes EC keys. They can
be converted between various forms and their components printed out.
openssl
uses the private key format specified in
“SEC 1: Elliptic Curve Cryptography”
). To
convert an EC private key into the PKCS#8 private key format use the
pkcs8
command.
The options are as follows:
-conv_form
arg
Specify how the points on the elliptic curve are converted into octet
strings. Possible values are:
compressed
uncompressed
(the default), and
hybrid
. For more information regarding the point
conversion forms see the X9.62 standard.
-des
-des3
Encrypt the private key with DES, triple DES, or any other cipher
supported by
openssl
. A pass phrase is prompted
for. If none of these options are specified, the key is written in plain
text. This means that using the
ec
utility to read
in an encrypted key with no encryption option can be used to remove the
pass phrase from a key, or by setting the encryption options it can be
used to add or change the pass phrase. These options can only be used with
PEM format output files.
-in
file
The input file to read a key from, or standard input if not specified. If
the key is encrypted, a pass phrase will be prompted for.
-inform
der
pem
The input format.
-noout
Do not output the encoded version of the key.
-out
file
The output filename to write to, or standard output if not specified. If
any encryption options are set then a pass phrase will be prompted
for.
-outform
der
pem
The output format.
-param_enc
arg
Specify how the elliptic curve parameters are encoded. Possible value are:
named_curve
, i.e. the EC parameters are specified
by an OID; or
explicit
, where the EC parameters
are explicitly given (see RFC 3279 for the definition of the EC parameter
structures). The default value is
named_curve
Note: the
implicitlyCA
alternative, as specified
in RFC 3279, is currently not implemented.
-param_out
Print the elliptic curve parameters.
-passin
arg
The key password source.
-passout
arg
The output file password source.
-pubin
Read in a public key, not a private key.
-pubout
Output a public key, not a private key. Automatically set if the input is
a public key.
-text
Print the public/private key in plain text.
ECPARAM
openssl ecparam
-check
-conv_form
arg
-genkey
-in
file
-inform
der
pem
-list_curves
-name
arg
-no_seed
] [
-noout
-out
file
-outform
der
pem
-param_enc
arg
-text
The
ecparam
command is used to manipulate
or generate EC parameter files.
openssl
is not able
to generate new groups so
ecparam
can only create EC
parameters from known (named) curves.
The options are as follows:
-check
Validate the elliptic curve parameters.
-conv_form
arg
Specify how the points on the elliptic curve are converted into octet
strings. Possible values are:
compressed
uncompressed
(the default), and
hybrid
. For more information regarding the point
conversion forms see the X9.62 standard.
-genkey
Generate an EC private key using the specified parameters.
-in
file
The input file to read from, or standard input if not specified.
-inform
der
pem
The input format.
-list_curves
Print a list of all currently implemented EC parameter names and
exit.
-name
arg
Use the EC parameters with the specified "short" name.
-no_seed
Do not include the seed for the parameter generation in the ECParameters
structure (see RFC 3279).
-noout
Do not output the encoded version of the parameters.
-out
file
The output file to write to, or standard output if not specified.
-outform
der
pem
The output format.
-param_enc
arg
Specify how the elliptic curve parameters are encoded. Possible value are:
named_curve
, i.e. the EC parameters are specified
by an OID, or
explicit
, where the EC parameters
are explicitly given (see RFC 3279 for the definition of the EC parameter
structures). The default value is
named_curve
Note: the
implicitlyCA
alternative, as specified
in RFC 3279, is currently not implemented.
-text
Print the EC parameters in plain text.
ENC
openssl enc
-ciphername
-AadePpv
-base64
-bufsize
number
-debug
-in
file
-iter
iterations
-iv
IV
-K
key
-k
password
-kfile
file
-md
digest
-none
] [
-nopad
-nosalt
-out
file
-pass
arg
-pbkdf2
-S
salt
-salt
The symmetric cipher commands allow data to be encrypted or
decrypted using various block and stream ciphers using keys based on
passwords or explicitly provided. Base64 encoding or decoding can also be
performed either by itself or in addition to the encryption or decryption.
The program can be called either as
openssl
ciphername
or
openssl enc
ciphername
Some of the ciphers do not have large keys and others have
security implications if not used correctly. All the block ciphers normally
use PKCS#5 padding, also known as standard block padding. If padding is
disabled, the input data must be a multiple of the cipher block length.
The options are as follows:
-A
If the
-a
option is set, then base64 process the
data on one line.
-a
-base64
Base64 process the data. This means that if encryption is taking place,
the data is base64-encoded after encryption. If decryption is set, the
input data is base64-decoded before being decrypted.
-bufsize
number
Set the buffer size for I/O.
-d
Decrypt the input data.
-debug
Debug the BIOs used for I/O.
-e
Encrypt the input data. This is the default.
-in
file
The input file to read from, or standard input if not specified.
-iter
iterations
Use the pbkdf2 key derivation function, with
iterations
as the number of iterations.
-iv
IV
The actual
IV
(initialisation vector) to use: this
must be represented as a string comprised only of hex digits. When only
the
key
is specified using the
-K
option, the IV must explicitly be defined. When
a password is being specified using one of the other options, the IV is
generated from this password.
-K
key
The actual
key
to use: this must be represented as a
string comprised only of hex digits. If only the key is specified, the IV
must also be specified using the
-iv
option. When
both a
key
and a
password
are
specified, the
key
given with the
-K
option will be used and the IV generated from
the password will be taken. It probably does not make much sense to
specify both
key
and
password
-k
password
The
password
to derive the key from. Superseded by
the
-pass
option.
-kfile
file
Read the password to derive the key from the first line of
file
. Superseded by the
-pass
option.
-md
digest
Use
digest
to create a key from a pass phrase.
Currently, the default value is
sha256
-none
Use NULL cipher (no encryption or decryption of input).
-nopad
Disable standard block padding.
-nosalt
Don't use a salt in the key derivation routines. This option should never
be used since it makes it possible to perform efficient dictionary attacks
on the password and to attack stream cipher encrypted data.
-out
file
The output file to write to, or standard output if not specified.
-P
Print out the salt, key, and IV used, then immediately exit; don't do any
encryption or decryption.
-p
Print out the salt, key, and IV used.
-pass
arg
The password source.
-pbkdf2
Use the pbkdf2 key derivation function, with the default of 10000
iterations.
-S
salt
The actual
salt
to use: this must be represented as
a string comprised only of hex digits.
-salt
Use a salt in the key derivation routines (the default). When the salt is
being used, the first eight bytes of the encrypted data are reserved for
the salt: it is randomly generated when encrypting a file and read from
the encrypted file when it is decrypted.
-v
Print extra details about the processing.
ERRSTR
openssl errstr
errno
...
The
errstr
command performs error number
to error string conversion, generating a human-readable string representing
the error code
errno
. The string is obtained through
the
ERR_error_string_n(3)
function and has the following
format:
error:[error code]:[library
name]:[function name]:[reason string]
[error code] is an 8-digit hexadecimal number. The remaining
fields [library name], [function name], and [reason string] are all ASCII
text.
GENDSA
openssl gendsa
-aes128
-aes192
-aes256
-camellia128
-camellia192
-camellia256
-des
-des3
-idea
-out
file
-passout
arg
paramfile
The
gendsa
command generates a DSA private
key from a DSA parameter file (typically generated by the
openssl dsaparam
command). DSA key generation is
little more than random number generation so it is much quicker than, for
example, RSA key generation.
The options are as follows:
-aes128
-aes192
-aes256
-camellia128
-camellia192
-camellia256
-des
-des3
-idea
Encrypt the private key with the AES, CAMELLIA, DES, triple DES or the
IDEA ciphers, respectively, before outputting it. A pass phrase is
prompted for. If none of these options are specified, no encryption is
used.
-out
file
The output file to write to, or standard output if not specified.
-passout
arg
The output file password source.
paramfile
Specify the DSA parameter file to use. The parameters in this file
determine the size of the private key.
GENPKEY
openssl genpkey
-algorithm
alg
cipher
] [
-genparam
-out
file
-outform
der
pem
-paramfile
file
-pass
arg
-pkeyopt
opt
value
-text
The
genpkey
command generates private
keys. The use of this program is encouraged over the algorithm specific
utilities because additional algorithm options can be used.
The options are as follows:
-algorithm
alg
The public key algorithm to use, such as RSA, DSA, or DH. This option must
precede any
-pkeyopt
options. The options
-paramfile
and
-algorithm
are mutually exclusive.
cipher
Encrypt the private key with the supplied cipher. Any algorithm name
accepted by
EVP_get_cipherbyname(3)
is acceptable.
-genparam
Generate a set of parameters instead of a private key. This option must
precede any
-algorithm
-paramfile
, or
-pkeyopt
options.
-out
file
The output file to write to, or standard output if not specified.
-outform
der
pem
The output format.
-paramfile
file
Some public key algorithms generate a private key based on a set of
parameters, which can be supplied using this option. If this option is
used, the public key algorithm used is determined by the parameters. This
option must precede any
-pkeyopt
options. The
options
-paramfile
and
-algorithm
are mutually exclusive.
-pass
arg
The output file password source.
-pkeyopt
opt
value
Set the public key algorithm option
opt
to
value
, as follows:
rsa_keygen_bits:
numbits
(RSA) The number of bits in the generated key. The default is
2048.
rsa_keygen_pubexp:
value
(RSA) The RSA public exponent value. This can be a large decimal or
hexadecimal value if preceded by 0x. The default is 65537.
dsa_paramgen_bits:
numbits
(DSA) The number of bits in the generated parameters. The default is
1024.
dh_paramgen_prime_len:
numbits
(DH) The number of bits in the prime parameter
dh_paramgen_generator:
value
(DH) The value to use for the generator
ec_paramgen_curve:
curve
(EC) The elliptic curve to use.
-text
Print the private/public key in plain text.
GENRSA
openssl genrsa
-3
-f4
-aes128
-aes192
-aes256
-camellia128
-camellia192
-camellia256
-des
-des3
-idea
-out
file
-passout
arg
numbits
The
genrsa
command generates an RSA
private key, which essentially involves the generation of two prime numbers.
When generating the key, various symbols will be output to indicate the
progress of the generation. A ‘.’ represents each number which
has passed an initial sieve test; ‘+’ means a number has
passed a single round of the Miller-Rabin primality test; ‘*’
means the number has failed primality testing and needs to be generated
afresh. A newline means that the number has passed all the prime tests (the
actual number depends on the key size).
The options are as follows:
-3
-f4
The public exponent to use, either 3 or 65537. The default is 65537.
-aes128
-aes192
-aes256
-camellia128
-camellia192
-camellia256
-des
-des3
-idea
Encrypt the private key with the AES, CAMELLIA, DES, triple DES or the
IDEA ciphers, respectively, before outputting it. If none of these options
are specified, no encryption is used. If encryption is used, a pass phrase
is prompted for, if it is not supplied via the
-passout
option.
-out
file
The output file to write to, or standard output if not specified.
-passout
arg
The output file password source.
numbits
The size of the private key to generate in bits. This must be the last
option specified. The default is 2048.
OCSP
openssl ocsp
-CA
file
-CAfile
file
-CApath
directory
-cert
file
-dgst
alg
-header
name value
-host
hostname
port
-ignore_err
-index
indexfile
-issuer
file
-ndays
days
-nmin
minutes
-no_cert_checks
-no_cert_verify
-no_certs
] [
-no_chain
-no_explicit
-no_intern
] [
-no_nonce
-no_signature_verify
-nonce
] [
-noverify
-nrequest
number
-out
file
-path
path
-port
portnum
-req_text
-reqin
file
-reqout
file
-resp_key_id
-resp_no_certs
-resp_text
-respin
file
-respout
file
-rkey
file
-rother
file
-rsigner
file
-serial
num
-sign_other
file
-signer
file
-signkey
file
-status_age
age
-text
-timeout
seconds
-trust_other
-url
responder_url
-VAfile
file
-validity_period
nsec
-verify_other
file
The Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) enables applications
to determine the (revocation) state of an identified certificate (RFC
2560).
The
ocsp
command performs many common OCSP
tasks. It can be used to print out requests and responses, create requests
and send queries to an OCSP responder, and behave like a mini OCSP server
itself.
The options are as follows:
-CAfile
file
-CApath
directory
A file or path containing trusted CA certificates, used to verify the
signature on the OCSP response.
-cert
file
Add the certificate
file
to the request. The issuer
certificate is taken from the previous
-issuer
option, or an error occurs if no issuer certificate is specified.
-dgst
alg
Use the digest algorithm
alg
for certificate
identification in the OCSP request. By default SHA1 is used.
-host
hostname
port
-path
path
Send the OCSP request to
hostname
on
port
-path
specifies the
HTTP path name to use, or
by default.
-header
name value
Add the header name with the specified value to the OCSP request that is
sent to the responder. This may be repeated.
-issuer
file
The current issuer certificate, in PEM format. Can be used multiple times
and must come before any
-cert
options.
-no_cert_checks
Don't perform any additional checks on the OCSP response signer's
certificate. That is, do not make any checks to see if the signer's
certificate is authorised to provide the necessary status information: as
a result this option should only be used for testing purposes.
