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 -pass arg, -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 outputed private keys with. For
45 more information about the format of arg see the PASS PHRASE
46 ARGUMENTS section in openssl(1).
47 -noout
49 this option inhibits output of the keys and certificates to the
50 output file version of the PKCS#12 file.
51 -clcerts
53 only output client certificates (not CA certificates).
54 -cacerts
56 only output CA certificates (not client certificates).
57 -nocerts
59 no certificates at all will be output.
60 -nokeys
62 no private keys will be output.
63 -info
65 output additional information about the PKCS#12 file structure,
66 algorithms used and iteration counts.
67 -des
69 use DES to encrypt private keys before outputting.
70 -des3
72 use triple DES to encrypt private keys before outputting, this is
73 the default.
74 -idea
76 use IDEA to encrypt private keys before outputting.
77 -aes128, -aes192, -aes256
79 use AES to encrypt private keys before outputting.
80 -camellia128, -camellia192, -camellia256
82 use Camellia to encrypt private keys before outputting.
83 -nodes
85 don't encrypt the private keys at all.
86 -nomacver
88 don't attempt to verify the integrity MAC before reading the file.
89 -twopass
91 prompt for separate integrity and encryption passwords: most
92 software always assumes these are the same so this option will
93 render such PKCS#12 files unreadable.
94
96 -export
97 This option specifies that a PKCS#12 file will be created rather
98 than parsed.
99 -out filename
101 This specifies filename to write the PKCS#12 file to. Standard
102 output is used by default.
103 -in filename
105 The filename to read certificates and private keys from, standard
106 input by default. They must all be in PEM format. The order
107 doesn't matter but one private key and its corresponding
108 certificate should be present. If additional certificates are
109 present they will also be included in the PKCS#12 file.
110 -inkey filename
112 file to read private key from. If not present then a private key
113 must be present in the input file.
114 -name friendlyname
116 This specifies the "friendly name" for the certificate and private
117 key. This name is typically displayed in list boxes by software
118 importing the file.
119 -certfile filename
121 A filename to read additional certificates from.
122 -caname friendlyname
124 This specifies the "friendly name" for other certificates. This
125 option may be used multiple times to specify names for all
126 certificates in the order they appear. Netscape ignores friendly
127 names on other certificates whereas MSIE displays them.
128 -pass arg, -passout arg
130 the PKCS#12 file (i.e. output file) password source. For more
131 information about the format of arg see the PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS
132 section in openssl(1).
133 -passin password
135 pass phrase source to decrypt any input private keys with. For more
136 information about the format of arg see the PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS
137 section in openssl(1).
138 -chain
140 if this option is present then an attempt is made to include the
141 entire certificate chain of the user certificate. The standard CA
142 store is used for this search. If the search fails it is considered
143 a fatal error.
144 -descert
146 encrypt the certificate using triple DES, this may render the
147 PKCS#12 file unreadable by some "export grade" software. By default
148 the private key is encrypted using triple DES and the certificate
149 using 40 bit RC2.
150 -keypbe alg, -certpbe alg
152 these options allow the algorithm used to encrypt the private key
153 and certificates to be selected. Any PKCS#5 v1.5 or PKCS#12 PBE
154 algorithm name can be used (see NOTES section for more
155 information). If a a cipher name (as output by the list-cipher-
156 algorithms command is specified then it is used with PKCS#5 v2.0.
157 For interoperability reasons it is advisable to only use PKCS#12
158 algorithms.
159 -keyex|-keysig
161 specifies that the private key is to be used for key exchange or
162 just signing. This option is only interpreted by MSIE and similar
163 MS software. Normally "export grade" software will only allow 512
164 bit RSA keys to be used for encryption purposes but arbitrary
165 length keys for signing. The -keysig option marks the key for
166 signing only. Signing only keys can be used for S/MIME signing,
167 authenticode (ActiveX control signing) and SSL client
168 authentication, however due to a bug only MSIE 5.0 and later
169 support the use of signing only keys for SSL client authentication.
170 -macalg digest
172 specify the MAC digest algorithm. If not included them SHA1 will be
173 used.
174 -nomaciter, -noiter
176 these options affect the iteration counts on the MAC and key
177 algorithms. Unless you wish to produce files compatible with MSIE
178 4.0 you should leave these options alone.
179 To discourage attacks by using large dictionaries of common
181 passwords the algorithm that derives keys from passwords can have
182 an iteration count applied to it: this causes a certain part of the
183 algorithm to be repeated and slows it down. The MAC is used to
184 check the file integrity but since it will normally have the same
185 password as the keys and certificates it could also be attacked.
