-newcert

creates a new self signed certificate. The private key is written to the file "newkey.pem" and the request written to the file"newreq.pem". This argument invokes openssl req command.

-newreq

creates a new certificate request. The private key is written to the file "newkey.pem" and the request written to the file"newreq.pem". Executes openssl req command below the hood.

-newreq-nodes

is like -newreq except that the private key will not be encrypted. Uses openssl req command.

-newca

creates a new CA hierarchy for use with the ca program (or the -signcert and -xsign options). The user is prompted to enter thefilename of the CA certificates (which should also contain the private key) or by hitting ENTER details of the CA will beprompted for. The relevant files and directories are created in a directory called "demoCA" in the current directory. opensslreq and openssl ca commands are get invoked.

-pkcs12

create a PKCS#12 file containing the user certificate, private key and CA certificate. It expects the user certificate andprivate key to be in the file "newcert.pem" and the CA certificate to be in the file demoCA/cacert.pem, it creates a file"newcert.p12". This command can thus be called after the -sign option. The PKCS#12 file can be imported directly into a browser.If there is an additional argument on the command line it will be used as the "friendly name" for the certificate (which istypically displayed in the browser list box), otherwise the name "My Certificate" is used. Delegates work to openssl pkcs12command.

-sign

calls the ca program to sign a certificate request. It expects the request to be in the file "newreq.pem". The new certificate iswritten to the file "newcert.pem" except in the case of the -xsign option when it is written to standard output. Leveragesopenssl ca command.

-signCA

this option is the same as the -signreq option except it uses the configuration file section v3_ca and so makes the signedrequest a valid CA certificate. This is useful when creating intermediate CA from a root CA. Extra params are passed on toopenssl ca command.

-signcert

this option is the same as -sign except it expects a self signed certificate to be present in the file "newreq.pem". Extraparams are passed on to openssl x509 and openssl ca commands.

-crl

generate a CRL. Executes openssl ca command.

-revoke

revoke the certificate contained in the specified certfile. An optional reason may be specified, and must be one of: unspecified,keyCompromise, CACompromise, affiliationChanged, superseded, cessationOfOperation, certificateHold, or removeFromCRL. Leveragesopenssl ca command.

-verify

verifies certificates against the CA certificate for "demoCA". If no certificates are specified on the command line it tries toverify the file "newcert.pem". Invokes openssl verify command.

-extra-req

The purpose of these parameters is to allow optional parameters to be supplied to openssl that this command executes. The