Since there are a large number of options they will split up into various sections.

INPUT, OUTPUT AND GENERAL PURPOSE OPTIONS

-inform DER|PEM|NET

This specifies the input format normally the command will expect an X509 certificate but this can change if other options such as -req are present. The DER format is the DER encoding of the certificate and PEM is the base64 encoding of the DER encoding with header and footer lines added. The NET option is an obscure Netscape server format that is now obsolete.

-outform DER|PEM|NET

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 certificate from or standard input if this option is not specified.

-out filename

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

-md2|-md5|-sha1|-mdc2

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 then SHA1 is used. If the key being used to sign with is a DSA key then this option has no effect: SHA1 is always used with DSA keys.

-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.

DISPLAY OPTIONS

-text

prints out the certificate in text form. Full details are output including the public key, signature algorithms, issuer and subject names, serial number any extensions present and any trust settings.

-certopt option

customise the output format used with -text. The option argument can be a single option or multiple options separated by commas. The -certopt switch may be also be used more than once to set multiple options. See the TEXT OPTIONS section for more information.

-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 certificate.

-serial

outputs the certificate serial number.

-subject_hash

outputs 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.

-issuer_hash

outputs the ``hash'' of the certificate issuer name.

-hash

synonym for ``-hash'' for backward compatibility reasons.

-subject

outputs the subject name.

-issuer

outputs the issuer name.

-nameopt option

option which determines how the subject or issuer names are displayed. 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 NAME OPTIONS section for more information.

-email

outputs the email address(es) if any.

-startdate

prints out the start date of the certificate, that is the notBefore date.

-enddate

prints out the expiry date of the certificate, that is the notAfter date.

-dates

prints out the start and expiry dates of a certificate.

-fingerprint

prints out the digest of the DER encoded version of the whole certificate (see digest options).

-C

this outputs the certificate in the form of a C source file.

TRUST SETTINGS

A trusted certificate is an ordinary certificate which has several additional pieces of information attached to it such as the permitted and prohibited uses of the certificate and an ``alias''.

Normally when a certificate is being verified at least one certificate must be ``trusted''. By default a trusted certificate must be stored locally and must be a root CA: any certificate chain ending in this CA is then usable for any purpose.

Trust settings currently are only used with a root CA. They allow a finer control over the purposes the root CA can be used for. For example a CA may be trusted for SSL client but not SSL server use.

See the description of the verify utility for more information on the meaning of trust settings.

Future versions of OpenSSL will recognize trust settings on any certificate: not just root CAs.

-trustout

this causes x509 to output a trusted certificate. An ordinary or trusted certificate can be input but by default an ordinary certificate is output and any trust settings are discarded. With the -trustout option a trusted certificate is output. A trusted certificate is automatically output if any trust settings are modified.

-setalias arg

sets the alias of the certificate. This will allow the certificate to be referred to using a nickname for example ``Steve's Certificate''.

-alias

outputs the certificate alias, if any.

-clrtrust

clears all the permitted or trusted uses of the certificate.

-clrreject

clears all the prohibited or rejected uses of the certificate.

-addtrust arg

adds 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. Other OpenSSL applications may define additional uses.

-addreject arg

adds a prohibited use. It accepts the same values as the -addtrust option.

-purpose

this option performs tests on the certificate extensions and outputs the results. For a more complete description see the CERTIFICATEEXTENSIONS section.

SIGNING OPTIONS

-signkey filename

this option causes the input file to be self signed 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 then a self signed certificate is created using the supplied private key using the subject name in the request.

-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.

-keyform PEM|DER

specifies the format (DER or PEM) of the private key file used in the -signkey option.

-days arg

specifies the number of days to make a certificate valid for. The default is 30 days.

-x509toreq

converts a certificate into a certificate request. The -signkey option is used to pass the required private key.

-req

by default a certificate is expected on input. With this option a certificate request is expected instead.