-no_cert_verify
Don't verify the OCSP response signer's certificate at all. Since this
option allows the OCSP response to be signed by any certificate, it should
only be used for testing purposes.
-no_certs
Don't include any certificates in the signed request.
-no_chain
Do not use certificates in the response as additional untrusted CA
certificates.
-no_explicit
Don't check the explicit trust for OCSP signing in the root CA
certificate.
-no_intern
Ignore certificates contained in the OCSP response when searching for the
signer's certificate. The signer's certificate must be specified with
either the
-verify_other
or
-VAfile
options.
-no_signature_verify
Don't check the signature on the OCSP response. Since this option
tolerates invalid signatures on OCSP responses, it will normally only be
used for testing purposes.
-nonce
-no_nonce
Add an OCSP nonce extension to a request, or disable an OCSP nonce
addition. Normally, if an OCSP request is input using the
-respin
option no nonce is added: using the
-nonce
option will force the addition of a nonce.
If an OCSP request is being created (using the
-cert
and
-serial
options), a nonce is automatically added; specifying
-no_nonce
overrides this.
-noverify
Don't attempt to verify the OCSP response signature or the nonce values.
This is normally only be used for debugging since it disables all
verification of the responder's certificate.
-out
file
Specify the output file to write to, or standard output if not
specified.
-req_text
-resp_text
-text
Print out the text form of the OCSP request, response, or both,
respectively.
-reqin
file
-respin
file
Read an OCSP request or response file from
file
These options are ignored if an OCSP request or response creation is
implied by other options (for example with the
-serial
-cert
, and
-host
options).
-reqout
file
-respout
file
Write out the DER-encoded certificate request or response to
file
-serial
num
Same as the
-cert
option except the certificate
with serial number
num
is added to the request. The
serial number is interpreted as a decimal integer unless preceded by
‘0x’. Negative integers can also be specified by preceding
the value with a minus sign.
-sign_other
file
Additional certificates to include in the signed request.
-signer
file
-signkey
file
Sign the OCSP request using the certificate specified in the
-signer
option and the private key specified by
the
-signkey
option. If the
-signkey
option is not present, then the private
key is read from the same file as the certificate. If neither option is
specified, the OCSP request is not signed.
-timeout
seconds
Connection timeout to the OCSP responder in seconds.
-trust_other
The certificates specified by the
-verify_other
option should be explicitly trusted and no additional checks will be
performed on them. This is useful when the complete responder certificate
chain is not available or trusting a root CA is not appropriate.
-url
responder_url
Specify the responder URL. Both HTTP and HTTPS (SSL/TLS) URLs can be
specified.
-VAfile
file
A file containing explicitly trusted responder certificates. Equivalent to
the
-verify_other
and
-trust_other
options.
-validity_period
nsec
-status_age
age
The range of times, in seconds, which will be tolerated in an OCSP
response. Each certificate status response includes a notBefore time and
an optional notAfter time. The current time should fall between these two
values, but the interval between the two times may be only a few seconds.
In practice the OCSP responder and clients' clocks may not be precisely
synchronised and so such a check may fail. To avoid this the
-validity_period
option can be used to specify an
acceptable error range in seconds, the default value being 5 minutes.
If the notAfter time is omitted from a response, it means that
new status information is immediately available. In this case the age of
the notBefore field is checked to see it is not older than
age
seconds old. By default, this additional check
is not performed.
-verify_other
file
A file containing additional certificates to search when attempting to
locate the OCSP response signing certificate. Some responders omit the
actual signer's certificate from the response, so this can be used to
supply the necessary certificate.
The options for the OCSP server are as follows:
-CA
file
CA certificate corresponding to the revocation information in
indexfile
-ignore_err
Ignore the invalid response.
-index
indexfile
indexfile
is a text index file in ca format
containing certificate revocation information.
If this option is specified,
ocsp
is
in responder mode, otherwise it is in client mode. The requests the
responder processes can be either specified on the command line (using
the
-issuer
and
-serial
options), supplied in a file (using the
-respin
option), or via external OCSP clients (if
port
or
url
is specified).
If this option is present, then the
-CA
and
-rsigner
options
must also be present.
-nmin
minutes
-ndays
days
Number of
minutes
or
days
when
fresh revocation information is available: used in the nextUpdate field.
If neither option is present, the nextUpdate field is omitted, meaning
fresh revocation information is immediately available.
-nrequest
number
Exit after receiving
number
requests (the default is
unlimited).
-port
portnum
Port to listen for OCSP requests on. May also be specified using the
-url
option.
-resp_key_id
Identify the signer certificate using the key ID; the default is to use
the subject name.
-resp_no_certs
Don't include any certificates in the OCSP response.
-rkey
file
The private key to sign OCSP responses with; if not present, the file
specified in the
-rsigner
option is used.
-rother
file
Additional certificates to include in the OCSP response.
-rsigner
file
The certificate to sign OCSP responses with.
Initially the OCSP responder certificate is located and the
signature on the OCSP request checked using the responder certificate's
public key. Then a normal certificate verify is performed on the OCSP
responder certificate building up a certificate chain in the process. The
locations of the trusted certificates used to build the chain can be
specified by the
-CAfile
and
-CApath
options or they will be looked for in the
standard
openssl
certificates directory.
If the initial verify fails, the OCSP verify process halts with an
error. Otherwise the issuing CA certificate in the request is compared to
the OCSP responder certificate: if there is a match then the OCSP verify
succeeds.
Otherwise the OCSP responder certificate's CA is checked against
the issuing CA certificate in the request. If there is a match and the
OCSPSigning extended key usage is present in the OCSP responder certificate,
then the OCSP verify succeeds.
Otherwise the root CA of the OCSP responder's CA is checked to see
if it is trusted for OCSP signing. If it is, the OCSP verify succeeds.
If none of these checks is successful, the OCSP verify fails. What
this effectively means is that if the OCSP responder certificate is
authorised directly by the CA it is issuing revocation information about
(and it is correctly configured), then verification will succeed.
If the OCSP responder is a global responder, which can give
details about multiple CAs and has its own separate certificate chain, then
its root CA can be trusted for OCSP signing. Alternatively, the responder
certificate itself can be explicitly trusted with the
-VAfile
option.
PASSWD
openssl passwd
-1
-apr1
-crypt
-in
file
-noverify
] [
-quiet
-reverse
-salt
string
-stdin
] [
-table
password
The
passwd
command computes the hash of a
password.
The options are as follows:
-1
Use the MD5 based
BSD
password algorithm
"1".
-apr1
Use the "apr1" algorithm (Apache variant of the
BSD
algorithm).
-crypt
Use the "crypt" algorithm (the default).
-in
file
Read passwords from
file
-noverify
Don't verify when reading a password from the terminal.
-quiet
Don't output warnings when passwords given on the command line are
truncated.
-reverse
Switch table columns. This only makes sense in conjunction with the
-table
option.
-salt
string
Use the salt specified by
string
. When reading a
password from the terminal, this implies
-noverify
-stdin
Read passwords from standard input.
-table
In the output list, prepend the cleartext password and a TAB character to
each password hash.
PKCS7
openssl pkcs7
-in
file
-inform
der
pem
-noout
-out
file
-outform
der
pem
-print
] [
-print_certs
-text
The
pkcs7
command processes PKCS#7 files
in DER or PEM format. The PKCS#7 routines only understand PKCS#7 v 1.5 as
specified in RFC 2315.
The options are as follows:
-in
file
The input file to read from, or standard input if not specified.
-inform
der
pem
The input format.
-noout
Don't output the encoded version of the PKCS#7 structure (or certificates
if
-print_certs
is set).
-out
file
The output to write to, or standard output if not specified.
-outform
der
pem
The output format.
-print
Print the ASN.1 representation of PKCS#7 structure.
-print_certs
Print any certificates or CRLs contained in the file, preceded by their
subject and issuer names in a one-line format.
-text
Print certificate details in full rather than just subject and issuer
names.
PKCS8
openssl pkcs8
-in
file
-inform
der
pem
-nocrypt
] [
-noiter
-out
file
-outform
der
pem
-passin
arg
-passout
arg
-topk8
-v1
alg
-v2
alg
The
pkcs8
command processes private keys
(both encrypted and unencrypted) in PKCS#8 format with a variety of PKCS#5
(v1.5 and v2.0) and PKCS#12 algorithms.
The options are as follows:
-in
file
The input file to read from, or standard input if not specified. If the
key is encrypted, a pass phrase will be prompted for.
-inform
der
pem
The input format.
-nocrypt
Generate an unencrypted PrivateKeyInfo structure. This option does not
encrypt private keys at all and should only be used when absolutely
necessary.
-noiter
Use an iteration count of 1. See the
PKCS12
section below for a detailed
explanation of this option.
-out
file
The output file to write to, or standard output if none is specified. If
any encryption options are set, a pass phrase will be prompted for.
-outform
der
pem
The output format.
-passin
arg
The key password source.
-passout
arg
The output file password source.
-topk8
Read a traditional format private key and write a PKCS#8 format key.
-v1
alg
Specify a PKCS#5 v1.5 or PKCS#12 algorithm to use.
PBE-MD5-DES
56-bit DES.
PBE-SHA1-RC2-64 | PBE-MD5-RC2-64 | PBE-SHA1-DES
64-bit RC2 or 56-bit DES.
PBE-SHA1-RC4-128 | PBE-SHA1-RC4-40 | PBE-SHA1-3DES
PBE-SHA1-2DES | PBE-SHA1-RC2-128 | PBE-SHA1-RC2-40
PKCS#12 password-based encryption algorithm, which allow strong
encryption algorithms like triple DES or 128-bit RC2.
-v2
alg
Use PKCS#5 v2.0 algorithms. These are block ciphers used in CBC mode. The
default is AES-256-CBC. With the exception of AES, the choices available
in RFC 8018 are considered decrepit. They can be enabled with des, des3,
and rc2 (rc5 is no longer supported).
PKCS12
openssl pkcs12
-aes128
-aes192
-aes256
-camellia128
-camellia192
-camellia256
-des
-des3
-idea
-cacerts
-CAfile
file
-caname
name
-CApath
directory
-certfile
file
-certpbe
alg
-chain
] [
-clcerts
-descert
] [
-export
-in
file
-info
-inkey
file
-keyex
-keypbe
alg
-keysig
-macalg
alg
-maciter
-name
name
-nocerts
] [
-nodes
-noiter
] [
-nokeys
-nomac
] [
-nomaciter
-nomacver
] [
-noout
-out
file
-passin
arg
-passout
arg
-password
arg
-twopass
The
pkcs12
command allows PKCS#12 files
(sometimes referred to as PFX files) to be created and parsed. By default, a
PKCS#12 file is parsed; a PKCS#12 file can be created by using the
-export
option.
The options for parsing a PKCS12 file are as follows:
-aes128
-aes192
-aes256
-camellia128
-camellia192
-camellia256
-des
-des3
-idea
Encrypt private keys using AES, CAMELLIA, DES, triple DES or the IDEA
ciphers, respectively. The default is triple DES.
-cacerts
Only output CA certificates (not client certificates).
-clcerts
Only output client certificates (not CA certificates).
-in
file
The input file to read from, or standard input if not specified.
-info
Output additional information about the PKCS#12 file structure, algorithms
used, and iteration counts.
-nocerts
Do not output certificates.
-nodes
Do not encrypt private keys.
-nokeys
Do not output private keys.
-nomacver
Do not attempt to verify the integrity MAC before reading the file.
-noout
Do not output the keys and certificates to the output file version of the
PKCS#12 file.
-out
file
The output file to write to, or standard output if not specified.
-passin
arg
The key password source.
-passout
arg
The output file password source.
-twopass
Prompt for separate integrity and encryption passwords: most software
always assumes these are the same so this option will render such PKCS#12
files unreadable.
The options for PKCS12 file creation are as follows:
-CAfile
file
CA storage as a file.
-CApath
directory
CA storage as a directory. The directory must be a standard certificate
directory: that is, a hash of each subject name (using
x509
-hash
) should be
linked to each certificate.
-caname
name
Specify the "friendly name" for other certificates. May be used
multiple times to specify names for all certificates in the order they
appear.
-certfile
file
A file to read additional certificates from.
-certpbe
alg
-keypbe
alg
Specify the algorithm used to encrypt the private key and certificates to
be selected. Any PKCS#5 v1.5 or PKCS#12 PBE algorithm name can be used. If
a cipher name (as output by the
list-cipher-algorithms
command) is specified then
it is used with PKCS#5 v2.0. For interoperability reasons it is advisable
to only use PKCS#12 algorithms.
-chain
Include the entire certificate chain of the user certificate. The standard
CA store is used for this search. If the search fails, it is considered a
fatal error.
-descert
Encrypt the certificate using triple DES; this may render the PKCS#12 file
unreadable by some "export grade" software. By default, the
private key is encrypted using triple DES and the certificate using 40-bit
RC2.
-export
Create a PKCS#12 file (rather than parsing one).
-in
file
The input file to read from, or standard input if not specified. The order
doesn't matter but one private key and its corresponding certificate
should be present. If additional certificates are present, they will also
be included in the PKCS#12 file.
-inkey
file
File to read a private key from. If not present, a private key must be
present in the input file.
