Manual Pages for UNIX Darwin command on man req

REQ(1) OpenSSL REQ(1)

NAME

req - PKCS#10 certificate request and certificate generating utility.

SYNOPSIS

ooppeennssssll rreeqq [-iinnffoorrmm PPEEMM||DDEERR] [-oouuttffoorrmm PPEEMM||DDEERR] [-iinn ffiilleennaammee]

[-ppaassssiinn aarrgg] [-oouutt ffiilleennaammee] [-ppaassssoouutt aarrgg] [-tteexxtt] [-ppuubbkkeeyy] [-nnoooouutt]

[-vveerriiffyy] [-mmoodduulluuss] [-nneeww] [-rraanndd ffiillee((ss))] [-nneewwkkeeyy rrssaa::bbiittss] [-nneewwkkeeyy

ddssaa::ffiillee] [-nnooddeess] [-kkeeyy ffiilleennaammee] [-kkeeyyffoorrmm PPEEMM||DDEERR] [-kkeeyyoouutt

ffiilleennaammee] [-[[mmdd55||sshhaa11||mmdd22||mmddcc22]]] [-ccoonnffiigg ffiilleennaammee] [-ssuubbjj aarrgg] [-xx550099]

[-ddaayyss nn] [-sseettsseerriiaall nn] [-aassnn11-kklluuddggee] [-nneewwhhddrr] [-eexxtteennssiioonnss

sseeccttiioonn] [-rreeqqeexxttss sseeccttiioonn] [-uuttff88] [-nnaammeeoopptt] [-bbaattcchh] [-vveerrbboossee]

[-eennggiinnee iidd]

DESCRIPTION

The rreeqq 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. CCOOMMMMAANNDD OOPPTTIIOONNSS

-iinnffoorrmm DDEERR||PPEEMM

This specifies the input format. The DDEERR option uses an ASN1 DER

encoded form compatible with the PKCS#10. The PPEEMM form is the

default format: it consists of the DDEERR format base64 encoded with additional header and footer lines.

-oouuttffoorrmm DDEERR||PPEEMM

This specifies the output format, the options have the same meaning

as the -iinnffoorrmm option.

-iinn ffiilleennaammee

This specifies the input filename to read a request from or

standard input if this option is not specified. A request is only

read if the creation options (-nneeww and -nneewwkkeeyy) are not specified.

-ppaassssiinn aarrgg

the input file password source. For more information about the format of aarrgg see the PPAASSSS PPHHRRAASSEE AARRGGUUMMEENNTTSS section in openssl(1).

-oouutt ffiilleennaammee

This specifies the output filename to write to or standard output by default.

-ppaassssoouutt aarrgg

the output file password source. For more information about the format of aarrgg see the PPAASSSS PPHHRRAASSEE AARRGGUUMMEENNTTSS section in openssl(1).

-tteexxtt

prints out the certificate request in text form.

-ppuubbkkeeyy

outputs the public key.

-nnoooouutt

this option prevents output of the encoded version of the request.

-mmoodduulluuss

this option prints out the value of the modulus of the public key

contained in the request.

-vveerriiffyy

verifies the signature on the request.

-nneeww

this option generates a new certificate request. It will prompt the

user 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 -kkeeyy option is not used it will generate a new RSA private

key using information specified in the configuration file.

-rraanndd ffiillee((ss))

a file or files containing random data used to seed the random number generator, or an EGD socket (see RANDegd(3)). Multiple

files can be specified separated by a OS-dependent character. The

separator is ;; for MS-Windows, ,, for OpenVMS, and :: for all others.

-nneewwkkeeyy aarrgg

this option creates a new certificate request and a new private

key. The argument takes one of two forms. rrssaa::nnbbiittss, where nnbbiittss is the number of bits, generates an RSA key nnbbiittss in size. ddssaa::ffiilleennaammee generates a DSA key using the parameters in the file ffiilleennaammee.

-kkeeyy ffiilleennaammee

This specifies the file to read the private key from. It also

accepts PKCS#8 format private keys for PEM format files.

-kkeeyyffoorrmm PPEEMM||DDEERR

the format of the private key file specified in the -kkeeyy argument.