-set_serial n

specifies 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.

-CA filename

specifies 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 this 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 CAs 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.

-CAkey filename

sets the CA private key to sign a certificate with. If this option is not specified then it is assumed that the CA private key is present in the CA certificate file.

-CAserial filename

sets the CA serial number file to use.

When the -CA option is used to sign a certificate it uses a serial number specified in a file. This file 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''.

-CAcreateserial

with this option the CA serial number file is created if it does not exist: it will contain the serial number ``02'' and the certificate being signed will have the 1 as its serial number. Normally if the -CA option is specified and the serial number file does not exist it is an error.

-extfile filename

file containing certificate extensions to use. If not specified then no extensions are added to the certificate.

-extensions section

the section to add certificate extensions from. If this option is not specified then 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.

NAME OPTIONS

compat

use the old format. This is equivalent to specifying no name options at all.

RFC2253

displays names compatible with RFC2253 equivalent to esc_2253, esc_ctrl, esc_msb, utf8, dump_nostr, dump_unknown, dump_der, sep_comma_plus, dn_rev and sname.

oneline

a oneline format which is more readable than RFC2253. It is equivalent to specifying the esc_2253, esc_ctrl, esc_msb, utf8, dump_nostr, dump_der, use_quote, sep_comma_plus_spc, spc_eq and sname options.

multiline

a multiline format. It is equivalent esc_ctrl, esc_msb, sep_multiline, spc_eq, lname and align.

esc_2253

escape the ``special'' characters required by RFC2253 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 RFC2253 \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.

use_quote

escapes 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. This is required by RFC2253. If you are lucky enough to have a UTF8 compatible terminal then the use of this option (and not setting esc_msb) may result in the correct display of multibyte (international) characters. Is this option is not present then multibyte characters larger than 0xff will be represented using the format \UXXXX for 16 bits and \WXXXXXXXX for 32 bits. Also if this option is off any UTF8Strings will be converted to their character form first.

no_type

this option does not attempt to interpret multibyte characters in any way. That is their content octets are merely dumped as though one octet represents each character. This is useful for diagnostic purposes but will result in rather odd looking output.

show_type

show the type of the ASN1 character string. The type precedes the field contents. For example ``BMPSTRING: Hello World''.

dump_der

when this option is set any fields that need to be hexdumped will be dumped using the DER encoding of the field. Otherwise just the content octets will be displayed. Both options use the RFC2253 #XXXX... format.

dump_nostr

dump non character string types (for example OCTET STRING) if this option is not set then non character string types will be displayed as though each content octet represents a single character.

dump_all

dump all fields. This option when used with dump_der allows the DER encoding of the structure to be unambiguously determined.

dump_unknown

dump any field whose OID is not recognised by OpenSSL.

sep_comma_plus, sep_comma_plus_space, sep_semi_plus_space, sep_multiline

these options 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. The sep_multiline uses a linefeed character for the RDN separator and a spaced + for the AVA separator. It also indents the fields by four characters.

dn_rev

reverse the fields of the DN. This is required by RFC2253. As a side effect this also reverses the order of multiple AVAs but this is permissible.

nofname, sname, lname, oid

these options 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.

align

align field values for a more readable output. Only usable with sep_multiline.

spc_eq

places spaces round the = character which follows the field name.

TEXT OPTIONS

compatible

use the old format. This is equivalent to specifying no output options at all.

no_header

don't print header information: that is the lines saying ``Certificate'' and ``Data''.

no_version

don't print out the version number.

no_serial

don't print out the serial number.

no_signame

don't print out the signature algorithm used.

no_validity

don't print the validity, that is the notBefore and notAfter fields.

no_subject

don't print out the subject name.

no_issuer

don't print out the issuer name.

no_pubkey

don't print out the public key.

no_sigdump

don't give a hexadecimal dump of the certificate signature.

no_aux

don't print out certificate trust information.

no_extensions

don't print out any X509V3 extensions.

ext_default

retain default extension behaviour: attempt to print out unsupported certificate extensions.

ext_error

print an error message for unsupported certificate extensions.

ext_parse

ASN1 parse unsupported extensions.

ext_dump

hex dump unsupported extensions.

ca_default

the value used by the ca utility, equivalent to no_issuer, no_pubkey, no_header, no_version, no_sigdump and no_signame.