-keyex
-keysig
Specify whether the private key is to be used for key exchange or just
signing. Normally, "export grade" software will only allow
512-bit RSA keys to be used for encryption purposes, but arbitrary length
keys for signing. The
-keysig
option marks the key
for signing only. Signing only keys can be used for S/MIME signing,
authenticode (ActiveX control signing) and SSL client authentication.
-macalg
alg
Specify the MAC digest algorithm. The default is SHA1.
-maciter
Included for compatibility only: it used to be needed to use MAC
iterations counts but they are now used by default.
-name
name
Specify the "friendly name" for the certificate and private key.
This name is typically displayed in list boxes by software importing the
file.
-nomac
Don't attempt to provide the MAC integrity.
-nomaciter
-noiter
Affect the iteration counts on the MAC and key algorithms.
To discourage attacks by using large dictionaries of common
passwords, the algorithm that derives keys from passwords can have an
iteration count applied to it: this causes a certain part of the
algorithm to be repeated and slows it down. The MAC is used to check the
file integrity but since it will normally have the same password as the
keys and certificates it could also be attacked. By default, both MAC
and encryption iteration counts are set to 2048; using these options the
MAC and encryption iteration counts can be set to 1. Since this reduces
the file security, you should not use these options unless you really
have to. Most software supports both MAC and key iteration counts.
-out
file
The output file to write to, or standard output if not specified.
-passin
arg
The key password source.
-passout
arg
The output file password source.
-password
arg
With
-export
-password
is
equivalent to
-passout
. Otherwise,
-password
is equivalent to
-passin
PKEY
openssl pkey
cipher
-in
file
-inform
der
pem
-noout
-out
file
-outform
der
pem
-passin
arg
-passout
arg
-pubin
] [
-pubout
-text
] [
-text_pub
The
pkey
command processes public or
private keys. They can be converted between various forms and their
components printed out.
The options are as follows:
cipher
Encrypt the private key with the specified cipher. Any algorithm name
accepted by
EVP_get_cipherbyname(3)
is acceptable, such as
des3
-in
file
The input file to read from, or standard input if not specified. If the
key is encrypted, a pass phrase will be prompted for.
-inform
der
pem
The input format.
-noout
Do not output the encoded version of the key.
-out
file
The output file to write to, or standard output if not specified. If any
encryption options are set then a pass phrase will be prompted for.
-outform
der
pem
The output format.
-passin
arg
The key password source.
-passout
arg
The output file password source.
-pubin
Read in a public key, not a private key.
-pubout
Output a public key, not a private key. Automatically set if the input is
a public key.
-text
Print the public/private key in plain text.
-text_pub
Print out only public key components even if a private key is being
processed.
PKEYPARAM
openssl pkeyparam
-in
file
-noout
] [
-out
file
] [
-text
The
pkeyparam
command processes public or
private keys. The key type is determined by the PEM headers.
The options are as follows:
-in
file
The input file to read from, or standard input if not specified.
-noout
Do not output the encoded version of the parameters.
-out
file
The output file to write to, or standard output if not specified.
-text
Print the parameters in plain text.
PKEYUTL
openssl pkeyutl
-asn1parse
] [
-certin
-decrypt
] [
-derive
-encrypt
] [
-hexdump
-in
file
-inkey
file
-keyform
der
pem
-out
file
-passin
arg
-peerform
der
pem
-peerkey
file
-pkeyopt
opt
value
-pubin
] [
-rev
-sigfile
file
-sign
] [
-verify
-verifyrecover
The
pkeyutl
command can be used to perform
public key operations using any supported algorithm.
The options are as follows:
-asn1parse
ASN.1 parse the output data. This is useful when combined with the
-verifyrecover
option when an ASN.1 structure is
signed.
-certin
The input is a certificate containing a public key.
-decrypt
Decrypt the input data using a private key.
-derive
Derive a shared secret using the peer key.
-encrypt
Encrypt the input data using a public key.
-hexdump
Hex dump the output data.
-in
file
The input file to read from, or standard input if not specified.
-inkey
file
The input key file. By default it should be a private key.
-keyform
der
pem
The key format.
-out
file
The output file to write to, or standard output if not specified.
-passin
arg
The key password source.
-peerform
der
pem
The peer key format.
-peerkey
file
The peer key file, used by key derivation (agreement) operations.
-pkeyopt
opt
value
Set the public key algorithm option
opt
to
value
. Unless otherwise mentioned, all algorithms
support the format
digest
alg
which specifies the digest to use for sign, verify, and verifyrecover
operations. The value
alg
should represent a digest
name as used in the
EVP_get_digestbyname(3)
function.
The RSA algorithm supports the encrypt, decrypt, sign, verify,
and verifyrecover operations in general. Some padding modes only support
some of these operations however.
rsa_padding_mode:
mode
This sets the RSA padding mode. Acceptable values for
mode
are
pkcs1
for
PKCS#1 padding;
none
for no padding;
oaep
for OAEP mode;
x931
for X9.31 mode; and
pss
for PSS.
In PKCS#1 padding if the message digest is not set then
the supplied data is signed or verified directly instead of using a
DigestInfo structure. If a digest is set then a DigestInfo structure
is used and its length must correspond to the digest type. For oeap
mode only encryption and decryption is supported. For x931 if the
digest type is set it is used to format the block data; otherwise
the first byte is used to specify the X9.31 digest ID. Sign, verify,
and verifyrecover can be performed in this mode. For pss mode only
sign and verify are supported and the digest type must be
specified.
rsa_pss_saltlen:
len
For pss mode only this option specifies the salt length. Two special
values are supported: -1 sets the salt length to the digest length.
When signing, -2 sets the salt length to the maximum permissible
value. When verifying, -2 causes the salt length to be automatically
determined based on the PSS block structure.
The DSA algorithm supports the sign and verify operations.
Currently there are no additional options other than
digest
. Only the SHA1 digest can be used and this
digest is assumed by default.
The DH algorithm supports the derive operation and no
additional options.
The EC algorithm supports the sign, verify, and derive
operations. The sign and verify operations use ECDSA and derive uses
ECDH. Currently there are no additional options other than
digest
. Only the SHA1 digest can be used and this
digest is assumed by default.
-pubin
The input file is a public key.
-rev
Reverse the order of the input buffer.
-sigfile
file
Signature file (verify operation only).
-sign
Sign the input data and output the signed result. This requires a private
key.
-verify
Verify the input data against the signature file and indicate if the
verification succeeded or failed.
-verifyrecover
Verify the input data and output the recovered data.
PRIME
openssl prime
-bits
-checks
-generate
] [
-hex
-safe
The
prime
command is used to generate
prime numbers, or to check numbers for primality. Results are probabilistic:
they have an exceedingly high likelihood of being correct, but are not
guaranteed.
The options are as follows:
-bits
Specify the number of bits in the generated prime number. Must be used in
conjunction with
-generate
-checks
Perform a Miller-Rabin probabilistic primality test with
iterations. The default is 20.
-generate
Generate a pseudo-random prime number. Must be used in conjunction with
-bits
-hex
Output in hex format.
-safe
Generate only "safe" prime numbers (i.e. a prime p so that
(p-1)/2 is also prime).
Test if number
is prime.
RAND
openssl rand
-base64
] [
-hex
-out
file
num
The
rand
command outputs
num
pseudo-random bytes.
The options are as follows:
-base64
Perform base64 encoding on the output.
-hex
Specify hexadecimal output.
-out
file
The output file to write to, or standard output if not specified.
REQ
openssl req
-addext
ext
-batch
-config
file
-days
-extensions
section
-in
file
-inform
der
pem
-key
keyfile
-keyform
der
pem
-keyout
file
-md4
-md5
-sha1
-modulus
-multivalue-rdn
-nameopt
option
-new
] [
-newhdr
-newkey
arg
-nodes
] [
-noout
-out
file
-outform
der
pem
-passin
arg
-passout
arg
-pkeyopt
opt:value
-pubkey
-reqexts
section
-reqopt
option
-set_serial
-sigopt
nm:v
-subj
arg
-subject
] [
-text
-utf8
] [
-verbose
-verify
] [
-x509
The
req
command primarily creates and
processes certificate requests in PKCS#10 format. It can additionally create
self-signed certificates, for use as root CAs, for example.
The options are as follows:
-addext
ext
Add a specific extension to the certificate (if the
-x509
option is present) or certificate request.
The argument must have the form of a key=value pair as it would appear in
a config file. This option can be given multiple times.
-batch
Non-interactive mode.
-config
file
Specify an alternative configuration file.
-days
Specify the number of days to certify the certificate for. The default is
30 days. Used with the
-x509
option.
-extensions
section
-reqexts
section
Specify alternative sections to include certificate extensions (with
-x509
) or certificate request extensions, allowing
several different sections to be used in the same configuration file.
-in
file
The input file to read a request from, or standard input if not specified.
A request is only read if the creation options
-new
and
-newkey
are not
specified.
-inform
der
pem
The input format.
-key
keyfile
The file to read the private key from. It also accepts PKCS#8 format
private keys for PEM format files.
-keyform
der
pem
The format of the private key file specified in the
-key
argument. The default is
pem
-keyout
file
The file to write the newly created private key to. If this option is not
specified, the filename present in the configuration file is used.
-md5
-sha1
-sha256
The message digest to sign the request with. This overrides the digest
algorithm specified in the configuration file.
Some public key algorithms may override this choice. For
instance, DSA signatures always use SHA1.
-modulus
Print the value of the modulus of the public key contained in the
request.
-multivalue-rdn
This option causes the
-subj
argument to be
interpreted with full support for multivalued RDNs, for example
"/DC=org/DC=OpenSSL/DC=users/UID=123456+CN=John Doe". If
-multivalue-rdn
is not used, the UID value is set
to "123456+CN=John Doe".
-nameopt
option
-reqopt
option
Determine how the subject or issuer names are displayed.
option
can be a single option or multiple options
separated by commas. Alternatively, these options may be used more than
once to set multiple options. See the
X509
section below for details.
-new
Generate a new certificate request. The user is prompted for the relevant
field values. The actual fields prompted for and their maximum and minimum
sizes are specified in the configuration file and any requested
extensions.
If the
-key
option is not used, it
will generate a new RSA private key using information specified in the
configuration file.
-newhdr
Add the word NEW to the PEM file header and footer lines on the outputted
request. Some software and CAs need this.
-newkey
arg
Create a new certificate request and a new private key. The argument takes
one of several forms.
rsa
nbits
generates an RSA key
nbits
in size. If
nbits
is omitted, the default key size is
used.
dsa
file
generates a DSA key using the parameters in
file
param
file
generates a key using the parameters or certificate in
file
All other algorithms support the form
algorithm
file
, where file
may be an algorithm parameter file, created by the
genpkey -genparam
command or an X.509
certificate for a key with appropriate algorithm.
file
can be omitted, in which case any parameters
can be specified via the
-pkeyopt
option.
-nodes
Do not encrypt the private key.
-noout
Do not output the encoded version of the request.
-out
file
The output file to write to, or standard output if not specified.
-outform
der
pem
The output format.
-passin
arg
The key password source.
-passout
arg
The output file password source.
-pkeyopt
opt:value
Set the public key algorithm option
opt
to
value
-pubkey
Output the public key.
-reqopt
option
Customise the output format used with
-text
. The
option
argument can be a single option or multiple
options separated by commas. See also the discussion of
-certopt
in the
x509
command.
-set_serial
Serial number to use when outputting a self-signed certificate. This may
be specified as a decimal value or a hex value if preceded by
‘0x’. It is possible to use negative serial numbers but this
is not recommended.
-sigopt
nm:v
Pass options to the signature algorithm during sign operation. The names
and values of these options are algorithm-specific.
-subj
arg
Replaces the subject field of an input request with the specified data and
output the modified request.
arg
must be formatted
as /type0=value0/type1=value1/type2=...; characters may be escaped by
‘\’ (backslash); no spaces are skipped.
-subject
Print the request subject (or certificate subject if
-x509
is specified).
-text
Print the certificate request in plain text.
-utf8
Interpret field values as UTF8 strings, not ASCII.
-verbose
Print extra details about the operations being performed.
-verify
Verify the signature on the request.
-x509
Output a self-signed certificate instead of a certificate request. This is
typically used to generate a test certificate or a self-signed root CA.
The extensions added to the certificate (if any) are specified in the
configuration file. Unless specified using the
-set_serial
option, 0 is used for the serial
number.
The configuration options are specified in the "req"
section of the configuration file. The options available are as follows:
attributes
The section containing any request attributes: its format is the same as
distinguished_name
. Typically these may contain
the challengePassword or unstructuredName types. They are currently
ignored by the
openssl
request signing utilities,
but some CAs might want them.
default_bits
The default key size, in bits. The default is 2048. It is used if the
-new
option is used and can be overridden by using
the
-newkey
option.
default_keyfile
The default file to write a private key to, or standard output if not
specified. It can be overridden by the
-keyout
option.
default_md
The digest algorithm to use. Possible values include
md5
sha1
and
sha256
(the default). It can be overridden on the
command line.
distinguished_name
The section containing the distinguished name fields to prompt for when
generating a certificate or certificate request. The format is described
below.
encrypt_key
If set to "no" and a private key is generated, it is not
encrypted. It is equivalent to the
-nodes
option.
