PKI(1)                            strongSwan                            PKI(1)

NAME
       pki - Simple public key infrastructure (PKI) management tool

SYNOPSIS
       pki command [option ...]

       pki -h | --help

DESCRIPTION
       pki is a suite of commands that allow you to manage a simple public key
       infrastructure (PKI).

       Generate RSA and ECDSA key pairs, create PKCS#10 certificate requests
       containing subjectAltNames, create X.509 self-signed end-entity and
       root CA certificates, issue end-entity and intermediate CA certificates
       signed by the private key of a CA and containing subjectAltNames, CRL
       distribution points and URIs of OCSP servers. You can also extract raw
       public keys from private keys, certificate requests and certificates
       and compute two kinds of SHA-1-based key IDs.

       The pki command also supports certificate enrollment via the Simple
       Certificate Enrollment Protocol (SCEP) as defined by RFC 8894,
       replacing the obsoleted ipsec scepclient tool. Additionally the
       Enrollment over Secure Transport (EST) protocol (RFC 7030) is
       supported, too.

       The latest feature is an Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP)
       responder as defined by RFC 6960, interoperating with an OpenXPKI
       server by directly accessing its internal certificate datebase.

COMMANDS
       -h, --help
              Prints usage information and a short summary of the available
              commands.

       -g, --gen
              Generate a new private key.

       -s, --self
              Create a self-signed certificate.

       -i, --issue
              Issue a certificate using a CA certificate and key.

       -c, --signcrl
              Issue a CRL using a CA certificate and key.

       -z, --acert
              Issue an attribute certificate.

       -r, --req
              Create a PKCS#10 certificate request.

       -7, --pkcs7
              Provides PKCS#7 wrap/unwrap functions.

       -k, --keyid
              Calculate key identifiers of a key or certificate.

       -a, --print
              Print a credential (key, certificate etc.) in human readable
              form.

       -d, --dn
              Extract the subject DN of an X.509 certificate.

       -p, --pub
              Extract a public key from a private key or certificate.

       -v, --verify
              Verify a certificate using a CA certificate.

       -S, --scep
              Enroll an X.509 certificate with a SCEP server.

       -C, --scepca
              Get CA [and RA] certificate[s] from a SCEP server.

       -E, --est
              Enroll an X.509 certificate with an EST server.

       -e, --estca
              Get CA certificate[s] from an EST server.

       -o, --ocsp
              OCSP request parser and OCSP responder.

EXAMPLES
   Generating a CA Certificate
       The first step is to generate a private key using the --gen command. By
       default this generates a 2048-bit RSA key.

         pki --gen > ca_key.der

       This key is used to create the self-signed CA certificate, using the
       --self command. The distinguished name should be adjusted to your
       needs.

         pki --self --ca --in ca_key.der \
             --dn "C=CH, O=strongSwan, CN=strongSwan CA" > ca_cert.der

   Generating End-Entity Certificates
       With the root CA certificate and key at hand end-entity certificates
       for clients and servers can be issued. Similarly intermediate CA
       certificates can be issued, which in turn can issue other certificates.
       To generate a certificate for a server, we start by generating a
       private key.

         pki --gen > server_key.der

       The public key will be included in the certificate so lets extract that
       from the private key.

         pki --pub --in server_key.der > server_pub.der

       The following command will use the CA certificate and private key to
       issue the certificate for this server. Adjust the distinguished name,
       subjectAltName(s) and flags as needed (check pki --issue(8) for more
       options).

         pki --issue --in server_pub.der --cacert ca_cert.der \
             --cakey ca_key.der --dn "C=CH, O=strongSwan, CN=VPN Server" \
             --san vpn.strongswan.org --flag serverAuth > server_cert.der

       Instead of storing the public key in a separate file, the output of
       --pub may also be piped directly into the above command.

   Generating Certificate Revocation Lists (CRL)
       If end-entity certificates have to be revoked, CRLs may be generated
       using the --signcrl command.

         pki --signcrl --cacert ca_cert.der --cakey ca_key.der \
             --reason superseded --cert server_cert.der > crl.der

       The certificate given with --cacert must be either a CA certificate or
       a certificate with the crlSign extended key usage (--flag crlSign).
       URIs to CRLs may be included in issued certificates with the --crl
       option.

SEE ALSO
       pki --gen(1), pki --self(1), pki --issue(1), pki --signcrl(1),
       pki --acert(1), pki --req(1), pki --pkcs7(1), pki --keyid(1),
       pki --print(1), pki --dn(1), pki --pub(1), pki --verify(1),
       pki --scep(1) pki --scepca(1) pki --est(1) pki --estca(1) pki --ocsp(1)

5.9.13                            2023-10-20                            PKI(1)