PKI --GEN(1)                      strongSwan                      PKI --GEN(1)

NAME
       pki --gen - Generate a new RSA or ECDSA private key

SYNOPSIS
       pki --gen [--type type] [--size bits] [--safe-primes] [--shares n]
                 [--threshold l] [--outform encoding] [--debug level]

       pki --gen --options file

       pki --gen -h | --help

DESCRIPTION
       This sub-command of pki(1) is used to generate a new RSA or ECDSA
       private key.

OPTIONS
       -h, --help
              Print usage information with a summary of the available options.

       -v, --debug level
              Set debug level, default: 1.

       -+, --options file
              Read command line options from file.

       -t, --type type
              Type of key to generate. Either rsa, ecdsa, ed25519, ed448 or
              bliss, defaults to rsa.

       -s, --size bits
              Key length in bits. Defaults to 2048 for rsa and 384 for ecdsa.
              For ecdsa only three values are currently supported: 256, 384
              and 521.

       -p, --safe-primes
              Generate RSA safe primes.

       -f, --outform encoding
              Encoding of the generated private key. Either der (ASN.1 DER) or
              pem (Base64 PEM), defaults to der.

   RSA Threshold Cryptography
       -n, --shares <n>
              Number of private RSA key shares.

       -l, --threshold <l>
              Minimum number of participating RSA key shares.

PROBLEMS ON HOSTS WITH LOW ENTROPY
       If the gmp plugin is used to generate RSA private keys the key material
       is read from /dev/random (via the random plugin). Therefore, the
       command may block if the system's entropy pool is empty.  To avoid
       this, either use a hardware random number generator to feed /dev/random
       or use OpenSSL (via the openssl plugin or the command line) which is
       not as strict in regards to the quality of the key material (it reads
       from /dev/urandom if necessary). It is also possible to configure the
       devices used by the random plugin in strongswan.conf(5).  Setting
       libstrongswan.plugins.random.random to /dev/urandom forces the plugin
       to treat bytes read from /dev/urandom as high grade random data, thus
       avoiding the blocking. Of course, this doesn't change the fact that the
       key material generated this way is of lower quality.

EXAMPLES
       pki --gen --size 3072 > rsa_key.der
              Generates a 3072-bit RSA private key.

       pki --gen --type ecdsa --size 256 > ecdsa_key.der
              Generates a 256-bit ECDSA private key.

SEE ALSO
       pki(1)

5.9.13                            2016-12-13                      PKI --GEN(1)