For compatibility,
encrypt_rsa_key
is an
equivalent option.
input_password
output_password
The passwords for the input private key file (if present) and the output
private key file (if one will be created). The command line options
-passin
and
-passout
override the configuration file values.
oid_file
A file containing additional OBJECT IDENTIFIERS. Each line of the file
should consist of the numerical form of the object identifier, followed by
whitespace, then the short name followed by whitespace and finally the
long name.
oid_section
Specify a section in the configuration file containing extra object
identifiers. Each line should consist of the short name of the object
identifier followed by ‘=’ and the numerical form. The short
and long names are the same when this option is used.
prompt
If set to "no", it disables prompting of certificate fields and
just takes values from the config file directly. It also changes the
expected format of the
distinguished_name
and
attributes
sections.
req_extensions
The configuration file section containing a list of extensions to add to
the certificate request. It can be overridden by the
-reqexts
option.
string_mask
Limit the string types for encoding certain fields. The following values
may be used, limiting strings to the indicated types:
utf8only
UTF8String. This is the default, as recommended by PKIX in RFC
2459.
default
PrintableString, IA5String, T61String, BMPString, UTF8String.
pkix
PrintableString, IA5String, BMPString, UTF8String. Inspired by the
PKIX recommendation in RFC 2459 for certificates generated before
2004, but differs by also permitting IA5String.
nombstr
PrintableString, IA5String, T61String, UniversalString. A workaround
for some ancient software that had problems with the variable-sized
BMPString and UTF8String types.
MASK
number
An explicit bitmask of permitted types, where
number
is a C-style hex, decimal, or octal
number that's a bit-wise OR of
B_ASN1_*
values
from
openssl/asn1.h
utf8
If set to "yes", field values are interpreted as UTF8
strings.
x509_extensions
The configuration file section containing a list of extensions to add to a
certificate generated when the
-x509
switch is
used. It can be overridden by the
-extensions
command line switch.
There are two separate formats for the distinguished name and
attribute sections. If the
-prompt
option is set to
"no", then these sections just consist of field names and values.
If the
-prompt
option is absent or not set to
"no", then the file contains field prompting information of the
form:
fieldName="prompt"
fieldName_default="default field value"
fieldName_min= 2
fieldName_max= 4
"fieldName" is the field name being used, for example
commonName
(or CN). The "prompt" string is
used to ask the user to enter the relevant details. If the user enters
nothing, the default value is used; if no default value is present, the
field is omitted. A field can still be omitted if a default value is
present, if the user just enters the ‘.’ character.
The number of characters entered must be between the fieldName_min
and fieldName_max limits: there may be additional restrictions based on the
field being used (for example
countryName
can only
ever be two characters long and must fit in a
PrintableString
).
Some fields (such as
organizationName
) can
be used more than once in a DN. This presents a problem because
configuration files will not recognize the same name occurring twice. To
avoid this problem, if the
fieldName
contains some
characters followed by a full stop, they will be ignored. So, for example, a
second
organizationName
can be input by calling it
"1.organizationName".
The actual permitted field names are any object identifier short
or long names. These are compiled into
openssl
and
include the usual values such as
commonName
countryName
localityName
organizationName
organizationalUnitName
stateOrProvinceName
. Additionally,
emailAddress
is included as well as
name
surname
givenName
initials
and
dnQualifier
Additional object identifiers can be defined with the
oid_file
or
oid_section
options in the configuration file. Any additional fields will be treated as
though they were a
DirectoryString
RSA
openssl rsa
-aes128
-aes192
-aes256
-des
-des3
-check
-in
file
-inform
der
net
pem
pvk
-modulus
] [
-noout
-out
file
-outform
der
net
pem
pvk
-passin
arg
-passout
arg
-pubin
] [
-pubout
-pvk-none
-pvk-strong
-pvk-weak
-RSAPublicKey_in
-RSAPublicKey_out
-text
The
rsa
command processes RSA keys. They
can be converted between various forms and their components printed out.
rsa
uses the traditional
SSLeay
compatible format for private key encryption:
newer applications should use the more secure PKCS#8 format using the
pkcs8
utility.
The options are as follows:
-aes128
-aes192
-aes256
-des
-des3
Encrypt the private key with the AES, DES, or the triple DES ciphers,
respectively, before outputting it. A pass phrase is prompted for. If none
of these options are specified, the key is written in plain text. This
means that using the
rsa
utility to read in an
encrypted key with no encryption option can be used to remove the pass
phrase from a key, or by setting the encryption options it can be used to
add or change the pass phrase. These options can only be used with PEM
format output files.
-check
Check the consistency of an RSA private key.
-in
file
The input file to read from, or standard input if not specified. If the
key is encrypted, a pass phrase will be prompted for.
-inform
der
net
pem
pvk
The input format.
-noout
Do not output the encoded version of the key.
-modulus
Print the value of the modulus of the key.
-out
file
The output file to write to, or standard output if not specified.
-outform
der
net
pem
pvk
The output format.
-passin
arg
The key password source.
-passout
arg
The output file password source.
-pubin
Read in a public key, not a private key.
-pubout
Output a public key, not a private key. Automatically set if the input is
a public key.
-pvk-none
-pvk-strong
-pvk-weak
Enable or disable PVK encoding. The default is
-pvk-strong
-RSAPublicKey_in
-RSAPublicKey_out
Same as
-pubin
and
-pubout
except
RSAPublicKey
format is used instead.
-text
Print the public/private key components in plain text.
RSAUTL
openssl rsautl
-asn1parse
] [
-certin
-decrypt
] [
-encrypt
-hexdump
-in
file
-inkey
file
-keyform
der
pem
-oaep
-pkcs
-raw
-x931
-out
file
-passin
arg
-pubin
] [
-rev
-sign
] [
-verify
The
rsautl
command can be used to sign,
verify, encrypt and decrypt data using the RSA algorithm.
The options are as follows:
-asn1parse
Asn1parse the output data; this is useful when combined with the
-verify
option.
-certin
The input is a certificate containing an RSA public key.
-decrypt
Decrypt the input data using an RSA private key.
-encrypt
Encrypt the input data using an RSA public key.
-hexdump
Hex dump the output data.
-in
file
The input to read from, or standard input if not specified.
-inkey
file
The input key file; by default an RSA private key.
-keyform
der
pem
The private key format. The default is
pem
-oaep
-pkcs
-raw
-x931
The padding to use: PKCS#1 OAEP, PKCS#1 v1.5 (the default), no padding, or
ANSI X9.31, respectively. For signatures, only
-pkcs
and
-raw
can be
used.
-out
file
The output file to write to, or standard output if not specified.
-passin
arg
The key password source.
-pubin
The input file is an RSA public key.
-rev
Reverse the order of the input buffer.
-sign
Sign the input data and output the signed result. This requires an RSA
private key.
-verify
Verify the input data and output the recovered data.
S_CLIENT
openssl s_client
-4
-6
-alpn
protocols
-bugs
-CAfile
file
-CApath
directory
-cert
file
-certform
der
pem
-check_ss_sig
-cipher
cipherlist
-connect
host
[:
port
]]
-crl_check
-crl_check_all
] [
-crlf
-debug
] [
-dtls
-dtls1_2
] [
-extended_crl
-groups
list
-host
host
-ign_eof
-ignore_critical
-issuer_checks
-key
keyfile
-keyform
der
pem
-keymatexport
label
-keymatexportlen
len
-legacy_server_connect
-msg
-mtu
mtu
-nbio
] [
-nbio_test
-no_comp
] [
-no_ign_eof
-no_legacy_server_connect
-no_ticket
] [
-no_tls1_2
-no_tls1_3
-pass
arg
-policy_check
-port
port
-prexit
-proxy
host
port
-quiet
] [
-reconnect
-servername
name
-serverpref
-sess_in
file
-sess_out
file
-showcerts
-starttls
protocol
-state
] [
-status
-timeout
] [
-tls1_2
-tls1_3
] [
-tlsextdebug
-use_srtp
profiles
-verify
depth
-verify_return_error
-x509_strict
-xmpphost
host
The
s_client
command implements a generic
SSL/TLS client which connects to a remote host using SSL/TLS.
If a connection is established with an SSL server, any data
received from the server is displayed and any key presses will be sent to
the server. When used interactively (which means neither
-quiet
nor
-ign_eof
have
been given), the session will be renegotiated if the line begins with an
; if the line begins with a
or if end of file is reached, the connection will
be closed down.
The options are as follows:
-4
Attempt connections using IPv4 only.
-6
Attempt connections using IPv6 only.
-alpn
protocols
Enable the Application-Layer Protocol Negotiation.
protocols
is a comma-separated list of protocol
names that the client should advertise support for.
-bugs
Enable various workarounds for buggy implementations.
-CAfile
file
file
containing trusted certificates to use during
server authentication and to use when attempting to build the client
certificate chain.
-CApath
directory
The
directory
to use for server certificate
verification. This directory must be in "hash format"; see
-verify
for more information. These are also used
when building the client certificate chain.
-cert
file
The certificate to use, if one is requested by the server. The default is
not to use a certificate.
-certform
der
pem
The certificate format. The default is
pem
-check_ss_sig
-crl_check
-crl_check_all
-extended_crl
-ignore_critical
-issuer_checks
-policy_check
-x509_strict
Set various certificate chain validation options. See the
verify
command for details.
-cipher
cipherlist
Modify the cipher list sent by the client. Although the server determines
which cipher suite is used, it should take the first supported cipher in
the list sent by the client. See the
ciphers
command for more information.
-connect
host
[:
port
The
host
and
port
to connect
to. If not specified, an attempt is made to connect to the local host on
port 4433. Alternatively, the host and port pair may be separated using a
forward-slash character, which is useful for numeric IPv6 addresses.
-crlf
Translate a line feed from the terminal into CR+LF, as required by some
servers.
-debug
Print extensive debugging information, including a hex dump of all
traffic.
-dtls
Permit any version of DTLS.
-dtls1_2
Permit only DTLS1.2.
-groups
list
Set the supported elliptic curve groups to the colon separated
list
of group NIDs or names as documented in
SSL_CTX_set1_groups_list(3)
-host
host
The
host
to connect to. The default is
localhost.
-ign_eof
Inhibit shutting down the connection when end of file is reached in the
input.
-key
keyfile
The private key to use. If not specified, the certificate file will be
used.
-keyform
der
pem
The private key format. The default is
pem
-keymatexport
label
Export keying material using label.
-keymatexportlen
len
Export len bytes of keying material (default 20).
-legacy_server_connect
-no_legacy_server_connect
Allow or disallow initial connection to servers that don't support
RI.
-msg
Show all protocol messages with hex dump.
-mtu
mtu
Set the link layer MTU.
-nbio
Turn on non-blocking I/O.
-nbio_test
Test non-blocking I/O.
-no_ign_eof
Shut down the connection when end of file is reached in the input. Can be
used to override the implicit
-ign_eof
after
-quiet
-no_tls1_2
-no_tls1_3
Disable the use of TLS1.2 and 1.3, respectively.
-no_ticket
Disable RFC 4507 session ticket support.
-pass
arg
The private key password source.
-port
port
The
port
to connect to. The default is 4433.
-prexit
Print session information when the program exits. This will always attempt
to print out information even if the connection fails. Normally,
information will only be printed out once if the connection succeeds. This
option is useful because the cipher in use may be renegotiated or the
connection may fail because a client certificate is required or is
requested only after an attempt is made to access a certain URL. Note that
the output produced by this option is not always accurate because a
connection might never have been established.
-proxy
host
port
Use the HTTP proxy at
host
and
port
. The connection to the proxy is done in
cleartext and the
-connect
argument is given to
the proxy. If not specified, localhost is used as final destination. After
that, switch the connection through the proxy to the destination to
TLS.
-quiet
Inhibit printing of session and certificate information. This implicitly
turns on
-ign_eof
as well.
-reconnect
Reconnect to the same server 5 times using the same session ID; this can
be used as a test that session caching is working.
-servername
name
Include the TLS Server Name Indication (SNI) extension in the ClientHello
message, using the specified server
name
-showcerts
Display the whole server certificate chain: normally only the server
certificate itself is displayed.
-serverpref
Use the server's cipher preferences.
-sess_in
file
Load TLS session from file. The client will attempt to resume a connection
from this session.
-sess_out
file
Output TLS session to file.
-starttls
protocol
Send the protocol-specific messages to switch to TLS for communication.
protocol
is a keyword for the intended protocol.
Currently, the supported keywords are "ftp", "imap",
"sieve", "smtp", "pop3", and
"xmpp".
-state
Print the SSL session states.
-status
Send a certificate status request to the server (OCSP stapling). The
server response (if any) is printed out.
-timeout
Enable send/receive timeout on DTLS connections.
-tls1_2
-tls1_3
Permit only TLS1.2 or 1.3 respectively.
-tlsextdebug
Print a hex dump of any TLS extensions received from the server.
-use_srtp
profiles
Offer SRTP key management with a colon-separated profile list.
-verify
depth
Turn on server certificate verification, with a maximum length of
depth
. Currently the verify operation continues
after errors so all the problems with a certificate chain can be seen. As
a side effect the connection will never fail due to a server certificate
verify failure.
