1PKCS12(1) OpenSSL PKCS12(1)
2
6 pkcs12 - PKCS#12 file utility
7
9 openssl pkcs12 [-export] [-chain] [-inkey filename] [-certfile
10 filename] [-name name] [-caname name] [-in filename] [-out filename]
11 [-noout] [-nomacver] [-nocerts] [-clcerts] [-cacerts] [-nokeys] [-info]
12 [-des | -des3 | -idea | -aes128 | -aes192 | -aes256 | -camellia128 |
13 -camellia192 | -camellia256 | -nodes] [-noiter] [-maciter | -nomaciter
14 | -nomac] [-twopass] [-descert] [-certpbe cipher] [-keypbe cipher]
15 [-macalg digest] [-keyex] [-keysig] [-password arg] [-passin arg]
16 [-passout arg] [-rand file(s)] [-CAfile file] [-CApath dir] [-CSP name]
17
19 The pkcs12 command allows PKCS#12 files (sometimes referred to as PFX
20 files) to be created and parsed. PKCS#12 files are used by several
21 programs including Netscape, MSIE and MS Outlook.
22
24 There are a lot of options the meaning of some depends of whether a
25 PKCS#12 file is being created or parsed. By default a PKCS#12 file is
26 parsed. A PKCS#12 file can be created by using the -export option (see
27 below).
28
30 -in filename
31 This specifies filename of the PKCS#12 file to be parsed. Standard
32 input is used by default.
33 -out filename
35 The filename to write certificates and private keys to, standard
36 output by default. They are all written in PEM format.
37 -passin arg
39 the PKCS#12 file (i.e. input file) password source. For more
40 information about the format of arg see the PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS
41 section in openssl(1).
42 -passout arg
44 pass phrase source to encrypt any outputted private keys with. For
45 more information about the format of arg see the PASS PHRASE
46 ARGUMENTS section in openssl(1).
47 -password arg
49 With -export, -password is equivalent to -passout. Otherwise,
50 -password is equivalent to -passin.
51 -noout
53 this option inhibits output of the keys and certificates to the
54 output file version of the PKCS#12 file.
55 -clcerts
57 only output client certificates (not CA certificates).
58 -cacerts
60 only output CA certificates (not client certificates).
61 -nocerts
63 no certificates at all will be output.
64 -nokeys
66 no private keys will be output.
67 -info
69 output additional information about the PKCS#12 file structure,
70 algorithms used and iteration counts.
71 -des
73 use DES to encrypt private keys before outputting.
74 -des3
76 use triple DES to encrypt private keys before outputting, this is
77 the default.
78 -idea
80 use IDEA to encrypt private keys before outputting.
81 -aes128, -aes192, -aes256
83 use AES to encrypt private keys before outputting.
84 -camellia128, -camellia192, -camellia256
86 use Camellia to encrypt private keys before outputting.
87 -nodes
89 don't encrypt the private keys at all.
90 -nomacver
92 don't attempt to verify the integrity MAC before reading the file.
93 -twopass
95 prompt for separate integrity and encryption passwords: most
96 software always assumes these are the same so this option will
97 render such PKCS#12 files unreadable.
98
100 -export
101 This option specifies that a PKCS#12 file will be created rather
102 than parsed.
103 -out filename
105 This specifies filename to write the PKCS#12 file to. Standard
106 output is used by default.
107 -in filename
109 The filename to read certificates and private keys from, standard
110 input by default. They must all be in PEM format. The order
111 doesn't matter but one private key and its corresponding
112 certificate should be present. If additional certificates are
113 present they will also be included in the PKCS#12 file.
114 -inkey filename
116 file to read private key from. If not present then a private key
117 must be present in the input file.
118 -name friendlyname
120 This specifies the "friendly name" for the certificate and private
121 key. This name is typically displayed in list boxes by software
122 importing the file.
123 -certfile filename
125 A filename to read additional certificates from.
126 -caname friendlyname
128 This specifies the "friendly name" for other certificates. This
129 option may be used multiple times to specify names for all
130 certificates in the order they appear. Netscape ignores friendly
131 names on other certificates whereas MSIE displays them.
132 -pass arg, -passout arg
134 the PKCS#12 file (i.e. output file) password source. For more
135 information about the format of arg see the PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS
136 section in openssl(1).
137 -passin password
139 pass phrase source to decrypt any input private keys with. For more
140 information about the format of arg see the PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS
141 section in openssl(1).
142 -chain
144 if this option is present then an attempt is made to include the
145 entire certificate chain of the user certificate. The standard CA
146 store is used for this search. If the search fails it is considered
147 a fatal error.
148 -descert
150 encrypt the certificate using triple DES, this may render the
151 PKCS#12 file unreadable by some "export grade" software. By default
152 the private key is encrypted using triple DES and the certificate
153 using 40 bit RC2.
154 -keypbe alg, -certpbe alg
156 these options allow the algorithm used to encrypt the private key
157 and certificates to be selected. Any PKCS#5 v1.5 or PKCS#12 PBE
158 algorithm name can be used (see NOTES section for more
159 information). If a cipher name (as output by the list-cipher-
160 algorithms command is specified then it is used with PKCS#5 v2.0.
161 For interoperability reasons it is advisable to only use PKCS#12
162 algorithms.