PEM is the default.

-kkeeyyoouutt ffiilleennaammee

this gives the filename to write the newly created private key to. If this option is not specified then the filename present in the configuration file is used.

-nnooddeess

if this option is specified then if a private key is created it will not be encrypted.

-[[mmdd55||sshhaa11||mmdd22||mmddcc22]]

this specifies the message digest to sign the request with. This

overrides the digest algorithm specified in the configuration file.

This option is ignored for DSA requests: they always use SHA1.

-ccoonnffiigg ffiilleennaammee

this allows an alternative configuration file to be specified, this overrides the compile time filename or any specified in the OOPPEENNSSSSLLCCOONNFF environment variable.

-ssuubbjj aarrgg

sets subject name for new request or supersedes the subject name

when processing a request. The arg must be formatted as

/type0=value0/type1=value1/type2=..., characters may be escaped by \ (backslash), no spaces are skipped.

-xx550099

this option outputs 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 sseettsseerriiaall option 00 will be used for the serial number.

-ddaayyss nn

when the -xx550099 option is being used this specifies the number of

days to certify the certificate for. The default is 30 days.

-sseettsseerriiaall nn

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 00xx. It is possible to use negative serial numbers but this is not recommended.

-eexxtteennssiioonnss sseeccttiioonn

-rreeqqeexxttss sseeccttiioonn

these options specify alternative sections to include certificate

extensions (if the -xx550099 option is present) or certificate request

extensions. This allows several different sections to be used in

the same configuration file to specify requests for a variety of

purposes.

-uuttff88

this option causes field values to be interpreted as UTF8 strings, by default they are interpreted as ASCII. This means that the field values, whether prompted from a terminal or obtained from a configuration file, must be valid UTF8 strings.

-nnaammeeoopptt ooppttiioonn

option which determines how the subject or issuer names are displayed. The ooppttiioonn argument can be a single option or multiple

options separated by commas. Alternatively the -nnaammeeoopptt switch may

be used more than once to set multiple options. See the x509(1) manual page for details.

-aassnn11-kklluuddggee

by default the rreeqq command outputs certificate requests containing

no attributes in the correct PKCS#10 format. However certain CAs

will only accept requests containing no attributes in an invalid

form: this option produces this invalid format.

More precisely the AAttttrriibbuutteess in a PKCS#10 certificate request are

defined as a SSEETT OOFF AAttttrriibbuuttee. They are nnoott OOPPTTIIOONNAALL so if no attributes are present then they should be encoded as an empty SSEETT OOFF. The invalid form does not include the empty SSEETT OOFF whereas the correct form does.

It should be noted that very few CAs still require the use of this

option.

-nneewwhhddrr

Adds the word NNEEWW to the PEM file header and footer lines on the

outputed request. Some software (Netscape certificate server) and

some CAs need this.

-bbaattcchh

non-interactive mode.

-vveerrbboossee

print extra details about the operations being performed.

-eennggiinnee iidd

specifying an engine (by it's unique iidd string) will cause rreeqq to attempt to obtain a functional reference to the specified engine, thus initialising it if needed. The engine will then be set as the default for all available algorithms. CCOONNFFIIGGUURRAATTIIOONN FFIILLEE FFOORRMMAATT The configuration options are specified in the rreeqq section of the configuration file. As with all configuration files if no value is specified in the specific section (i.e. rreeqq) then the initial unnamed or ddeeffaauulltt section is searched too. The options available are described in detail below. iinnppuuttppaasssswwoorrdd oouuttppuuttppaasssswwoorrdd 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 ppaassssiinn and ppaassssoouutt override the configuration file values. ddeeffaauullttbbiittss This specifies the default key size in bits. If not specified then

512 is used. It is used if the -nneeww option is used. It can be

overridden by using the -nneewwkkeeyy option.

ddeeffaauullttkkeeyyffiillee This is the default filename to write a private key to. If not specified the key is written to standard output. This can be

overridden by the -kkeeyyoouutt option.

ooiiddffiillee This specifies a file containing additional OOBBJJEECCTT IIDDEENNTTIIFFIIEERRSS. Each line of the file should consist of the numerical form of the object identifier followed by white space then the short name followed by white space and finally the long name. ooiiddsseeccttiioonn 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. RRAANNDDFFIILLEE This specifies a filename in which random number seed information is placed and read from, or an EGD socket (see RANDegd(3)). It is used for private key generation. eennccrryyppttkkeeyy If this is set to nnoo then if a private key is generated it is nnoott

encrypted. This is equivalent to the -nnooddeess command line option.