-verify_return_error
Return verification error.
-xmpphost
hostname
When used with
-starttls
xmpp
, specify the host for the "to"
attribute of the stream element. If this option is not specified then the
host specified with
-connect
will be used.
S_SERVER
openssl s_server
-accept
port
-alpn
protocols
-bugs
-CAfile
file
-CApath
directory
-cert
file
-cert2
file
-certform
der
pem
-cipher
cipherlist
-context
id
-crl_check
-crl_check_all
] [
-crlf
-dcert
file
-dcertform
der
pem
-debug
-dhparam
file
-dkey
file
-dkeyform
der
pem
-dpass
arg
-dtls
] [
-dtls1
-dtls1_2
-groups
list
-HTTP
-id_prefix
arg
-key
keyfile
-key2
keyfile
-keyform
der
pem
-keymatexport
label
-keymatexportlen
len
-msg
-mtu
mtu
-naccept
num
-named_curve
arg
-nbio
] [
-nbio_test
-no_cache
] [
-no_dhe
-no_ecdhe
] [
-no_ticket
-no_tls1_2
] [
-no_tls1_3
-no_tmp_rsa
] [
-nocert
-pass
arg
-quiet
-servername
name
-servername_fatal
-serverpref
] [
-state
-status
-status_timeout
nsec
-status_url
url
-status_verbose
-timeout
] [
-tls1_2
-tls1_3
] [
-tlsextdebug
-use_srtp
profiles
-Verify
depth
-verify
depth
-verify_return_error
-WWW
] [
-www
The
s_server
command implements a generic
SSL/TLS server which listens for connections on a given port using
SSL/TLS.
If a connection request is established with a client and neither
the
-www
nor the
-WWW
option
has been used, then any data received from the client is displayed and any
key presses are sent to the client. Certain single letter commands perform
special operations:
Send plain text, which should cause the client to disconnect.
End the current SSL connection and exit.
End the current SSL connection, but still accept new connections.
Renegotiate the SSL session and request a client certificate.
Renegotiate the SSL session.
Print out some session cache status information.
The options are as follows:
-accept
port
Listen on TCP
port
for connections. The default is
port 4433.
-alpn
protocols
Enable the Application-Layer Protocol Negotiation.
protocols
is a comma-separated list of supported
protocol names.
-bugs
Enable various workarounds for buggy implementations.
-CAfile
file
file
containing trusted certificates to use during
client authentication and to use when attempting to build the server
certificate chain. The list is also used in the list of acceptable client
CAs passed to the client when a certificate is requested.
-CApath
directory
The
directory
to use for client certificate
verification. This directory must be in "hash format"; see
-verify
for more information. These are also used
when building the server certificate chain.
-cert
file
The certificate to use: most server's cipher suites require the use of a
certificate and some require a certificate with a certain public key type.
For example, the DSS cipher suites require a certificate containing a DSS
(DSA) key. If not specified, the file
server.pem
will be used.
-cert2
file
The certificate to use for servername.
-certform
der
pem
The certificate format. The default is
pem
-cipher
cipherlist
Modify the cipher list used by the server. This allows the cipher list
used by the server to be modified. When the client sends a list of
supported ciphers, the first client cipher also included in the server
list is used. Because the client specifies the preference order, the order
of the server cipherlist is irrelevant. See the
ciphers
command for more information.
-context
id
Set the SSL context ID. It can be given any string value.
-crl_check
-crl_check_all
Check the peer certificate has not been revoked by its CA. The CRLs are
appended to the certificate file.
-crl_check_all
checks all CRLs of all CAs in the chain.
-crlf
Translate a line feed from the terminal into CR+LF.
-dcert
file
-dkey
file
Specify an additional certificate and private key; these behave in the
same manner as the
-cert
and
-key
options except there is no default if they
are not specified (no additional certificate or key is used). By using RSA
and DSS certificates and keys, a server can support clients which only
support RSA or DSS cipher suites by using an appropriate certificate.
-dcertform
der
pem
-dkeyform
der
pem
-dpass
arg
Additional certificate and private key format, and private key password
source, respectively.
-debug
Print extensive debugging information, including a hex dump of all
traffic.
-dhparam
file
The DH parameter file to use. The ephemeral DH cipher suites generate keys
using a set of DH parameters. If not specified, an attempt is made to load
the parameters from the server certificate file. If this fails, a static
set of parameters hard coded into the
s_server
program will be used.
-dtls
Permit any version of DTLS.
-dtls1_2
Permit only DTLS1.2.
-groups
list
Set the supported elliptic curve groups to the colon separated
list
of group NIDs or names as documented in
SSL_CTX_set1_groups_list(3)
-HTTP
Emulate a simple web server. Pages are resolved relative to the current
directory. For example if the URL
is requested, the file
./page.html
will be loaded. The files loaded are
assumed to contain a complete and correct HTTP response (lines that are
part of the HTTP response line and headers must end with CRLF).
-id_prefix
arg
Generate SSL/TLS session IDs prefixed by
arg
. This
is mostly useful for testing any SSL/TLS code that wish to deal with
multiple servers, when each of which might be generating a unique range of
session IDs.
-key
keyfile
The private key to use. If not specified, the certificate file will be
used.
-key2
keyfile
The private key to use for servername.
-keyform
der
pem
The private key format. The default is
pem
-keymatexport
label
Export keying material using label.
-keymatexportlen
len
Export len bytes of keying material (default 20).
-msg
Show all protocol messages with hex dump.
-mtu
mtu
Set the link layer MTU.
-naccept
num
Terminate server after
num
connections.
-named_curve
arg
Specify the elliptic curve name to use for ephemeral ECDH keys. This
option is deprecated; use
-groups
instead.
-nbio
Turn on non-blocking I/O.
-nbio_test
Test non-blocking I/O.
-no_cache
Disable session caching.
-no_dhe
Disable ephemeral DH cipher suites.
-no_ecdhe
Disable ephemeral ECDH cipher suites.
-no_ticket
Disable RFC 4507 session ticket support.
-no_tls1_2
-no_tls1_3
Disable the use of TLS1.2 and 1.3, respectively.
-no_tmp_rsa
Disable temporary RSA key generation.
-nocert
Do not use a certificate. This restricts the cipher suites available to
the anonymous ones (currently just anonymous DH).
-pass
arg
The private key password source.
-quiet
Inhibit printing of session and certificate information.
-servername
name
Set the TLS Server Name Indication (SNI) extension with
name
-servername_fatal
Send fatal alert if servername does not match. The default is warning
alert.
-serverpref
Use server's cipher preferences.
-state
Print the SSL session states.
-status
Enables certificate status request support (OCSP stapling).
-status_timeout
nsec
Sets the timeout for OCSP response in seconds.
-status_url
url
Sets a fallback responder URL to use if no responder URL is present in the
server certificate. Without this option, an error is returned if the
server certificate does not contain a responder address.
-status_verbose
Enables certificate status request support (OCSP stapling) and gives a
verbose printout of the OCSP response.
-timeout
Enable send/receive timeout on DTLS connections.
-tls1_2
-tls1_3
Permit only TLS1.2, or 1.3, respectively.
-tlsextdebug
Print a hex dump of any TLS extensions received from the server.
-use_srtp
profiles
Offer SRTP key management with a colon-separated profile list.
-verify_return_error
Return verification error.
-WWW
Emulate a simple web server. Pages are resolved relative to the current
directory. For example if the URL
is requested, the file
./page.html
will be loaded.
-www
Send a status message to the client when it connects, including
information about the ciphers used and various session parameters. The
output is in HTML format so this option will normally be used with a web
browser.
-Verify
depth
-verify
depth
Request a certificate chain from the client, with a maximum length of
depth
. With
-Verify
, the
client must supply a certificate or an error occurs; with
-verify
, a certificate is requested but the client
does not have to send one.
S_TIME
openssl s_time
-bugs
-CAfile
file
-CApath
directory
-cert
file
-cipher
cipherlist
-connect
host
[:
port
]]
-key
keyfile
-nbio
] [
-new
-no_shutdown
] [
-reuse
-time
seconds
-verify
depth
-www
page
The
s_time
command implements a generic
SSL/TLS client which connects to a remote host using SSL/TLS. It can request
a page from the server and includes the time to transfer the payload data in
its timing measurements. It measures the number of connections within a
given timeframe, the amount of data transferred (if any), and calculates the
average time spent for one connection.
The options are as follows:
-bugs
Enable various workarounds for buggy implementations.
-CAfile
file
file
containing trusted certificates to use during
server authentication and to use when attempting to build the client
certificate chain.
-CApath
directory
The directory to use for server certificate verification. This directory
must be in "hash format"; see
verify
for
more information. These are also used when building the client certificate
chain.
-cert
file
The certificate to use, if one is requested by the server. The default is
not to use a certificate.
-cipher
cipherlist
Modify the cipher list sent by the client. Although the server determines
which cipher suite is used, it should take the first supported cipher in
the list sent by the client. See the
ciphers
command for more information.
-connect
host
[:
port
The host and port to connect to.
-key
keyfile
The private key to use. If not specified, the certificate file will be
used.
-nbio
Turn on non-blocking I/O.
-new
Perform the timing test using a new session ID for each connection. If
neither
-new
nor
-reuse
are specified, they are both on by default and executed in sequence.
-no_shutdown
Shut down the connection without sending a "close notify"
shutdown alert to the server.
-reuse
Perform the timing test using the same session ID for each connection. If
neither
-new
nor
-reuse
are specified, they are both on by default and executed in sequence.
-time
seconds
Limit
s_time
benchmarks to the number of
seconds
. The default is 30 seconds.
-verify
depth
Turn on server certificate verification, with a maximum length of
depth
. Currently the verify operation continues
after errors, so all the problems with a certificate chain can be seen. As
a side effect, the connection will never fail due to a server certificate
verify failure.
-www
page
The page to GET from the server. A value of ‘/’ gets the
index.htm[l] page. If this parameter is not specified,
s_time
will only perform the handshake to
establish SSL connections but not transfer any payload data.
SESS_ID
openssl sess_id
-cert
-context
ID
-in
file
-inform
der
pem
-noout
-out
file
-outform
der
pem
-text
The
sess_id
program processes the encoded
version of the SSL session structure and optionally prints out SSL session
details (for example the SSL session master key) in human-readable
format.
The options are as follows:
-cert
If a certificate is present in the session, it will be output using this
option; if the
-text
option is also present, then
it will be printed out in text form.
-context
ID
Set the session
ID
. The ID can be any string of
characters.
-in
file
The input file to read from, or standard input if not specified.
-inform
der
pem
The input format.
der
uses an ASN.1 DER-encoded
format containing session details. The precise format can vary from one
version to the next.
pem
is the default format: it
consists of the DER format base64-encoded with additional header and
footer lines.
-noout
Do not output the encoded version of the session.
-out
file
The output file to write to, or standard output if not specified.
-outform
der
pem
The output format.
-text
Print the various public or private key components in plain text, in
addition to the encoded version.
The output of
sess_id
is composed as
follows:
Protocol
The protocol in use.
Cipher
The actual raw SSL or TLS cipher code.
Session-ID
The SSL session ID, in hex format.
Session-ID-ctx
The session ID context, in hex format.
Master-Key
The SSL session master key.
Key-Arg
The key argument; this is only used in SSL v2.
Start Time
The session start time.
Unix
format.
Timeout
The timeout, in seconds.
Verify return code
The return code when a certificate is verified.
Since the SSL session output contains the master key, it is
possible to read the contents of an encrypted session using this
information. Therefore appropriate security precautions should be taken if
the information is being output by a "real" application. This is,
however, strongly discouraged and should only be used for debugging
purposes.
SMIME
openssl smime
-aes128
-aes192
-aes256
-des
-des3
-rc2-40
-rc2-64
-rc2-128
-binary
-CAfile
file
-CApath
directory
-certfile
file
-check_ss_sig
-content
file
-crl_check
-crl_check_all
-decrypt
] [
-encrypt
-extended_crl
-from
addr
-ignore_critical
-in
file
-indef
-inform
der
pem
smime
-inkey
file
-issuer_checks
-keyform
der
pem
-md
digest
-noattr
] [
-nocerts
-nochain
] [
-nodetach
-noindef
] [
-nointern
-nosigs
] [
-nosmimecap
-noverify
-out
file
-outform
der
pem
smime
-passin
arg
-pk7out
] [
-policy_check
-recip
file
-resign
] [
-sign
-signer
file
-stream
-subject
-text
-to
addr
-verify
] [
-x509_strict
cert.pem ...
The
smime
command handles S/MIME mail. It
can encrypt, decrypt, sign, and verify S/MIME messages.
The MIME message must be sent without any blank lines between the
headers and the output. Some mail programs will automatically add a blank
line. Piping the mail directly to an MTA is one way to achieve the correct
format.
The supplied message to be signed or encrypted must include the
necessary MIME headers or many S/MIME clients won't display it properly (if
at all). Use the
-text
option to automatically add
plain text headers.
A "signed and encrypted" message is one where a signed
message is then encrypted. This can be produced by encrypting an already
signed message.
