ca-scripts/doc/ca-init.pod

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#! /bin/sh
if [ -z "$1" -o "$1" == "man" ]; then
exec /usr/bin/pod2man -n CA-INIT -s 1 -d "12 February 2010" \
-r "ca-scripts version 0.9" -c "SSL Certificate Authority utilities" $0
elif [ "$1" == "html" ]; then
exec /usr/bin/pod2html --title "ca-init" < $0
elif [ "$1" == "text" ]; then
exec /usr/bin/pod2text -o $0
fi
=pod
=head1 NAME
ca-init - initialise an X.509 SSL CA and generate CA certificate
=head1 SYNOPSIS
B<ca-init> [B<-csx>] [B<-f> I<config>] [B<-i> I<template>] [B<-o> I<output>]
B<ca-init> [B<-h>] | [B<--help>]
=head1 DESCRIPTION
ca-init(1) reads the ca-scripts configuration file and generates an openssl(1)
configuration file and an X.509 certificate and key suitable for use as an
x509(1) certificate authority. The format of the ca-scripts configuration file
is documented in ca-scripts.conf(5).
=head1 OPTIONS
=over
=item B<-h>, B<--help>
Prints out a short synopsis of the options to B<ca-init>.
=item B<-c>, B<--encrypt>
Encrypt the private key generated for the certificate authority with 3DES.
=item B<-f> I<FILE>, B<--config> I<FILE>
Load the ca-scripts configuration from I<FILE> instead of
I</etc/ca-scripts.conf>.
=item B<-i> I<FILE>, B<--template> I<FILE>
Use the index.html template in I<FILE> rather than the standard one provided
with ca-scripts. See the B<TEMPLATING> section of ca-scripts.conf(5) for more
details of the templating system. Hint: it's sed(1) based...
=item B<-o> I<FILE>, B<--output> I<FILE>
Generate a HTML page in I<FILE> suitable for serving your CA certificate and
revocation lists via HTTP. The default template is basic but provides MD5 and
SHA1 fingerprints of both files for verification purposes.
=item B<-s>, B<--crt-only>
Generate the CA certificate and private key from a previously-created openssl
configuration. May only be used after having run B<ca-init> with the
B<--cnf-only> option, and mutually exclusive to that option.
=item B<-x>, B<--cnf-only>
Create initial CA directory structure and openssl configuration, but do not
generate CA certificate and private key. Using this option in conjunction with
B<--crt-only> allows the user to manually customise the openssl config
before generating the certificates. Mutually exclusive to B<--crt-only>.
=back
=head1 THE CA DIRECTORY STRUCTURE
B<ca-init> creates a number of subdirectories under the path specified in
the mandatory configuration variable I<CA_HOME>. This path must exist before
B<ca-init> will run correctly. All files and directories under this path
will be created with a restrictive umask of 0027, and in particular the CA
private key will be created with permissions of 0400.
It is recommended but not required that a non-privileged system "ssl" user and
group are created for running the ca-scripts suite of utilities, and that any
local services needing access to a certificate are added to the "ssl" group.
Access to generate certificates can be bestowed to individuals on a multi-user
system by adding them to the same group and allowing them to run ca-scripts
utilities via sudo(8).
The directories B<ca-init> creates are as follows:
=over
=item I<cnf/>
Contains a cache of openssl configuration files created by the various
ca-scripts utilities from templates.
=item I<crl/>
Contains the certificate revocation list for the CA in both PEM and DER forms.
=item I<crt/>
Contains the signed certificates generated by ca-create-cert(1).
=item I<csr/>
Contains the unsigned certificate signing requests generated by
ca-create-cert(1).
=item I<db/>
Contains internal openssl(1ssl) database files required for certificate
authority management.
=item I<idx/>
Contains signed certificates indexed by serial number to make certificate
revocation simpler.
=item I<key/>
Contains the private keys associated with the certificates in I<crt/>.
=item I<p12/>
Contains any PKCS#12 certificate archives created by ca-create-cert(1).
=back
=head1 BUGS
Probably. Of particular note is that the default openssl configuration file
requires the C (country) and O (organisation) fields of all generated
certificates to match those in the CA certificate, but ca-create-cert(1)
allows these fields to be changed.
=head1 AVAILABILITY
New releases of the ca-scripts utilities can be found at
L<the developer's website|http://www.pl0rt.org/code/ca-scripts>.
A L<git repository|git://git.pl0rt.org/alex/code/ca-scripts>
for development versions also exists.
=head1 AUTHORS
Copyright 2009, 2010 Alex Bramley a.bramley@gmail.com
=head1 SEE ALSO
ca-create-cert(1), ca-scripts.conf(5), openssl(1ssl), ca(1ssl), req(1ssl),
x509(1ssl), config(5ssl), and x509v3_config(5ssl).