For compatibility eennccrryyppttrrssaakkeeyy is an equivalent option. ddeeffaauullttmmdd This option specifies the digest algorithm to use. Possible values include mmdd55 sshhaa11 mmddcc22. If not present then MD5 is used. This option can be overridden on the command line. ssttrriinnggmmaasskk This option masks out the use of certain string types in certain fields. Most users will not need to change this option. It can be set to several values ddeeffaauulltt which is also the default option uses PrintableStrings, T61Strings and BMPStrings if the ppkkiixx value is used then only PrintableStrings and BMPStrings will be used. This follows the PKIX recommendation in RFC2459. If the uuttff88oonnllyy option is used then only UTF8Strings will be used: this is the PKIX recommendation in RFC2459 after 2003. Finally the nnoommbbssttrr option just uses PrintableStrings and T61Strings: certain software has problems with BMPStrings and UTF8Strings: in particular Netscape. rreeqqeexxtteennssiioonnss this specifies the configuration file section containing a list of

extensions to add to the certificate request. It can be overridden

by the -rreeqqeexxttss command line switch.

xx550099eexxtteennssiioonnss this specifies the configuration file section containing a list of

extensions to add to certificate generated when the -xx550099 switch is

used. It can be overridden by the -eexxtteennssiioonnss command line switch.

pprroommpptt if set to the value nnoo this disables prompting of certificate fields and just takes values from the config file directly. It also changes the expected format of the ddiissttiinngguuiisshheeddnnaammee and aattttrriibbuutteess sections. uuttff88 if set to the value yyeess then field values to be interpreted as UTF8 strings, by default they are interpreted as ASCII. This means that the field values, whether prompted from a terminal or obtained from a configuration file, must be valid UTF8 strings. aattttrriibbuutteess

this specifies the section containing any request attributes: its

format is the same as ddiissttiinngguuiisshheeddnnaammee. Typically these may contain the challengePassword or unstructuredName types. They are

currently ignored by OpenSSL's request signing utilities but some

CAs might want them. ddiissttiinngguuiisshheeddnnaammee This specifies the section containing the distinguished name fields

to prompt for when generating a certificate or certificate request.

The format is described in the next section.

DISTINGUISHED NAME AND ATTRIBUTE SECTION FORMAT

There are two separate formats for the distinguished name and attribute sections. If the pprroommpptt option is set to nnoo then these sections just consist of field names and values: for example, CN=My Name OU=My Organization emailAddress=someone@somewhere.org This allows external programs (e.g. GUI based) to generate a template file with all the field names and values and just pass it to rreeqq. An example of this kind of configuration file is contained in the EEXXAAMMPPLLEESS section. Alternatively if the pprroommpptt option is absent or not set to nnoo then the file contains field prompting information. It consists of lines of the form: fieldName="prompt" fieldNamedefault="default field value" fieldNamemin= 2 fieldNamemax= 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 then the default value is used if no default value is present then 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 fieldNamemin and fieldNamemax 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, organizationUnitName, stateOrProvinceName. Additionally emailAddress is include as well as name, surname, givenName initials and dnQualifier. Additional object identifiers can be defined with the ooiiddffiillee or ooiiddsseeccttiioonn options in the configuration file. Any additional fields will be treated as though they were a DirectoryString. EEXXAAMMPPLLEESS

Examine and verify certificate request:

openssl req -in req.pem -text -verify -noout

Create a private key and then generate a certificate request from it:

openssl genrsa -out key.pem 1024

openssl req -new -key key.pem -out req.pem

The same but just using req:

openssl req -newkey rsa:1024 -keyout key.pem -out req.pem

Generate a self signed root certificate:

openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:1024 -keyout key.pem -out req.pem