There are a number of operations that can be performed, as
follows:
-decrypt
Decrypt mail using the supplied certificate and private key. The input
file is an encrypted mail message in MIME format. The decrypted mail is
written to the output file.
-encrypt
Encrypt mail for the given recipient certificates. The input is the
message to be encrypted. The output file is the encrypted mail, in MIME
format.
-pk7out
Take an input message and write out a PEM-encoded PKCS#7 structure.
-resign
Resign a message: take an existing message and one or more new
signers.
-sign
Sign mail using the supplied certificate and private key. The input file
is the message to be signed. The signed message, in MIME format, is
written to the output file.
-verify
Verify signed mail. The input is a signed mail message and the output is
the signed data. Both clear text and opaque signing is supported.
The remaining options are as follows:
-aes128
-aes192
-aes256
-des
-des3
-rc2-40
-rc2-64
-rc2-128
The encryption algorithm to use. 128-, 192-, or 256-bit AES, DES (56
bits), triple DES (168 bits), or 40-, 64-, or 128-bit RC2, respectively;
if not specified, 256-bit AES is used. Only used with
-encrypt
-binary
Normally, the input message is converted to "canonical" format
which uses CR/LF as end of line, as required by the S/MIME specification.
When this option is present, no translation occurs. This is useful when
handling binary data which may not be in MIME format.
-CAfile
file
file
containing trusted CA certificates; only used
with
-verify
-CApath
directory
directory
containing trusted CA certificates; only
used with
-verify
. This directory must be a
standard certificate directory: that is, a hash of each subject name
(using
x509 -hash
) should be linked to each
certificate.
cert.pem ...
One or more certificates of message recipients: used when encrypting a
message.
-certfile
file
Allows additional certificates to be specified. When signing, these will
be included with the message. When verifying, these will be searched for
the signers' certificates. The certificates should be in PEM format.
-check_ss_sig
-crl_check
-crl_check_all
-extended_crl
-ignore_critical
-issuer_checks
-policy_check
-x509_strict
Set various certificate chain validation options. See the
verify
command for details.
-content
file
A file containing the detached content. This is only useful with the
-verify
option, and only usable if the PKCS#7
structure is using the detached signature form where the content is not
included. This option will override any content if the input format is
S/MIME and it uses the multipart/signed MIME content type.
-from
addr
-subject
-to
addr
The relevant mail headers. These are included outside the signed portion
of a message so they may be included manually. When signing, many S/MIME
mail clients check that the signer's certificate email address matches the
From: address.
-in
file
The input file to read from.
-indef
Enable streaming I/O for encoding operations. This permits single pass
processing of data without the need to hold the entire contents in memory,
potentially supporting very large files. Streaming is automatically set
for S/MIME signing with detached data if the output format is SMIME; it is
currently off by default for all other operations.
-inform
der
pem
smime
The input format.
-inkey
file
The private key to use when signing or decrypting, which must match the
corresponding certificate. If this option is not specified, the private
key must be included in the certificate file specified with the
-recip
or
-signer
file.
When signing, this option can be used multiple times to specify successive
keys.
-keyform
der
pem
Input private key format. The default is
pem
-md
digest
The digest algorithm to use when signing or resigning. If not present then
the default digest algorithm for the signing key is used (usually
SHA1).
-noattr
Do not include attributes.
-nocerts
Do not include the signer's certificate. This will reduce the size of the
signed message but the verifier must have a copy of the signer's
certificate available locally (passed using the
-certfile
option, for example).
-nochain
Do not do chain verification of signers' certificates: that is, don't use
the certificates in the signed message as untrusted CAs.
-nodetach
When signing a message, use opaque signing: this form is more resistant to
translation by mail relays but it cannot be read by mail agents that do
not support S/MIME. Without this option cleartext signing with the MIME
type multipart/signed is used.
-noindef
Disable streaming I/O where it would produce an encoding of indefinite
length (currently has no effect).
-nointern
Only use certificates specified in the
-certfile
The supplied certificates can still be used as untrusted CAs.
-nosigs
Do not try to verify the signatures on the message.
-nosmimecap
Exclude the list of supported algorithms from signed attributes, other
options such as signing time and content type are still included.
-noverify
Do not verify the signer's certificate of a signed message.
-out
file
The output file to write to.
-outform
der
pem
smime
The output format. The default is smime, which writes an S/MIME format
message.
pem
and
der
change this to write PEM and DER format PKCS#7 structures instead. This
currently only affects the output format of the PKCS#7 structure; if no
PKCS#7 structure is being output (for example with
-verify
or
-decrypt
) this
option has no effect.
-passin
arg
The key password source.
-recip
file
The recipients certificate when decrypting a message. This certificate
must match one of the recipients of the message or an error occurs.
-signer
file
A signing certificate when signing or resigning a message; this option can
be used multiple times if more than one signer is required. If a message
is being verified, the signer's certificates will be written to this file
if the verification was successful.
-stream
The same as
-indef
-text
Add plain text (text/plain) MIME headers to the supplied message if
encrypting or signing. If decrypting or verifying, it strips off text
headers: if the decrypted or verified message is not of MIME type
text/plain then an error occurs.
The exit codes for
smime
are as
follows:
The operation was completely successful.
An error occurred parsing the command options.
One of the input files could not be read.
An error occurred creating the file or when reading the message.
An error occurred decrypting or verifying the message.
An error occurred writing certificates.
SPEED
openssl speed
algorithm
] [
-decrypt
-elapsed
-evp
algorithm
-mr
-multi
number
-unaligned
number
The
speed
command is used to test the
performance of cryptographic algorithms.
algorithm
Perform the test using
algorithm
. The default is to
test all algorithms.
-decrypt
Time decryption instead of encryption; must be used with
-evp
-elapsed
Measure time in real time instead of CPU user time.
-evp
algorithm
Perform the test using one of the algorithms accepted by
EVP_get_cipherbyname(3)
-mr
Produce machine readable output.
-multi
number
Run
number
benchmarks in parallel.
-unaligned
number
Use allocated buffers with an offset of
number
bytes
from the alignment provided by
malloc(3)
number
should be between 0 and
16.
TS
openssl ts
-query
-md4
-md5
-ripemd160
-sha1
-cert
-config
configfile
-data
file_to_hash
-digest
digest_bytes
-in
request.tsq
-no_nonce
-out
request.tsq
-policy
object_id
-text
openssl ts
-reply
-chain
certs_file.pem
-config
configfile
-in
response.tsr
-inkey
private.pem
-out
response.tsr
-passin
arg
-policy
object_id
-queryfile
request.tsq
-section
tsa_section
-signer
tsa_cert.pem
-text
] [
-token_in
-token_out
openssl ts
-verify
-CAfile
trusted_certs.pem
-CApath
trusted_cert_path
-data
file_to_hash
-digest
digest_bytes
-in
response.tsr
-queryfile
request.tsq
-token_in
-untrusted
cert_file.pem
The
ts
command is a basic Time Stamping
Authority (TSA) client and server application as specified in RFC 3161
(Time-Stamp Protocol, TSP). A TSA can be part of a PKI deployment and its
role is to provide long term proof of the existence of specific data. Here
is a brief description of the protocol:
The TSA client computes a one-way hash value for a data file and sends the
hash to the TSA.
The TSA attaches the current date and time to the received hash value,
signs them and sends the time stamp token back to the client. By creating
this token the TSA certifies the existence of the original data file at
the time of response generation.
The TSA client receives the time stamp token and verifies the signature on
it. It also checks if the token contains the same hash value that it had
sent to the TSA.
There is one DER-encoded protocol data unit defined for
transporting a time stamp request to the TSA and one for sending the time
stamp response back to the client. The
ts
command
has three main functions: creating a time stamp request based on a data
file; creating a time stamp response based on a request; and verifying if a
response corresponds to a particular request or a data file.
There is no support for sending the requests/responses
automatically over HTTP or TCP yet as suggested in RFC 3161. Users must send
the requests either by FTP or email.
The
-query
switch can be used for creating
and printing a time stamp request with the following options:
-cert
Expect the TSA to include its signing certificate in the response.
-config
configfile
Specify an alternative configuration file. Only the OID section is
used.
-data
file_to_hash
The data file for which the time stamp request needs to be created. The
default is standard input.
-digest
digest_bytes
Specify the message imprint explicitly without the data file. The imprint
must be specified in a hexadecimal format, two characters per byte, the
bytes optionally separated by colons. The number of bytes must match the
message digest algorithm in use.
-in
request.tsq
A previously created time stamp request in DER format that will be printed
into the output file. Useful for examining the content of a request in
human-readable format.
-md4
-md5
-ripemd160
-sha
-sha1
The message digest to apply to the data file. It supports all the message
digest algorithms that are supported by the
dgst
command. The default is SHA1.
-no_nonce
Specify no nonce in the request. The default, to include a 64-bit long
pseudo-random nonce, is recommended to protect against replay
attacks.
-out
request.tsq
The output file to write to, or standard output if not specified.
-policy
object_id
The policy that the client expects the TSA to use for creating the time
stamp token. Either dotted OID notation or OID names defined in the config
file can be used. If no policy is requested, the TSA uses its own default
policy.
-text
Output in human-readable text format instead of DER.
A time stamp response (TimeStampResp) consists of a response
status and the time stamp token itself (ContentInfo), if the token
generation was successful. The
-reply
command is for
creating a time stamp response or time stamp token based on a request and
printing the response/token in human-readable format. If
-token_out
is not specified the output is always a
time stamp response (TimeStampResp), otherwise it is a time stamp token
(ContentInfo).
-chain
certs_file.pem
The collection of PEM certificates that will be included in the response
in addition to the signer certificate if the
-cert
option was used for the request. This file is supposed to contain the
certificate chain for the signer certificate from its issuer upwards. The
-reply
command does not build a certificate chain
automatically.
-config
configfile
Specify an alternative configuration file.
-in
response.tsr
Specify a previously created time stamp response (or time stamp token, if
-token_in
is also specified) in DER format that
will be written to the output file. This option does not require a
request; it is useful, for example, to examine the content of a response
or token or to extract the time stamp token from a response. If the input
is a token and the output is a time stamp response, a default
"granted" status info is added to the token.
-inkey
private.pem
The signer private key of the TSA in PEM format. Overrides the
signer_key
config file option.
-out
response.tsr
The response is written to this file. The format and content of the file
depends on other options (see
-text
and
-token_out
). The default is stdout.
-passin
arg
The key password source.
-policy
object_id
The default policy to use for the response. Either dotted OID notation or
OID names defined in the config file can be used. If no policy is
requested, the TSA uses its own default policy.
-queryfile
request.tsq
The file containing a DER-encoded time stamp request.
-section
tsa_section
The config file section containing the settings for response
generation.
-signer
tsa_cert.pem
The PEM signer certificate of the TSA. The TSA signing certificate must
have exactly one extended key usage assigned to it: timeStamping. The
extended key usage must also be critical, otherwise the certificate is
going to be refused. Overrides the
signer_cert
variable of the config file.
-text
Output in human-readable text format instead of DER.
-token_in
The input is a DER-encoded time stamp token (ContentInfo) instead of a
time stamp response (TimeStampResp).
-token_out
The output is a time stamp token (ContentInfo) instead of a time stamp
response (TimeStampResp).
The
-verify
command is for verifying if a
time stamp response or time stamp token is valid and matches a particular
time stamp request or data file. The
-verify
command
does not use the configuration file.
-CAfile
trusted_certs.pem
The file containing a set of trusted self-signed PEM CA certificates. See
verify
for additional details. Either this option
or
-CApath
must be specified.
-CApath
trusted_cert_path
The directory containing the trusted CA certificates of the client. See
verify
for additional details. Either this option
or
-CAfile
must be specified.
-data
file_to_hash
The response or token must be verified against
file_to_hash
. The file is hashed with the message
digest algorithm specified in the token. The
-digest
and
-queryfile
options must not be specified with this one.
-digest
digest_bytes
The response or token must be verified against the message digest
specified with this option. The number of bytes must match the message
digest algorithm specified in the token. The
-data
and
-queryfile
options must not be specified with
this one.
-in
response.tsr
The time stamp response that needs to be verified, in DER format. This
option in mandatory.
-queryfile
request.tsq
The original time stamp request, in DER format. The
-data
and
-digest
options
must not be specified with this one.
-token_in
The input is a DER-encoded time stamp token (ContentInfo) instead of a
time stamp response (TimeStampResp).
-untrusted
cert_file.pem
Additional untrusted PEM certificates which may be needed when building
the certificate chain for the TSA's signing certificate. This file must
contain the TSA signing certificate and all intermediate CA certificates
unless the response includes them.
Options specified on the command line always override the settings
in the config file:
tsa
section
default_tsa
This is the main section and it specifies the name of another section that
contains all the options for the
-reply
option.
This section can be overridden with the
-section
command line switch.
oid_file
See
ca
for a description.
oid_section
See
ca
for a description.
serial
The file containing the hexadecimal serial number of the last time stamp
response created. This number is incremented by 1 for each response. If
the file does not exist at the time of response generation, a new file is
created with serial number 1. This parameter is mandatory.
signer_cert
TSA signing certificate, in PEM format. The same as the
-signer
command line option.
certs
A set of PEM-encoded certificates that need to be included in the
response. The same as the
-chain
command line
option.
signer_key
The private key of the TSA, in PEM format. The same as the
-inkey
command line option.
default_policy
The default policy to use when the request does not mandate any policy.