Display the contents of a certificate:

 openssl x509 -in cert.pem -noout -text

Display the certificate serial number:

 openssl x509 -in cert.pem -noout -serial

Display the certificate subject name:

 openssl x509 -in cert.pem -noout -subject

Display the certificate subject name in RFC2253 form:

 openssl x509 -in cert.pem -noout -subject -nameopt RFC2253

Display the certificate subject name in oneline form on a terminal supporting UTF8:

 openssl x509 -in cert.pem -noout -subject -nameopt oneline,-escmsb

Display the certificate MD5 fingerprint:

 openssl x509 -in cert.pem -noout -fingerprint

Display the certificate SHA1 fingerprint:

 openssl x509 -sha1 -in cert.pem -noout -fingerprint

Convert a certificate from PEM to DER format:

 openssl x509 -in cert.pem -inform PEM -out cert.der -outform DER

Convert a certificate to a certificate request:

 openssl x509 -x509toreq -in cert.pem -out req.pem -signkey key.pem

Convert a certificate request into a self signed certificate using extensions for a CA:

 openssl x509 -req -in careq.pem -extfile openssl.cnf -extensions v3_ca \
        -signkey key.pem -out cacert.pem

Sign a certificate request using the CA certificate above and add user certificate extensions:

 openssl x509 -req -in req.pem -extfile openssl.cnf -extensions v3_usr \
        -CA cacert.pem -CAkey key.pem -CAcreateserial

Set a certificate to be trusted for SSL client use and change set its alias to ``Steve's Class 1 CA''

 openssl x509 -in cert.pem -addtrust clientAuth \
        -setalias "Steve's Class 1 CA" -out trust.pem

 -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
 -----END CERTIFICATE-----

it will also handle files containing:

 -----BEGIN X509 CERTIFICATE-----
 -----END X509 CERTIFICATE-----

Trusted certificates have the lines

 -----BEGIN TRUSTED CERTIFICATE-----
 -----END TRUSTED CERTIFICATE-----

The conversion to UTF8 format used with the name options assumes that T61Strings use the ISO8859-1 character set. This is wrong but Netscape and MSIE do this as do many certificates. So although this is incorrect it is more likely to display the majority of certificates correctly.

The -fingerprint option takes the digest of the DER encoded certificate. This is commonly called a ``fingerprint''. Because of the nature of message digests the fingerprint of a certificate is unique to that certificate and two certificates with the same fingerprint can be considered to be the same.

The Netscape fingerprint uses MD5 whereas MSIE uses SHA1.

The -email option searches the subject name and the subject alternative name extension. Only unique email addresses will be printed out: it will not print the same address more than once.

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 then it is a CA, if the CA flag is false then 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. 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. Netscape certificate type must be absent or it must have the SSL CA bit set: this is used as a work around 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, the keyEncipherment set or both bits set. 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. Netscape certificate type must be absent or the SSL CA bit must be set: this is used as a work around 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. 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. Netscape certificate type must be absent or must have the S/MIME CA bit set: this is used as a work around 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 in this case the basicConstraints extension must be present.

It is possible to produce invalid certificates or requests by specifying the wrong private key or using inconsistent options in some cases: these should be checked.

There should be options to explicitly set such things as start and end dates rather than an offset from the current time.

The code to implement the verify behaviour described in the TRUST SETTINGS is currently being developed. It thus describes the intended behaviour rather than the current behaviour. It is hoped that it will represent reality in OpenSSL 0.9.5 and later.