Example of a file pointed to by the ooiiddffiillee option: 1.2.3.4 shortName A longer Name 1.2.3.6 otherName Other longer Name Example of a section pointed to by ooiiddsseeccttiioonn making use of variable expansion: testoid1=1.2.3.5

testoid2=${testoid1}.6

Sample configuration file prompting for field values:

[ req ]

defaultbits = 1024 defaultkeyfile = privkey.pem

distinguishedname = reqdistinguishedname

attributes = reqattributes

x509extensions = v3ca dirstringtype = nobmp

[ reqdistinguishedname ]

countryName = Country Name (2 letter code) countryNamedefault = AU countryNamemin = 2 countryNamemax = 2 localityName = Locality Name (eg, city) organizationalUnitName = Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) commonName = Common Name (eg, YOUR name) commonNamemax = 64 emailAddress = Email Address emailAddressmax = 40

[ reqattributes ]

challengePassword = A challenge password challengePasswordmin = 4 challengePasswordmax = 20 [ v3ca ] subjectKeyIdentifier=hash authorityKeyIdentifier=keyid:always,issuer:always basicConstraints = CA:true Sample configuration containing all field values:

RANDFILE = $ENV::HOME/.rnd

[ req ]

defaultbits = 1024 defaultkeyfile = keyfile.pem

distinguishedname = reqdistinguishedname

attributes = reqattributes

prompt = no outputpassword = mypass

[ reqdistinguishedname ]

C = GB ST = Test State or Province L = Test Locality O = Organization Name OU = Organizational Unit Name CN = Common Name emailAddress = test@email.address

[ reqattributes ]

challengePassword = A challenge password NNOOTTEESS The header and footer lines in the PPEEMM format are normally:

---BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST---

---END CERTIFICATE REQUEST---

some software (some versions of Netscape certificate server) instead needs:

---BEGIN NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST---

---END NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST---

which is produced with the -nneewwhhddrr option but is otherwise compatible.

Either form is accepted transparently on input.

The certificate requests generated by XXeennrroollll with MSIE have extensions

added. It includes the kkeeyyUUssaaggee extension which determines the type of key (signature only or general purpose) and any additional OIDs entered by the script in an extendedKeyUsage extension. DIAGNOSTICS

The following messages are frequently asked about:

Using configuration from /some/path/openssl.cnf Unable to load config info This is followed some time later by... unable to find 'distinguishedname' in config problems making Certificate Request The first error message is the clue: it can't find the configuration

file! Certain operations (like examining a certificate request) don't

need a configuration file so its use isn't enforced. Generation of

certificates or requests however does need a configuration file. This

could be regarded as a bug. Another puzzling message is this: Attributes: a0:00

this is displayed when no attributes are present and the request

includes the correct empty SSEETT OOFF structure (the DER encoding of which is 0xa0 0x00). If you just see: Attributes: then the SSEETT OOFF is missing and the encoding is technically invalid (but it is tolerated). See the description of the command line option

-aassnn11-kklluuddggee for more information.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES The variable OOPPEENNSSSSLLCCOONNFF if defined allows an alternative configuration file location to be specified, it will be overridden by

the -ccoonnffiigg command line switch if it is present. For compatibility

reasons the SSSSLLEEAAYYCCOONNFF environment variable serves the same purpose but its use is discouraged.

BUGS

OpenSSL's handling of T61Strings (aka TeletexStrings) is broken: it

effectively treats them as ISO-8859-1 (Latin 1), Netscape and MSIE have

similar behaviour. This can cause problems if you need characters that aren't available in PrintableStrings and you don't want to or can't use BMPStrings. As a consequence of the T61String handling the only correct way to represent accented characters in OpenSSL is to use a BMPString: unfortunately Netscape currently chokes on these. If you have to use accented characters with Netscape and MSIE then you currently need to use the invalid T61String form. The current prompting is not very friendly. It doesn't allow you to confirm what you've just entered. Other things like extensions in

certificate requests are statically defined in the configuration file.

Some of these: like an email address in subjectAltName should be input by the user.