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PROGRAM:

NAME

pkcs12 - PKCS#12 file utility

SYNOPSIS

openssl pkcs12 [-export] [-chain] [-inkey filename] [-certfile filename] [-name name]
[-caname name] [-in filename] [-out filename] [-noout] [-nomacver] [-nocerts] [-clcerts]
[-cacerts] [-nokeys] [-info] [-des | -des3 | -idea | -aes128 | -aes192 | -aes256 |
-camellia128 | -camellia192 | -camellia256 | -nodes] [-noiter] [-maciter | -nomaciter |
-nomac] [-twopass] [-descert] [-certpbe cipher] [-keypbe cipher] [-macalg digest] [-keyex]
[-keysig] [-password arg] [-passin arg] [-passout arg] [-rand file(s)] [-CAfile file]
[-CApath dir] [-CSP name]

DESCRIPTION

The pkcs12 command allows PKCS#12 files (sometimes referred to as PFX files) to be created
and parsed. PKCS#12 files are used by several programs including Netscape, MSIE and MS
Outlook.

COMMAND OPTIONS

There are a lot of options the meaning of some depends of whether a PKCS#12 file is being
created or parsed. By default a PKCS#12 file is parsed. A PKCS#12 file can be created by
using the -export option (see below).

PARSING OPTIONS

-in filename
This specifies filename of the PKCS#12 file to be parsed. Standard input is used by
default.

-out filename
The filename to write certificates and private keys to, standard output by default.
They are all written in PEM format.

-passin arg
the PKCS#12 file (i.e. input file) password source. For more information about the
format of arg see the PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS section in openssl(1).

-passout arg
pass phrase source to encrypt any outputted private keys with. For more information
about the format of arg see the PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS section in openssl(1).

-password arg
With -export, -password is equivalent to -passout. Otherwise, -password is equivalent
to -passin.

-noout
this option inhibits output of the keys and certificates to the output file version of
the PKCS#12 file.

-clcerts
only output client certificates (not CA certificates).

-cacerts
only output CA certificates (not client certificates).

-nocerts
no certificates at all will be output.

-nokeys
no private keys will be output.

-info
output additional information about the PKCS#12 file structure, algorithms used and
iteration counts.

-des
use DES to encrypt private keys before outputting.

-des3
use triple DES to encrypt private keys before outputting, this is the default.

-idea
use IDEA to encrypt private keys before outputting.

-aes128, -aes192, -aes256
use AES to encrypt private keys before outputting.

-camellia128, -camellia192, -camellia256
use Camellia to encrypt private keys before outputting.

-nodes
don't encrypt the private keys at all.

-nomacver
don't attempt to verify the integrity MAC before reading the file.

-twopass
prompt for separate integrity and encryption passwords: most software always assumes
these are the same so this option will render such PKCS#12 files unreadable.

FILE CREATION OPTIONS

-export
This option specifies that a PKCS#12 file will be created rather than parsed.

-out filename
This specifies filename to write the PKCS#12 file to. Standard output is used by
default.

-in filename
The filename to read certificates and private keys from, standard input by default.
They must all be in PEM format. The order doesn't matter but one private key and its
corresponding certificate should be present. If additional certificates are present
they will also be included in the PKCS#12 file.

-inkey filename
file to read private key from. If not present then a private key must be present in
the input file.

-name friendlyname
This specifies the "friendly name" for the certificate and private key. This name is
typically displayed in list boxes by software importing the file.

-certfile filename
A filename to read additional certificates from.

-caname friendlyname
This specifies the "friendly name" for other certificates. This option may be used
multiple times to specify names for all certificates in the order they appear.
Netscape ignores friendly names on other certificates whereas MSIE displays them.

-pass arg, -passout arg
the PKCS#12 file (i.e. output file) password source. For more information about the
format of arg see the PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS section in openssl(1).

-passin password
pass phrase source to decrypt any input private keys with. For more information about
the format of arg see the PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS section in openssl(1).

-chain
if this option is present then an attempt is made to include the entire certificate
chain of the user certificate. The standard CA store is used for this search. If the
search fails it is considered a fatal error.

-descert
encrypt the certificate using triple DES, this may render the PKCS#12 file unreadable
by some "export grade" software. By default the private key is encrypted using triple
DES and the certificate using 40 bit RC2.