186 By default both MAC and encryption iteration counts are set to
187 2048, using these options the MAC and encryption iteration counts
188 can be set to 1, since this reduces the file security you should
189 not use these options unless you really have to. Most software
190 supports both MAC and key iteration counts. MSIE 4.0 doesn't
191 support MAC iteration counts so it needs the -nomaciter option.
192 -maciter
194 This option is included for compatibility with previous versions,
195 it used to be needed to use MAC iterations counts but they are now
196 used by default.
197 -nomac
199 don't attempt to provide the MAC integrity.
200 -rand file(s)
202 a file or files containing random data used to seed the random
203 number generator, or an EGD socket (see RAND_egd(3)). Multiple
204 files can be specified separated by a OS-dependent character. The
205 separator is ; for MS-Windows, , for OpenVMS, and : for all others.
206 -CAfile file
208 CA storage as a file.
209 -CApath dir
211 CA storage as a directory. This directory must be a standard
212 certificate directory: that is a hash of each subject name (using
213 x509 -hash) should be linked to each certificate.
214 -CSP name
216 write name as a Microsoft CSP name.
217
219 Although there are a large number of options most of them are very
220 rarely used. For PKCS#12 file parsing only -in and -out need to be used
221 for PKCS#12 file creation -export and -name are also used.
222 If none of the -clcerts, -cacerts or -nocerts options are present then
224 all certificates will be output in the order they appear in the input
225 PKCS#12 files. There is no guarantee that the first certificate present
226 is the one corresponding to the private key. Certain software which
227 requires a private key and certificate and assumes the first
228 certificate in the file is the one corresponding to the private key:
229 this may not always be the case. Using the -clcerts option will solve
230 this problem by only outputting the certificate corresponding to the
231 private key. If the CA certificates are required then they can be
232 output to a separate file using the -nokeys -cacerts options to just
233 output CA certificates.
234 The -keypbe and -certpbe algorithms allow the precise encryption
236 algorithms for private keys and certificates to be specified. Normally
237 the defaults are fine but occasionally software can't handle triple DES
238 encrypted private keys, then the option -keypbe PBE-SHA1-RC2-40 can be
239 used to reduce the private key encryption to 40 bit RC2. A complete
240 description of all algorithms is contained in the pkcs8 manual page.
241
243 Parse a PKCS#12 file and output it to a file:
244 openssl pkcs12 -in file.p12 -out file.pem
246 Output only client certificates to a file:
248 openssl pkcs12 -in file.p12 -clcerts -out file.pem
250 Don't encrypt the private key:
252 openssl pkcs12 -in file.p12 -out file.pem -nodes
254 Print some info about a PKCS#12 file:
256 openssl pkcs12 -in file.p12 -info -noout
258 Create a PKCS#12 file:
260 openssl pkcs12 -export -in file.pem -out file.p12 -name "My Certificate"
262 Include some extra certificates:
264 openssl pkcs12 -export -in file.pem -out file.p12 -name "My Certificate" \
266 -certfile othercerts.pem
267
269 Some would argue that the PKCS#12 standard is one big bug :-)
270 Versions of OpenSSL before 0.9.6a had a bug in the PKCS#12 key
272 generation routines. Under rare circumstances this could produce a
273 PKCS#12 file encrypted with an invalid key. As a result some PKCS#12
274 files which triggered this bug from other implementations (MSIE or
275 Netscape) could not be decrypted by OpenSSL and similarly OpenSSL could
276 produce PKCS#12 files which could not be decrypted by other
277 implementations. The chances of producing such a file are relatively
278 small: less than 1 in 256.
279 A side effect of fixing this bug is that any old invalidly encrypted
281 PKCS#12 files cannot no longer be parsed by the fixed version. Under
282 such circumstances the pkcs12 utility will report that the MAC is OK
283 but fail with a decryption error when extracting private keys.
284 This problem can be resolved by extracting the private keys and
286 certificates from the PKCS#12 file using an older version of OpenSSL
287 and recreating the PKCS#12 file from the keys and certificates using a
288 newer version of OpenSSL. For example:
289 old-openssl -in bad.p12 -out keycerts.pem
291 openssl -in keycerts.pem -export -name "My PKCS#12 file" -out fixed.p12
292
294 pkcs8(1)
2951.0.0e 2006-12-21 PKCS12(1)