The same as the
-policy
command line option.
other_policies
Comma separated list of policies that are also acceptable by the TSA and
used only if the request explicitly specifies one of them.
digests
The list of message digest algorithms that the TSA accepts. At least one
algorithm must be specified. This parameter is mandatory.
accuracy
The accuracy of the time source of the TSA in seconds, milliseconds and
microseconds. For example, secs:1, millisecs:500, microsecs:100. If any of
the components is missing, zero is assumed for that field.
clock_precision_digits
The maximum number of digits, which represent the fraction of seconds,
that need to be included in the time field. The trailing zeroes must be
removed from the time, so there might actually be fewer digits or no
fraction of seconds at all. The maximum value is 6; the default is 0.
ordering
If this option is yes, the responses generated by this TSA can always be
ordered, even if the time difference between two responses is less than
the sum of their accuracies. The default is no.
tsa_name
Set this option to yes if the subject name of the TSA must be included in
the TSA name field of the response. The default is no.
ess_cert_id_chain
The SignedData objects created by the TSA always contain the certificate
identifier of the signing certificate in a signed attribute (see RFC 2634,
Enhanced Security Services). If this option is set to yes and either the
certs
variable or the
-chain
option is specified then the certificate
identifiers of the chain will also be included in the SigningCertificate
signed attribute. If this variable is set to no, only the signing
certificate identifier is included. The default is no.
VERIFY
openssl verify
-CAfile
file
-CApath
directory
-check_ss_sig
-CRLfile
file
-crl_check
-crl_check_all
-explicit_policy
-extended_crl
] [
-help
-ignore_critical
-inhibit_any
-inhibit_map
-issuer_checks
-legacy_verify
-policy_check
-purpose
purpose
-trusted
file
-untrusted
file
-verbose
] [
-x509_strict
certificates
The
verify
command verifies certificate
chains.
The options are as follows:
-CAfile
file
file
of trusted certificates. The
file
should contain multiple certificates in PEM
format, concatenated together.
-CApath
directory
directory
of trusted certificates. The
certificates, or symbolic links to them, should have names of the form
hash
.0, where
hash
is the
hashed certificate subject name (see the
-hash
option of the
x509
utility).
-check_ss_sig
Verify the signature on the self-signed root CA. This is disabled by
default because it doesn't add any security.
-CRLfile
file
The
file
should contain one or more CRLs in PEM
format.
-crl_check
Check end entity certificate validity by attempting to look up a valid
CRL. If a valid CRL cannot be found, an error occurs.
-crl_check_all
Check the validity of all certificates in the chain by attempting to look
up valid CRLs.
-explicit_policy
Set policy variable require-explicit-policy (RFC 3280).
-extended_crl
Enable extended CRL features such as indirect CRLs and alternate CRL
signing keys.
-help
Print a usage message.
-ignore_critical
Ignore critical extensions instead of rejecting the certificate.
-inhibit_any
Set policy variable inhibit-any-policy (RFC 3280).
-inhibit_map
Set policy variable inhibit-policy-mapping (RFC 3280).
-issuer_checks
Print diagnostics relating to searches for the issuer certificate of the
current certificate showing why each candidate issuer certificate was
rejected. The presence of rejection messages does not itself imply that
anything is wrong: during the normal verify process several rejections may
take place.
-legacy_verify
Use the legacy X.509 certificate chain verification code.
-policy_check
Enable certificate policy processing.
-purpose
purpose
The intended use for the certificate. Without this option no chain
verification will be done. Currently accepted uses are
sslclient
sslserver
nssslserver
smimesign
smimeencrypt
crlsign
any
, and
ocsphelper
-trusted
file
file
of trusted certificates. The
file
should contain multiple certificates.
-untrusted
file
file
of untrusted certificates. The
file
should contain multiple certificates.
-verbose
Print extra information about the operations being performed.
-x509_strict
Disable workarounds for broken certificates which have to be disabled for
strict X.509 compliance.
certificates
One or more PEM
certificates
to verify. If no
certificate files are included, an attempt is made to read a certificate
from standard input. If the first certificate filename begins with a dash,
use a lone dash to mark the last option.
The
verify
program uses the same functions
as the internal SSL and S/MIME verification, with one crucial difference:
wherever possible an attempt is made to continue after an error, whereas
normally the verify operation would halt on the first error. This allows all
the problems with a certificate chain to be determined.
The verify operation consists of a number of separate steps.
Firstly a certificate chain is built up starting from the supplied
certificate and ending in the root CA. It is an error if the whole chain
cannot be built up. The chain is built up by looking up the issuer's
certificate of the current certificate. If a certificate is found which is
its own issuer, it is assumed to be the root CA.
All certificates whose subject name matches the issuer name of the
current certificate are subject to further tests. The relevant authority key
identifier components of the current certificate (if present) must match the
subject key identifier (if present) and issuer and serial number of the
candidate issuer; in addition the
keyUsage
extension
of the candidate issuer (if present) must permit certificate signing.
The lookup first looks in the list of untrusted certificates and
if no match is found the remaining lookups are from the trusted
certificates. The root CA is always looked up in the trusted certificate
list: if the certificate to verify is a root certificate, then an exact
match must be found in the trusted list.
The second operation is to check every untrusted certificate's
extensions for consistency with the supplied purpose. If the
-purpose
option is not included, then no checks are
done. The supplied or "leaf" certificate must have extensions
compatible with the supplied purpose and all other certificates must also be
valid CA certificates. The precise extensions required are described in more
detail in the
X509
section below.
The third operation is to check the trust settings on the root CA.
The root CA should be trusted for the supplied purpose. A certificate with
no trust settings is considered to be valid for all purposes.
The final operation is to check the validity of the certificate
chain. The validity period is checked against the current system time and
the
notBefore
and
notAfter
dates in the certificate. The certificate signatures are also checked at
this point.
If all operations complete successfully, the certificate is
considered valid. If any operation fails then the certificate is not valid.
When a verify operation fails, the output messages can be somewhat cryptic.
The general form of the error message is:
server.pem: /C=AU/ST=Queensland/O=CryptSoft Pty Ltd/CN=Test CA (1024-bit)
error 24 at 1 depth lookup:invalid CA certificate
The first line contains the name of the certificate being
verified, followed by the subject name of the certificate. The second line
contains the error number as defined by the
X509_V_ERR_*
constants in
openssl/x509_vfy.h
, the
associated error message documented in
X509_STORE_CTX_get_error(3)
, and the depth. The depth is the
number of the certificate being verified when a problem was detected
starting with zero for the certificate being verified itself, then 1 for the
CA that signed the certificate and so on.
VERSION
openssl version
-abdfpv
The
version
command is used to print out
version information about
openssl
The options are as follows:
-a
All information: this is the same as setting all the other flags.
-b
The date the current version of
openssl
was
built.
-d
OPENSSLDIR
setting.
-f
Compilation flags.
-p
Platform setting.
-v
The current
openssl
version.
X509
openssl x509
-addreject
arg
-addtrust
arg
-alias
-CA
file
-CAcreateserial
-CAform
der
pem
-CAkey
file
-CAkeyform
der
pem
-CAserial
file
-certopt
option
-checkend
arg
-clrext
] [
-clrreject
-clrtrust
] [
-dates
-days
arg
-email
] [
-enddate
-extensions
section
-extfile
file
-fingerprint
-force_pubkey
key
-hash
-in
file
-inform
der
net
pem
-issuer
] [
-issuer_hash
-issuer_hash_old
-keyform
der
pem
-md5
-sha1
-modulus
-multivalue-rdn
-nameopt
option
-new
] [
-next_serial
-noout
] [
-ocsp_uri
-ocspid
-out
file
-outform
der
net
pem
-passin
arg
-pubkey
] [
-purpose
-req
] [
-serial
-set_issuer
name
-set_serial
-set_subject
name
-setalias
arg
-signkey
file
-sigopt
nm:v
-startdate
] [
-subject
-subject_hash
-subject_hash_old
-text
] [
-trustout
-utf8
] [
-x509toreq
The
x509
command is a multi-purpose
certificate utility. It can be used to display certificate information,
convert certificates to various forms, sign certificate requests like a
"mini CA", or edit certificate trust settings.
The following are x509 input, output, and general purpose
options:
-in
file
The input file to read from, or standard input if not specified. This
option cannot be used with
-new
-inform
der
net
pem
The input format. Normally, the command will expect an X.509 certificate,
but this can change if other options such as
-in
or
-req
are present.
-md5
-sha1
The digest to use. This affects any signing or display option that uses a
message digest, such as the
-fingerprint
-signkey
, and
-CA
options.
If not specified, MD5 is used. SHA1 is always used with DSA keys.
-out
file
The output file to write to, or standard output if none is specified.
-outform
der
net
pem
The output format.
-passin
arg
The key password source.
The following are x509 display options:
-certopt
option
Customise the output format used with
-text
either using a list of comma-separated options or by specifying
-certopt
multiple times. The default behaviour is
to print all fields. The options are as follows:
ca_default
Equivalent to
no_issuer
no_pubkey
no_header
no_version
no_sigdump
, and
no_signame
compatible
Equivalent to no output options at all.
ext_default
Print unsupported certificate extensions.
ext_dump
Hex dump unsupported extensions.
ext_error
Print an error message for unsupported certificate extensions.
ext_parse
ASN.1 parse unsupported extensions.
no_aux
Do not print certificate trust information.
no_extensions
Do not print X509V3 extensions.
no_header
Do not print header (Certificate and Data) information.
no_issuer
Do not print the issuer name.
no_pubkey
Do not print the public key.
no_serial
Do not print the serial number.
no_sigdump
Do not give a hexadecimal dump of the certificate signature.
no_signame
Do not print the signature algorithm used.
no_subject
Do not print the subject name.
no_validity
Do not print the
notBefore
and
notAfter
(validity) fields.
no_version
Do not print the version number.
-dates
Print the start and expiry date of a certificate.
-email
Output the email addresses, if any.
-enddate
Print the expiry date of the certificate; that is, the
notAfter
date.
-fingerprint
Print the digest of the DER-encoded version of the whole certificate.
-hash
A synonym for
-subject_hash
-issuer
Print the issuer name.
-issuer_hash
Print the hash of the certificate issuer name.
-issuer_hash_old
Print the hash of the certificate issuer name using the older algorithm as
used by
openssl
versions before 1.0.0.
-modulus
Print the value of the modulus of the public key contained in the
certificate.
-multivalue-rdn
This option causes the
-subj
argument to be
interpreted with full support for multivalued RDNs, for example
"/DC=org/DC=OpenSSL/DC=users/UID=123456+CN=John Doe". If
-multivalue-rdn
is not used, the UID value is set
to "123456+CN=John Doe".
-nameopt
option
Customise how the subject or issuer names are displayed, either using a
list of comma-separated options or by specifying
-nameopt
multiple times. The default behaviour is
to use the
compat
format. The options, which can
be preceded by a dash to turn them off, are as follows:
align
Align field values for a more readable output. Only usable with
sep_multiline
compat
Use the old format, equivalent to specifying no options at all.
dn_rev
Reverse the fields of the DN, as required by RFC 2253. As a side
effect, this also reverses the order of multiple AVAs.
dump_all
Dump all fields. When used with
dump_der
, it
allows the DER encoding of the structure to be unambiguously
determined.
dump_der
Any fields that need to be hexdumped are dumped using the DER encoding
of the field. Otherwise just the content octets will be displayed.
Both options use the RFC 2253 #XXXX... format.
dump_nostr
Dump non-character string types (for example OCTET STRING); usually,
non-character string types are displayed as though each content octet
represents a single character.
dump_unknown
Dump any field whose OID is not recognised by
openssl
esc_2253
Escape the "special" characters required by RFC 2253 in a
field that is “ ,+"<>;”. Additionally,
‘#’ is escaped at the beginning of a string and a space
character at the beginning or end of a string.
esc_ctrl
Escape control characters. That is, those with ASCII values less than
0x20 (space) and the delete (0x7f) character. They are escaped using
the RFC 2253 \XX notation (where XX are two hex digits representing
the character value).
esc_msb
Escape characters with the MSB set; that is, with ASCII values larger
than 127.
multiline
A multiline format. Equivalent to
esc_ctrl
esc_msb
sep_multiline
space_eq
lname
, and
align
no_type
Do not attempt to interpret multibyte characters. That is, content
octets are merely dumped as though one octet represents each
character. This is useful for diagnostic purposes but results in
rather odd looking output.
nofname
sname
lname
oid
Alter how the field name is displayed:
nofname
does not display the field at all;
sname
uses
the short name form (CN for
commonName
, for
example);
lname
uses the long form.
oid
represents the OID in numerical form and
is useful for diagnostic purpose.
oneline
A one line format which is more readable than
RFC2253
. Equivalent to
esc_2253
esc_ctrl
esc_msb
utf8
dump_nostr
dump_der
use_quote
sep_comma_plus_space
space_eq
, and
sname
RFC2253
Displays names compatible with RFC 2253. Equivalent to
esc_2253
esc_ctrl
esc_msb
utf8
dump_nostr
dump_unknown
dump_der
sep_comma_plus
dn_rev
, and
sname
sep_comma_plus
sep_comma_plus_space
sep_semi_plus_space
sep_multiline
Determine the field separators: the first character is between RDNs
and the second between multiple AVAs (multiple AVAs are very rare and
their use is discouraged). The options ending in "space"
additionally place a space after the separator to make it more
readable.
sep_multiline
uses a linefeed
character for the RDN separator and a spaced ‘+’ for the
AVA separator, as well as indenting the fields by four characters. If
no field separator is specified then
sep_comma_plus_space
is used by default.
show_type
Show the type of the ASN.1 character string. The type precedes the
field contents. For example "BMPSTRING: Hello World".
space_eq
Place spaces round the ‘=’ character which follows the
field name.
use_quote
Escape some characters by surrounding the whole string with
‘"’ characters. Without the option, all escaping is
done with the ‘\’ character.
utf8
Convert all strings to UTF8 format first, as required by RFC 2253. On
a UTF8 compatible terminal, the use of this option (and not setting
esc_msb
) may result in the correct display of
multibyte characters. Usually, multibyte characters larger than 0xff
are represented using the format \UXXXX for 16 bits and \WXXXXXXXX for
32 bits, and any UTF8Strings are converted to their character form
first.
