OPENSSL(1) OpenSSL OPENSSL(1)
NAME
openssl - OpenSSL command line tool
SYNOPSIS
openssl command [ command_opts ] [ command_args ]
openssl [ list-standard-commands | list-message-digest-
commands | list-cipher-commands ]
openssl no-XXX [ arbitrary options ]
DESCRIPTION
OpenSSL is a cryptography toolkit implementing the Secure
Sockets Layer (SSL v2/v3) and Transport Layer Security
(TLS v1) network protocols and related cryptography stan-
dards required by them.
The openssl program is a command line tool for using the
various cryptography functions of OpenSSL's crypto library
from the shell. It can be used for
o Creation of RSA, DH and DSA key parameters
o Creation of X.509 certificates, CSRs and CRLs
o Calculation of Message Digests
o Encryption and Decryption with Ciphers
o SSL/TLS Client and Server Tests
o Handling of S/MIME signed or encrypted mail
COMMAND SUMMARY
The openssl program provides a rich variety of commands
(command in the SYNOPSIS above), each of which often has a
wealth of options and arguments (command_opts and com-
mand_args in the SYNOPSIS).
The pseudo-commands list-standard-commands, list-message-
digest-commands, and list-cipher-commands output a list
(one entry per line) of the names of all standard com-
mands, message digest commands, or cipher commands,
respectively, that are available in the present openssl
utility.
The pseudo-command no-XXX tests whether a command of the
specified name is available. If no command named XXX
exists, it returns 0 (success) and prints no-XXX; other-
wise it returns 1 and prints XXX. In both cases, the out-
put goes to stdout and nothing is printed to stderr.
Additional command line arguments are always ignored.
Since for each cipher there is a command of the same name,
this provides an easy way for shell scripts to test for
the availability of ciphers in the openssl program. (no-
XXX is not able to detect pseudo-commands such as quit,
list-...-commands, or no-XXX itself.)
STANDARD COMMANDS
asn1parse Parse an ASN.1 sequence.
ca Certificate Authority (CA) Management.
ciphers Cipher Suite Description Determination.
crl Certificate Revocation List (CRL) Management.
crl2pkcs7 CRL to PKCS#7 Conversion.
dgst Message Digest Calculation.
dh Diffie-Hellman Parameter Management. Obsoleted
by dhparam.
dsa DSA Data Management.
dsaparam DSA Parameter Generation.
enc Encoding with Ciphers.
errstr Error Number to Error String Conversion.
dhparam Generation and Management of Diffie-Hellman
Parameters.
gendh Generation of Diffie-Hellman Parameters. Obso-
leted by dhparam.
gendsa Generation of DSA Parameters.
genrsa Generation of RSA Parameters.
passwd Generation of hashed passwords.
pkcs12 PKCS#12 Data Management.
pkcs7 PKCS#7 Data Management.
rand Generate pseudo-random bytes.
req X.509 Certificate Signing Request (CSR) Manage-
ment.
rsa RSA Data Management.
rsautl RSA utility for signing, verification, encryp-
tion, and decryption.
s_client This implements a generic SSL/TLS client which
can establish a transparent connection to a
remote server speaking SSL/TLS. It's intended
for testing purposes only and provides only
rudimentary interface functionality but inter-
nally uses mostly all functionality of the
OpenSSL ssl library.
s_server This implements a generic SSL/TLS server which
accepts connections from remote clients speaking
SSL/TLS. It's intended for testing purposes only
and provides only rudimentary interface func-
tionality but internally uses mostly all func-
tionality of the OpenSSL ssl library. It pro-
vides both an own command line oriented protocol
for testing SSL functions and a simple HTTP
response facility to emulate an SSL/TLS-aware
webserver.
s_time SSL Connection Timer.
sess_id SSL Session Data Management.
smime S/MIME mail processing.
speed Algorithm Speed Measurement.
verify X.509 Certificate Verification.
version OpenSSL Version Information.
x509 X.509 Certificate Data Management.
MESSAGE DIGEST COMMANDS
md2 MD2 Digest
md5 MD5 Digest
mdc2 MDC2 Digest
rmd160 RMD-160 Digest
sha SHA Digest
sha1 SHA-1 Digest
ENCODING AND CIPHER COMMANDS
base64 Base64 Encoding
bf bf-cbc bf-cfb bf-ecb bf-ofb
Blowfish Cipher
cast cast-cbc
CAST Cipher
cast5-cbc cast5-cfb cast5-ecb cast5-ofb
CAST5 Cipher
des des-cbc des-cfb des-ecb des-ede des-ede-cbc des-ede-
cfb des-ede-ofb des-ofb
DES Cipher
des3 desx des-ede3 des-ede3-cbc des-ede3-cfb des-ede3-ofb
Triple-DES Cipher
idea idea-cbc idea-cfb idea-ecb idea-ofb
IDEA Cipher
rc2 rc2-cbc rc2-cfb rc2-ecb rc2-ofb
RC2 Cipher
rc4 RC4 Cipher
rc5 rc5-cbc rc5-cfb rc5-ecb rc5-ofb
RC5 Cipher
PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS
Several commands accept password arguments, typically
using -passin and -passout for input and output passwords
respectively. These allow the password to be obtained from
a variety of sources. Both of these options take a single
argument whose format is described below. If no password
argument is given and a password is required then the user
is prompted to enter one: this will typically be read from
the current terminal with echoing turned off.
pass:password
the actual password is password. Since the pass-
word is visible to utilities (like 'ps' under
Unix) this form should only be used where secu-
rity is not important.
env:var obtain the password from the environment vari-
able var. Since the environment of other pro-
cesses is visible on certain platforms (e.g. ps
under certain Unix OSes) this option should be
used with caution.
file:pathname
the first line of pathname is the password. If
the same pathname argument is supplied to
-passin and -passout arguments then the first
line will be used for the input password and the
next line for the output password. pathname need
not refer to a regular file: it could for exam-
ple refer to a device or named pipe.
fd:number read the password from the file descriptor num-
ber. This can be used to send the data via a
pipe for example.
stdin read the password from standard input.
SEE ALSO
asn1parse(1), ca(1), config(5), crl(1), crl2pkcs7(1),
dgst(1), dhparam(1), dsa(1), dsaparam(1), enc(1),
gendsa(1), genrsa(1), nseq(1), openssl(1), passwd(1),
pkcs12(1), pkcs7(1), pkcs8(1), rand(1), req(1), rsa(1),
rsautl(1), s_client(1), s_server(1), smime(1), spkac(1),
verify(1), version(1), x509(1), crypto(3), ssl(3)
HISTORY
The openssl(1) document appeared in OpenSSL 0.9.2. The
list-XXX-commands pseudo-commands were added in OpenSSL
0.9.3; the no-XXX pseudo-commands were added in OpenSSL
0.9.5a. For notes on the availability of other commands,
see their individual manual pages.
2002-07-30 0.9.6e OPENSSL(1)