OpenSSL as a CA without touching the certs/crl/index/etc environment
I think I have the right OpenSSL command to sign a certificate but I've gotten stuck and the tutorials I've found use a different argument format (I'm using OpenSSL 0.9.8o 01 Jun 2010).
openssl ca -cert cert.pem -keyfile key.pem
(Private key is not encryped and CSR is on stdin.)
It gives this error
Using configuration from /usr/lib/ssl/openssl.cnf
./demoCA/index.txt: No such file or directory
unable to open './demoCA/index.txt'
Looking at that configuration file:
[ ca ]
default_ca = CA_default # The default ca section
[ CA_default ]
dir = ./demoCA # Where everything is kept
certs = $dir/certs # Where the issued certs are kepp
crl_dir = $dir/crl # Where the issued crl are kept
database = $dir/index.txt # database index file.
I don't have any of this set up. I don't want to set any of this up.
Is it strictly nessecary, or is there a "don't bother" option?
I tried creating empty directories and files but I've got in a tangle. What I really want is for a command like the above to work, with the output on stdout, without touching anything on the filesystem.
I don't know of any "don't bother" options, but here is how you can setup a quick demo CA:
#!/bin/bash
CAROOT=/path/to/ca
mkdir -p ${CAROOT}/ca.db.certs # Signed certificates storage
touch ${CAROOT}/ca.db.index # Index of signed certificates
echo 01 > ${CAROOT}/ca.db.serial # Next (sequential) serial number
# Configuration
cat>${CAROOT}/ca.conf<<'EOF'
[ ca ]
default_ca = ca_default
[ ca_default ]
dir = REPLACE_LATER
certs = $dir
new_certs_dir = $dir/ca.db.certs
database = $dir/ca.db.index
serial = $dir/ca.db.serial
RANDFILE = $dir/ca.db.rand
certificate = $dir/ca.crt
private_key = $dir/ca.key
default_days = 365
default_crl_days = 30
default_md = md5
preserve = no
policy = generic_policy
[ generic_policy ]
countryName = optional
stateOrProvinceName = optional
localityName = optional
organizationName = optional
organizationalUnitName = optional
commonName = supplied
emailAddress = optional
EOF
sed -i "s|REPLACE_LATER|${CAROOT}|" ${CAROOT}/ca.conf
cd ${CAROOT}
# Generate CA private key
openssl genrsa -out ca.key 1024
# Create Certificate Signing Request
openssl req -new -key ca.key
-out ca.csr
# Create self-signed certificate
openssl x509 -req -days 10000
-in ca.csr
-out ca.crt
-signkey ca.key
Now you can generate and sign keys:
# Create private/public key pair
openssl genrsa -out server.key 1024
# Create Certificate Signing Request
openssl req -new -key server.key
-out server.csr
# Sign key
openssl ca -config ${CAROOT}/ca.conf
-in server.csr
-cert ${CAROOT}/ca.crt
-keyfile ${CAROOT}/ca.key
-out server.crt
Rather than using the ca option try the x509 option with -req. You would add -CAfile to point to your authority. This will sign your certificate without adding entries to the index. There is more about using x509 as "mini CA" here.
http://www.openssl.org/docs/apps/x509.html#SIGNING_OPTIONS
Based on snow6oy's answer, here's what I did:
openssl x509 -req -CA CACert.pem -CAkey CAKey.pem -CAcreateserial -in YourCSR.csr -out YourCert.pem
A couple optional flags that may be useful:
-days 1095
(The default is 30 days)
-sha256
(RHEL 7 defaults to SHA-1)