-next_serial
Print the next serial number.
-noout
Do not output the encoded version of the request.
-ocsp_uri
Print the OCSP responder addresses, if any.
-ocspid
Print OCSP hash values for the subject name and public key.
-pubkey
Print the public key.
-serial
Print the certificate serial number.
-sigopt
nm:v
Pass options to the signature algorithm during sign or certify operations.
The names and values of these options are algorithm-specific.
-startdate
Print the start date of the certificate; that is, the
notBefore
date.
-subject
Print the subject name.
-subject_hash
Print the hash of the certificate subject name. This is used in
openssl
to form an index to allow certificates in
a directory to be looked up by subject name.
-subject_hash_old
Print the hash of the certificate subject name using the older algorithm
as used by
openssl
versions before 1.0.0.
-text
Print the full certificate in text form.
A trusted certificate is a certificate which has several
additional pieces of information attached to it such as the permitted and
prohibited uses of the certificate and an alias. When a certificate is being
verified, at least one certificate must be trusted. By default, a trusted
certificate must be stored locally and be a root CA. The following are x509
trust settings options:
-addreject
arg
Add a prohibited use. Accepts the same values as the
-addtrust
option.
-addtrust
arg
Add a trusted certificate use. Any object name can be used here, but
currently only
clientAuth
(SSL client use),
serverAuth
(SSL server use), and
emailProtection
(S/MIME email) are used.
-alias
Output the certificate alias.
-clrreject
Clear all the prohibited or rejected uses of the certificate.
-clrtrust
Clear all the permitted or trusted uses of the certificate.
-purpose
Perform tests on the certificate extensions. The same code is used when
verifying untrusted certificates in chains, so this section is useful if a
chain is rejected by the verify code.
The
basicConstraints
extension CA flag
is used to determine whether the certificate can be used as a CA. If the
CA flag is true, it is a CA; if the CA flag is false, it is not a CA.
All CAs should have the CA flag set to true.
If the
basicConstraints
extension is
absent, then the certificate is considered to be a possible CA; other
extensions are checked according to the intended use of the certificate.
A warning is given in this case because the certificate should really
not be regarded as a CA. However it is allowed to be a CA to work around
some broken software.
If the certificate is a V1 certificate (and thus has no
extensions) and it is self-signed, it is also assumed to be a CA but a
warning is again given. This is to work around the problem of Verisign
roots which are V1 self-signed certificates.
If the
keyUsage
extension is present,
then additional restraints are made on the uses of the certificate. A CA
certificate must have the
keyCertSign
bit set if
the
keyUsage
extension is present.
The extended key usage extension places additional
restrictions on the certificate uses. If this extension is present,
whether critical or not, the key can only be used for the purposes
specified.
A complete description of each test is given below. The
comments about
basicConstraints
and
keyUsage
and V1 certificates above apply to all
CA certificates.
SSL Client
The extended key usage extension must be absent or include the web
client authentication OID.
keyUsage
must be
absent or it must have the
digitalSignature
bit set. The Netscape certificate type must be absent or it must have
the SSL client bit set.
SSL Client CA
The extended key usage extension must be absent or include the web
client authentication OID. The Netscape certificate type must be
absent or it must have the SSL CA bit set: this is used as a
workaround if the
basicConstraints
extension
is absent.
SSL Server
The extended key usage extension must be absent or include the web
server authentication and/or one of the SGC OIDs.
keyUsage
must be absent or it must have the
digitalSignature
set, the
keyEncipherment
set, or both bits set. The
Netscape certificate type must be absent or have the SSL server bit
set.
SSL Server CA
The extended key usage extension must be absent or include the web
server authentication and/or one of the SGC OIDs. The Netscape
certificate type must be absent or the SSL CA bit must be set: this is
used as a workaround if the
basicConstraints
extension is absent.
Netscape SSL Server
For Netscape SSL clients to connect to an SSL server; it must have the
keyEncipherment
bit set if the
keyUsage
extension is present. This isn't
always valid because some cipher suites use the key for digital
signing. Otherwise it is the same as a normal SSL server.
Common S/MIME Client Tests
The extended key usage extension must be absent or include the email
protection OID. The Netscape certificate type must be absent or should
have the S/MIME bit set. If the S/MIME bit is not set in Netscape
certificate type, then the SSL client bit is tolerated as an
alternative but a warning is shown: this is because some Verisign
certificates don't set the S/MIME bit.
S/MIME Signing
In addition to the common S/MIME client tests, the
digitalSignature
bit must be set if the
keyUsage
extension is present.
S/MIME Encryption
In addition to the common S/MIME tests, the
keyEncipherment
bit must be set if the
keyUsage
extension is present.
S/MIME CA
The extended key usage extension must be absent or include the email
protection OID. The Netscape certificate type must be absent or must
have the S/MIME CA bit set: this is used as a workaround if the
basicConstraints
extension is absent.
CRL Signing
The
keyUsage
extension must be absent or it
must have the CRL signing bit set.
CRL Signing CA
The normal CA tests apply, except the
basicConstraints
extension must be
present.
-setalias
arg
Set the alias of the certificate, allowing the certificate to be referred
to using a nickname, such as "Steve's Certificate".
-trustout
Output a trusted certificate (the default if any trust settings are
modified). An ordinary or trusted certificate can be input, but by default
an ordinary certificate is output and any trust settings are
discarded.
The
x509
utility can be used to sign
certificates and requests: it can thus behave like a mini CA. The following
are x509 signing options:
-CA
file
The CA certificate to be used for signing. When this option is present,
x509
behaves like a mini CA. The input file is
signed by the CA using this option; that is, its issuer name is set to the
subject name of the CA and it is digitally signed using the CA's private
key.
This option is normally combined with the
-req
option. Without the
-req
option, the input is a certificate which
must be self-signed.
-CAcreateserial
Create the CA serial number file if it does not exist instead of
generating an error. The file will contain the serial number
‘02’ and the certificate being signed will have
‘1’ as its serial number.
-CAform
der
pem
The format of the CA certificate file. The default is
pem
-CAkey
file
Set the CA private key to sign a certificate with. Otherwise it is assumed
that the CA private key is present in the CA certificate file.
-CAkeyform
der
pem
The format of the CA private key. The default is
pem
-CAserial
file
Use the serial number in
file
to sign a certificate.
The file should consist of one line containing an even number of hex
digits with the serial number to use. After each use the serial number is
incremented and written out to the file again.
The default filename consists of the CA certificate file base
name with
.srl
appended. For example, if the CA
certificate file is called
mycacert.pem
, it
expects to find a serial number file called
mycacert.srl
-checkend
arg
Check whether the certificate expires in the next
arg
seconds. If so, exit with return value 1;
otherwise exit with return value 0.
-clrext
Delete any extensions from a certificate. This option is used when a
certificate is being created from another certificate (for example with
the
-signkey
or the
-CA
options). Normally, all extensions are retained.
-days
arg
The number of days to make a certificate valid for. The default is 30
days.
-extensions
section
The section to add certificate extensions from. If this option is not
specified, the extensions should either be contained in the unnamed
(default) section or the default section should contain a variable called
"extensions" which contains the section to use.
-extfile
file
File containing certificate extensions to use. If not specified, no
extensions are added to the certificate.
-force_pubkey
key
Set the public key of the certificate to the public key contained in
key
-keyform
der
pem
The format of the key file used in the
-force_pubkey
and
-signkey
options.
-new
Generate a new certificate using the subject given by
-set_subject
and signed by
-signkey
. If no public key is provided with
-force_pubkey
, the resulting certificate is
self-signed. This option cannot be used with
-in
or
-req
-req
Expect a certificate request on input instead of a certificate. This
option cannot be used with
-new
-set_issuer
name
The issuer name to use.
name
must be formatted as
/type0=value0/type1=value1/type2=...; characters may be escaped by
‘\’ (backslash); no spaces are skipped.
-set_serial
The serial number to use. This option can be used with either the
-signkey
or
-CA
options.
If used in conjunction with the
-CA
option, the
serial number file (as specified by the
-CAserial
or
-CAcreateserial
options) is not used.
The serial number can be decimal or hex (if preceded by
‘0x’). Negative serial numbers can also be specified but
their use is not recommended.
-set_subject
name
The subject name to use.
name
must be formatted as
/type0=value0/type1=value1/type2=...; characters may be escaped by
‘\’ (backslash); no spaces are skipped.
-signkey
file
Self-sign
file
using the supplied private key.
If the input file is a certificate, it sets the issuer name to
the subject name (i.e. makes it self-signed), changes the public key to
the supplied value, and changes the start and end dates. The start date
is set to the current time and the end date is set to a value determined
by the
-days
option. Any certificate extensions
are retained unless the
-clrext
option is
supplied.
If the input is a certificate request, a self-signed
certificate is created using the supplied private key using the subject
name in the request.
-utf8
Interpret field values read from a terminal or obtained from a
configuration file as UTF-8 strings. By default, they are interpreted as
ASCII.
-x509toreq
Convert a certificate into a certificate request. The
-signkey
option is used to pass the required
private key.
COMMON
NOTATION
Several commands share a common syntax, as detailed below.
Password arguments, typically specified using
-passin
and
-passout
for
input and output passwords, allow passwords to be obtained from a variety of
sources. Both of these options take a single argument, described below. If
no password argument is given and a password is required, then the user is
prompted to enter one: this will typically be read from the current terminal
with echoing turned off.
pass
password
The actual password is
password
. Since the password
is visible to utilities, this form should only be used where security is
not important.
env
var
Obtain the password from the environment variable
var
. Since the environment of other processes is
visible, this option should be used with caution.
file
path
The first line of
path
is the password. If the same
path
argument is supplied to
-passin
and
-passout
, then
the first line will be used for the input password and the next line for
the output password.
path
need not refer to a
regular file: it could, for example, refer to a device or named pipe.
fd
number
Read the password from the file descriptor
number
This can be used to send the data via a pipe, for example.
stdin
Read the password from standard input.
Input/output formats, typically specified using
-inform
and
-outform
indicate the format being read from or written to. The argument is case
insensitive.
der
Distinguished Encoding Rules (DER) is a binary format.
net
Insecure legacy format.
pem
Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM) is base64-encoded.
pvk
Private Key format.
smime
An SMIME format message.
txt
Plain ASCII text.
ENVIRONMENT
The following environment variables affect the execution of
openssl
OPENSSL_CONF
The location of the master configuration file.
FILES
/etc/ssl/
Default config directory for
openssl
/etc/ssl/lib/
Unused.
/etc/ssl/private/
Default private key directory.
/etc/ssl/openssl.cnf
Default configuration file for
openssl
/etc/ssl/x509v3.cnf
Default configuration file for
x509
certificates.
SEE
ALSO
acme-client(1)
nc(1)
openssl.cnf(5)
x509v3.cnf(5)
ssl(8)
starttls(8)
STANDARDS
T. Dierks
and
C. Allen
The TLS Protocol
Version 1.0
RFC
2246
January 1999
M. Wahl
S. Killie
, and
T. Howes
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (v3): UTF-8 String
Representation of Distinguished Names
RFC
2253
December 1997
B. Kaliski
PKCS #7: Cryptographic Message Syntax Version 1.5
RFC
2315
March 1998
R. Housley
W. Ford
W. Polk
, and
D. Solo
Internet X.509 Public
Key Infrastructure Certificate and CRL Profile
RFC
2459
January 1999
M. Myers
R. Ankney
A. Malpani
S. Galperin
, and
C. Adams
X.509 Internet Public Key Infrastructure Online
Certificate Status Protocol – OCSP
RFC
2560
June 1999
R. Housley
Cryptographic Message Syntax
RFC
2630
June 1999
P. Chown
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) Ciphersuites for
Transport Layer Security (TLS)
RFC
3268
June 2002
OpenBSD-current
March 14, 2026
OPENSSL(1)