163 -keyex|-keysig
165 specifies that the private key is to be used for key exchange or
166 just signing. This option is only interpreted by MSIE and similar
167 MS software. Normally "export grade" software will only allow 512
168 bit RSA keys to be used for encryption purposes but arbitrary
169 length keys for signing. The -keysig option marks the key for
170 signing only. Signing only keys can be used for S/MIME signing,
171 authenticode (ActiveX control signing) and SSL client
172 authentication, however due to a bug only MSIE 5.0 and later
173 support the use of signing only keys for SSL client authentication.
174 -macalg digest
176 specify the MAC digest algorithm. If not included them SHA1 will be
177 used.
178 -nomaciter, -noiter
180 these options affect the iteration counts on the MAC and key
181 algorithms. Unless you wish to produce files compatible with MSIE
182 4.0 you should leave these options alone.
183 To discourage attacks by using large dictionaries of common
185 passwords the algorithm that derives keys from passwords can have
186 an iteration count applied to it: this causes a certain part of the
187 algorithm to be repeated and slows it down. The MAC is used to
188 check the file integrity but since it will normally have the same
189 password as the keys and certificates it could also be attacked.
190 By default both MAC and encryption iteration counts are set to
191 2048, using these options the MAC and encryption iteration counts
192 can be set to 1, since this reduces the file security you should
193 not use these options unless you really have to. Most software
194 supports both MAC and key iteration counts. MSIE 4.0 doesn't
195 support MAC iteration counts so it needs the -nomaciter option.
196 -maciter
198 This option is included for compatibility with previous versions,
199 it used to be needed to use MAC iterations counts but they are now
200 used by default.
201 -nomac
203 don't attempt to provide the MAC integrity.
204 -rand file(s)
206 a file or files containing random data used to seed the random
207 number generator, or an EGD socket (see RAND_egd(3)). Multiple
208 files can be specified separated by a OS-dependent character. The
209 separator is ; for MS-Windows, , for OpenVMS, and : for all others.
210 -CAfile file
212 CA storage as a file.
213 -CApath dir
215 CA storage as a directory. This directory must be a standard
216 certificate directory: that is a hash of each subject name (using
217 x509 -hash) should be linked to each certificate.
218 -CSP name
220 write name as a Microsoft CSP name.
221
223 Although there are a large number of options most of them are very
224 rarely used. For PKCS#12 file parsing only -in and -out need to be used
225 for PKCS#12 file creation -export and -name are also used.
226 If none of the -clcerts, -cacerts or -nocerts options are present then
228 all certificates will be output in the order they appear in the input
229 PKCS#12 files. There is no guarantee that the first certificate present
230 is the one corresponding to the private key. Certain software which
231 requires a private key and certificate and assumes the first
232 certificate in the file is the one corresponding to the private key:
233 this may not always be the case. Using the -clcerts option will solve
234 this problem by only outputting the certificate corresponding to the
235 private key. If the CA certificates are required then they can be
236 output to a separate file using the -nokeys -cacerts options to just
237 output CA certificates.
238 The -keypbe and -certpbe algorithms allow the precise encryption
240 algorithms for private keys and certificates to be specified. Normally
241 the defaults are fine but occasionally software can't handle triple DES
242 encrypted private keys, then the option -keypbe PBE-SHA1-RC2-40 can be
243 used to reduce the private key encryption to 40 bit RC2. A complete
244 description of all algorithms is contained in the pkcs8 manual page.
245
247 Parse a PKCS#12 file and output it to a file:
248 openssl pkcs12 -in file.p12 -out file.pem
250 Output only client certificates to a file:
252 openssl pkcs12 -in file.p12 -clcerts -out file.pem
254 Don't encrypt the private key:
256 openssl pkcs12 -in file.p12 -out file.pem -nodes
258 Print some info about a PKCS#12 file:
260 openssl pkcs12 -in file.p12 -info -noout
262 Create a PKCS#12 file:
264 openssl pkcs12 -export -in file.pem -out file.p12 -name "My Certificate"
266 Include some extra certificates:
268 openssl pkcs12 -export -in file.pem -out file.p12 -name "My Certificate" \
270 -certfile othercerts.pem
271
273 Some would argue that the PKCS#12 standard is one big bug :-)
274 Versions of OpenSSL before 0.9.6a had a bug in the PKCS#12 key
276 generation routines. Under rare circumstances this could produce a
277 PKCS#12 file encrypted with an invalid key. As a result some PKCS#12
278 files which triggered this bug from other implementations (MSIE or
279 Netscape) could not be decrypted by OpenSSL and similarly OpenSSL could
280 produce PKCS#12 files which could not be decrypted by other
281 implementations. The chances of producing such a file are relatively
282 small: less than 1 in 256.
283 A side effect of fixing this bug is that any old invalidly encrypted
285 PKCS#12 files cannot no longer be parsed by the fixed version. Under
286 such circumstances the pkcs12 utility will report that the MAC is OK
287 but fail with a decryption error when extracting private keys.
288 This problem can be resolved by extracting the private keys and
290 certificates from the PKCS#12 file using an older version of OpenSSL
291 and recreating the PKCS#12 file from the keys and certificates using a
292 newer version of OpenSSL. For example:
293 old-openssl -in bad.p12 -out keycerts.pem
295 openssl -in keycerts.pem -export -name "My PKCS#12 file" -out fixed.p12
296
298 pkcs8(1)
2991.0.2k 2017-01-26 PKCS12(1)