REQ(1)                              OpenSSL                             REQ(1)



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

LIBRARY
       libcrypto, -lcrypto

SYNOPSIS
       openssl req [-inform PEM|DER] [-outform PEM|DER] [-in filename]
       [-passin arg] [-out filename] [-passout arg] [-text] [-pubkey] [-noout]
       [-verify] [-modulus] [-new] [-rand file(s)] [-newkey rsa:bits] [-newkey
       dsa:file] [-newkey alg:file] [-nodes] [-key filename] [-keyform
       PEM|DER] [-keyout filename] [-[md5|sha1|md2|mdc2]] [-config filename]
       [-subj arg] [-multivalue-rdn] [-x509] [-days n] [-set_serial n]
       [-asn1-kludge] [-newhdr] [-extensions section] [-reqexts section]
       [-utf8] [-nameopt] [-batch] [-verbose] [-engine id]

DESCRIPTION
       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.

COMMAND OPTIONS
       -inform DER|PEM
           This specifies the input format. The DER option uses an ASN1 DER
           encoded form compatible with the PKCS#10. The PEM form is the
           default format: it consists of the DER format base64 encoded with
           additional header and footer lines.

       -outform DER|PEM
           This specifies the output format, the options have the same meaning
           as the -inform option.

       -in filename
           This specifies the input filename to read a request from or stan-
           dard input if this option is not specified. A request is only read
           if the creation options (-new and -newkey) are not specified.

       -passin arg
           the input file password source. For more information about the for-
           mat of arg see the PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS section in openssl(1).

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

       -passout arg
           the output file password source. For more information about the
           format of arg see the PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS section in openssl(1).

       -text
           prints out the certificate request in text form.

       -pubkey
           outputs the public key.

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

       -modulus
           this option prints out the value of the modulus of the public key
           contained in the request.

       -verify
           verifies the signature on the request.

       -new
           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 configura-
           tion 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.

       -rand file(s)
           a file or files containing random data used to seed the random num-
           ber generator, or an EGD socket (see RAND_egd(3)).  Multiple files
           can be specified separated by a OS-dependent character.  The sepa-
           rator is ; for MS-Windows, , for OpenVMS, and : for all others.

       -newkey arg
           this option creates a new certificate request and a new private
           key. The argument takes one of several forms. rsa:nbits, where
           nbits is the number of bits, generates an RSA key nbits in size.
           dsa:filename generates a DSA key using the parameters in the file
           filename. param:file generates a key using the parameter file file,
           the algorithm is determined by the parameters. algname:file use
           algorithm algname and parameter file file the two algorithms must
           match or an error occurs. algname just uses algorithm algname.

       -pkeyopt opt:value
           set the public key algorithm option opt to value. The precise set
           of options supported depends on the public key algorithm used and
           its implementation. See KEY GENERATION OPTIONS in the genpkey man-
           ual page for more details.

       -key filename
           This specifies the file to read the private key from. It also
           accepts PKCS#8 format private keys for PEM format files.

       -keyform PEM|DER
           the format of the private key file specified in the -key argument.
           PEM is the default.

       -keyout filename
           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.

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

       -[md5|sha1|md2|mdc2]
           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.

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

       -subj arg
           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.

       -multivalue-rdn
           this option causes the -subj argument to be interpreted with full
           support for multivalued RDNs. Example:

           /DC=org/DC=OpenSSL/DC=users/UID=123456+CN=John Doe

           If -multi-rdn is not used then the UID value is 123456+CN=John Doe.

       -x509
           this option outputs a self signed certificate instead of a certifi-
           cate 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 will be used for the serial number.

       -days n
           when the -x509 option is being used this specifies the number of
           days to certify the certificate for. The default is 30 days.

       -set_serial n
           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.

       -extensions section
       -reqexts section
           these options specify alternative sections to include certificate
           extensions (if the -x509 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.

       -utf8
           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 config-
           uration file, must be valid UTF8 strings.

       -nameopt option
           option which determines how the subject or issuer names are dis-
           played. The option argument can be a single option or multiple
           options separated by commas.  Alternatively the -nameopt switch may
           be used more than once to set multiple options. See the
           openssl_x509(1) manual page for details.

       -asn1-kludge
           by default the req 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 Attributes in a PKCS#10 certificate request are
           defined as a SET OF Attribute. They are not OPTIONAL so if no
           attributes are present then they should be encoded as an empty SET
           OF. The invalid form does not include the empty SET OF whereas the
           correct form does.

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

       -newhdr
           Adds the word NEW to the PEM file header and footer lines on the
           outputed request. Some software (Netscape certificate server) and
           some CAs need this.

       -batch
           non-interactive mode.

       -verbose
           print extra details about the operations being performed.

       -engine id
           specifying an engine (by it's unique id string) will cause req 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.

CONFIGURATION FILE FORMAT
       The configuration options are specified in the req section of the con-
       figuration file. As with all configuration files if no value is speci-
       fied in the specific section (i.e. req) then the initial unnamed or
       default section is searched too.

       The options available are described in detail below.

       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.

       default_bits
           This specifies the default key size in bits. If not specified then
           512 is used. It is used if the -new option is used. It can be over-
           ridden by using the -newkey option.

       default_keyfile
           This is the default filename to write a private key to. If not
           specified the key is written to standard output. This can be over-
           ridden by the -keyout option.