-keypbe alg, -certpbe alg
these options allow the algorithm used to encrypt the private key and certificates to
be selected. Any PKCS#5 v1.5 or PKCS#12 PBE algorithm name can be used (see NOTES
section for more information). If a cipher name (as output by the list-cipher-
algorithms command is specified then it is used with PKCS#5 v2.0. For interoperability
reasons it is advisable to only use PKCS#12 algorithms.

-keyex|-keysig
specifies that the private key is to be used for key exchange or just signing. This
option is only interpreted by MSIE and similar MS software. Normally "export grade"
software will only allow 512 bit RSA keys to be used for encryption purposes but
arbitrary length keys for signing. The -keysig option marks the key for signing only.
Signing only keys can be used for S/MIME signing, authenticode (ActiveX control
signing) and SSL client authentication, however due to a bug only MSIE 5.0 and later
support the use of signing only keys for SSL client authentication.

-macalg digest
specify the MAC digest algorithm. If not included them SHA1 will be used.

-nomaciter, -noiter
these options affect the iteration counts on the MAC and key algorithms. Unless you
wish to produce files compatible with MSIE 4.0 you should leave these options alone.

To discourage attacks by using large dictionaries of common passwords the algorithm
that derives keys from passwords can have an iteration count applied to it: this
causes a certain part of the algorithm to be repeated and slows it down. The MAC is
used to check the file integrity but since it will normally have the same password as
the keys and certificates it could also be attacked. By default both MAC and
encryption iteration counts are set to 2048, using these options the MAC and
encryption iteration counts can be set to 1, since this reduces the file security you
should not use these options unless you really have to. Most software supports both
MAC and key iteration counts. MSIE 4.0 doesn't support MAC iteration counts so it
needs the -nomaciter option.

-maciter
This option is included for compatibility with previous versions, it used to be needed
to use MAC iterations counts but they are now used by default.

-nomac
don't attempt to provide the MAC integrity.

-rand file(s)
a file or files containing random data used to seed the random number generator, or an
EGD socket (see RAND_egd(3)). Multiple files can be specified separated by a OS-
dependent character. The separator is ; for MS-Windows, , for OpenVMS, and : for all
others.

-CAfile file
CA storage as a file.

-CApath dir
CA storage as a directory. This directory must be a standard certificate directory:
that is a hash of each subject name (using x509 -hash) should be linked to each
certificate.

-CSP name
write name as a Microsoft CSP name.

NOTES

Although there are a large number of options most of them are very rarely used. For
PKCS#12 file parsing only -in and -out need to be used for PKCS#12 file creation -export
and -name are also used.

If none of the -clcerts, -cacerts or -nocerts options are present then all certificates
will be output in the order they appear in the input PKCS#12 files. There is no guarantee
that the first certificate present is the one corresponding to the private key. Certain
software which requires a private key and certificate and assumes the first certificate in
the file is the one corresponding to the private key: this may not always be the case.
Using the -clcerts option will solve this problem by only outputting the certificate
corresponding to the private key. If the CA certificates are required then they can be
output to a separate file using the -nokeys -cacerts options to just output CA
certificates.

The -keypbe and -certpbe algorithms allow the precise encryption algorithms for private
keys and certificates to be specified. Normally the defaults are fine but occasionally
software can't handle triple DES encrypted private keys, then the option -keypbe
PBE-SHA1-RC2-40 can be used to reduce the private key encryption to 40 bit RC2. A complete
description of all algorithms is contained in the pkcs8 manual page.

EXAMPLES

Parse a PKCS#12 file and output it to a file:

openssl pkcs12 -in file.p12 -out file.pem

Output only client certificates to a file:

openssl pkcs12 -in file.p12 -clcerts -out file.pem

Don't encrypt the private key:

openssl pkcs12 -in file.p12 -out file.pem -nodes

Print some info about a PKCS#12 file:

openssl pkcs12 -in file.p12 -info -noout

Create a PKCS#12 file:

openssl pkcs12 -export -in file.pem -out file.p12 -name "My Certificate"

Include some extra certificates:

openssl pkcs12 -export -in file.pem -out file.p12 -name "My Certificate" \
-certfile othercerts.pem

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