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 | list-cipher-algorithms | list-message-digest-algorithms | list-public-key-algorithms]

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 standards 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 and management of private keys, public keys and parameters
 o  Public key cryptographic operations
 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
 o  Time Stamp requests, generation and verification

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 command_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 commands, message digest commands, or cipher commands, respectively, that are available in the present openssl utility.

The pseudo-commands list-cipher-algorithms and list-message-digest-algorithms list all cipher and message digest names, one entry per line. Aliases are listed as:

 from => to

The pseudo-command list-public-key-algorithms lists all supported public key algorithms.

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; otherwise it returns 1 and prints XXX. In both cases, the output 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.

cms CMS (Cryptographic Message Syntax) utility

crl Certificate Revocation List (CRL) Management.

crl2pkcs7
    CRL to PKCS#7 Conversion.

dgst
    Message Digest Calculation.

dh  Diffie-Hellman Parameter Management. Obsoleted by dhparam.

dhparam
    Generation and Management of Diffie-Hellman Parameters. Superseded by genpkey and pkeyparam

dsa DSA Data Management.

dsaparam
    DSA Parameter Generation and Management. Superseded by genpkey and pkeyparam

ec  EC (Elliptic curve) key processing

ecparam
    EC parameter manipulation and generation

enc Encoding with Ciphers.

engine
    Engine (loadble module) information and manipulation.

errstr
    Error Number to Error String Conversion.

gendh
    Generation of Diffie-Hellman Parameters. Obsoleted by dhparam.

gendsa
    Generation of DSA Private Key from Parameters. Superseded by genpkey and pkey

genpkey
    Generation of Private Key or Parameters.

genrsa
    Generation of RSA Private Key. Superceded by genpkey.

nseq
    Create or examine a netscape certificate sequence

ocsp
    Online Certificate Status Protocol utility.

passwd
    Generation of hashed passwords.

pkcs12
    PKCS#12 Data Management.

pkcs7
    PKCS#7 Data Management.

pkey
    Public and private key management.

pkeyparam
    Public key algorithm parameter management.

pkeyutl
    Public key algorithm cryptographic operation utility.

rand
    Generate pseudo-random bytes.

req PKCS#10 X.509 Certificate Signing Request (CSR) Management.

rsa RSA key management.

rsautl
    RSA utility for signing, verification, encryption, and decryption. Superseded by pkeyutl

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 internally 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 functionality but internally uses mostly all functionality of the OpenSSL ssl library. It provides 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.

spkac
    SPKAC printing and generating utility

ts  Time Stamping Authority tool (client/server)

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

sha224
    SHA-224 Digest

sha256
    SHA-256 Digest

sha384
    SHA-384 Digest

sha512
    SHA-512 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 password is visible to utilities (like 'ps' under Unix) this form should only be used where security is not important.

env:var
    obtain the password from the environment variable var. Since the environment of other processes 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 example refer to a device or named pipe.

fd:number
    read the password from the file descriptor number. 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), genpkey(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), s_time(1), smime(1), spkac(1), verify(1), version(1), x509(1), crypto(3), ssl(3), x509v3_config(5)

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 list-XXX-algorithms pseudo-commands were added in OpenSSL 1.0.0; 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.