       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 white space then the short name fol-
           lowed by white space 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.

       RANDFILE
           This specifies a filename in which random number seed information
           is placed and read from, or an EGD socket (see RAND_egd(3)).  It is
           used for private key generation.

       encrypt_key
           If this is set to no then if a private key is generated it is not
           encrypted. This is equivalent to the -nodes command line option.
           For compatibility encrypt_rsa_key is an equivalent option.

       default_md
           This option specifies the digest algorithm to use. Possible values
           include md5 sha1 mdc2. If not present then MD5 is used. This option
           can be overridden on the command line.

       string_mask
           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 default which is also the default
           option uses PrintableStrings, T61Strings and BMPStrings if the pkix
           value is used then only PrintableStrings and BMPStrings will be
           used. This follows the PKIX recommendation in RFC2459. If the
           utf8only option is used then only UTF8Strings will be used: this is
           the PKIX recommendation in RFC2459 after 2003. Finally the nombstr
           option just uses PrintableStrings and T61Strings: certain software
           has problems with BMPStrings and UTF8Strings: in particular
           Netscape.

       req_extensions
           this specifies the configuration file section containing a list of
           extensions to add to the certificate request. It can be overridden
           by the -reqexts command line switch. See the x509v3_config(5) man-
           ual page for details of the extension section format.

       x509_extensions
           this specifies the configuration file section containing a list of
           extensions to add to certificate generated when the -x509 switch is
           used. It can be overridden by the -extensions command line switch.

       prompt
           if set to the value no this 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.

       utf8
           if set to the value yes 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.

       attributes
           this specifies the section containing any request attributes: its
           format is the same as distinguished_name. Typically these may con-
           tain the challengePassword or unstructuredName types. They are cur-
           rently ignored by OpenSSL's request signing utilities but some CAs
           might want them.

       distinguished_name
           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 prompt option is set to no 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 req. An
       example of this kind of configuration file is contained in the EXAMPLES
       section.

       Alternatively if the prompt option is absent or not set to no then the
       file contains field prompting information. It consists of lines 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 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 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 charac-
       ters 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 recog-
       nize the same name occurring twice. To avoid this problem if the field-
       Name contains some characters followed by a full stop they will be
       ignored. So for example a second organizationName can be input by call-
       ing 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 val-
       ues 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 oid_file or
       oid_section options in the configuration file. Any additional fields
       will be treated as though they were a DirectoryString.

EXAMPLES
       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 oid_file option:

        1.2.3.4        shortName       A longer Name
        1.2.3.6        otherName       Other longer Name

       Example of a section pointed to by oid_section making use of variable
       expansion:

        testoid1=1.2.3.5
        testoid2=${testoid1}.6

       Sample configuration file prompting for field values:

        [ req ]
        default_bits           = 1024
        default_keyfile        = privkey.pem
        distinguished_name     = req_distinguished_name
        attributes             = req_attributes
        x509_extensions        = v3_ca

        dirstring_type = nobmp

        [ req_distinguished_name ]
        countryName                    = Country Name (2 letter code)
        countryName_default            = AU
        countryName_min                = 2
        countryName_max                = 2

        localityName                   = Locality Name (eg, city)

        organizationalUnitName         = Organizational Unit Name (eg, section)

        commonName                     = Common Name (eg, YOUR name)
        commonName_max                 = 64

        emailAddress                   = Email Address
        emailAddress_max               = 40

        [ req_attributes ]
        challengePassword              = A challenge password
        challengePassword_min          = 4
        challengePassword_max          = 20

        [ v3_ca ]

        subjectKeyIdentifier=hash
        authorityKeyIdentifier=keyid:always,issuer:always
        basicConstraints = CA:true

       Sample configuration containing all field values:

        RANDFILE               = $ENV::HOME/.rnd

        [ req ]
        default_bits           = 1024
        default_keyfile        = keyfile.pem
        distinguished_name     = req_distinguished_name
        attributes             = req_attributes
        prompt                 = no
        output_password        = mypass

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

        [ req_attributes ]
        challengePassword              = A challenge password

NOTES
       The header and footer lines in the PEM 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 -newhdr option but is otherwise compatible.
       Either form is accepted transparently on input.

       The certificate requests generated by Xenroll with MSIE have extensions
       added. It includes the keyUsage 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 'distinguished_name' 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 cer-
       tificates 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 SET OF structure (the DER encoding of which
       is 0xa0 0x00). If you just see:

               Attributes:

       then the SET OF is missing and the encoding is technically invalid (but
       it is tolerated). See the description of the command line option
       -asn1-kludge for more information.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       The variable OPENSSL_CONF if defined allows an alternative configura-
       tion file location to be specified, it will be overridden by the -con-
       fig command line switch if it is present. For compatibility reasons the
       SSLEAY_CONF 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 rep-
       resent accented characters in OpenSSL is to use a BMPString: unfortu-
       nately 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 cer-
       tificate requests are statically defined in the configuration file.
       Some of these: like an email address in subjectAltName should be input
       by the user.

SEE ALSO
       openssl_x509(1), openssl_ca(1), openssl_genrsa(1), openssl_gendsa(1),
       openssl.cnf(5), x509v3_config(5)



0.9.9-dev                         2008-05-09                            REQ(1)
