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REQ(1SSL)                           OpenSSL                          REQ(1SSL)

NAME
       openssl-req, req - PKCS#10 certificate request and certificate
       generating utility

SYNOPSIS
       openssl req [-help] [-inform PEM|DER] [-outform PEM|DER] [-in filename]
       [-passin arg] [-out filename] [-passout arg] [-text] [-pubkey] [-noout]
       [-verify] [-modulus] [-new] [-rand file...]  [-writerand file] [-newkey
       rsa:bits] [-newkey alg:file] [-nodes] [-key filename] [-keyform
       PEM|DER] [-keyout filename] [-keygen_engine id] [-ddiiggeesstt] [-config
       filename] [-multivalue-rdn] [-x509] [-days n] [-set_serial n] [-newhdr]
       [-addext ext] [-extensions section] [-reqexts section] [-precert]
       [-utf8] [-nameopt] [-reqopt] [-subject] [-subj arg] [-sigopt nm:v]
       [-batch] [-verbose] [-engine id]

DESCRIPTION
       The req command primarily creates and processes certificate requests in
       PKCS#10 format. It can additionally create self signed certificates for
       use as root CAs for example.

OPTIONS
       -help
           Print out a usage message.

       -inform DER|PEM
           This specifies the input format. The DER option uses an ASN1 DER
           encoded form compatible with the PKCS#10. The PEM form is the
           default format: it consists of the DER format base64 encoded with
           additional header and footer lines.

       -outform DER|PEM
           This specifies the output format, the options have the same meaning
           and default as the -inform option.

       -in filename
           This specifies the input filename to read a request from or
           standard input if this option is not specified. A request is only
           read if the creation options (-new and -newkey) are not specified.

       -sigopt nm:v
           Pass options to the signature algorithm during sign or verify
           operations.  Names and values of these options are algorithm-
           specific.

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

       -out filename
           This specifies the output filename to write to or standard output
           by default.

       -passout arg
           The output file password source. For more information about the
           format of arg see the PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS section in openssl(1).

       -text
           Prints out the certificate request in text form.

       -subject
           Prints out the request subject (or certificate subject if -x509 is
           specified)

       -pubkey
           Outputs the public key.

       -noout
           This option prevents output of the encoded version of the request.

       -modulus
           This option prints out the value of the modulus of the public key
           contained in the request.

       -verify
           Verifies the signature on the request.

       -new
           This option generates a new certificate request. It will prompt the
           user for the relevant field values. The actual fields prompted for
           and their maximum and minimum sizes are specified in the
           configuration file and any requested extensions.

           If the -key option is not used it will generate a new RSA private
           key using information specified in the configuration file.

       -rand file...
           A file or files containing random data used to seed the random
           number generator.  Multiple files can be specified separated by an
           OS-dependent character.  The separator is ; for MS-Windows, , for
           OpenVMS, and : for all others.

       [-writerand file]
           Writes random data to the specified file upon exit.  This can be
           used with a subsequent -rand flag.

       -newkey arg
           This option creates a new certificate request and a new private
           key. The argument takes one of several forms. rsa:nbits, where
           nbits is the number of bits, generates an RSA key nbits in size. If
           nbits is omitted, i.e. -newkey rsa specified, the default key size,
           specified in the configuration file is used.

           All other algorithms support the -newkey alg:file form, where file
           may be an algorithm parameter file, created by the genpkey
           -genparam command or and X.509 certificate for a key with
           appropriate algorithm.

           param:file generates a key using the parameter file or certificate
           file, the algorithm is determined by the parameters. algname:file
           use algorithm algname and parameter file file: the two algorithms
           must match or an error occurs. algname just uses algorithm algname,
           and parameters, if necessary should be specified via -pkeyopt
           parameter.

           dsa:filename generates a DSA key using the parameters in the file
           filename. ec:filename generates EC key (usable both with ECDSA or
           ECDH algorithms), gost2001:filename generates GOST R 34.10-2001 key
           (requires ccgost engine configured in the configuration file). If
           just gost2001 is specified a parameter set should be specified by
           -pkeyopt paramset:X

       -pkeyopt opt:value
           Set the public key algorithm option opt to value. The precise set
           of options supported depends on the public key algorithm used and
           its implementation. See KEY GENERATION OPTIONS in the genpkey
           manual page for more details.

       -key filename
           This specifies the file to read the private key from. It also
           accepts PKCS#8 format private keys for PEM format files.

       -keyform PEM|DER
           The format of the private key file specified in the -key argument.
           PEM is the default.

       -keyout filename
           This gives the filename to write the newly created private key to.
           If this option is not specified then the filename present in the
           configuration file is used.

       -nodes
           If this option is specified then if a private key is created it
           will not be encrypted.

       -ddiiggeesstt
           This specifies the message digest to sign the request.  Any digest
           supported by the OpenSSL dgst command can be used.  This overrides
           the digest algorithm specified in the configuration file.

           Some public key algorithms may override this choice. For instance,
           DSA signatures always use SHA1, GOST R 34.10 signatures always use
           GOST R 34.11-94 (-md_gost94), Ed25519 and Ed448 never use any
           digest.

       -config filename
           This allows an alternative configuration file to be specified.
           Optional; for a description of the default value, see "COMMAND
           SUMMARY" in openssl(1).

       -subj arg
           Sets subject name for new request or supersedes the subject name
           when processing a request.  The arg must be formatted as
           /type0=value0/type1=value1/type2=....  Keyword characters may be
           escaped by \ (backslash), and whitespace is retained.  Empty values
           are permitted, but the corresponding type will not be included in
           the request.

       -multivalue-rdn
           This option causes the -subj argument to be interpreted with full
           support for multivalued RDNs. Example:

           /DC=org/DC=OpenSSL/DC=users/UID=123456+CN=John Doe

           If -multi-rdn is not used then the UID value is 123456+CN=John Doe.

       -x509
           This option outputs a self signed certificate instead of a
           certificate request. This is typically used to generate a test
           certificate or a self signed root CA. The extensions added to the
           certificate (if any) are specified in the configuration file.
           Unless specified using the set_serial option, a large random number
           will be used for the serial number.

           If existing request is specified with the -in option, it is
           converted to the self signed certificate otherwise new request is
           created.

       -days n
           When the -x509 option is being used this specifies the number of
           days to certify the certificate for, otherwise it is ignored. n
           should be a positive integer. The default is 30 days.

       -set_serial n
           Serial number to use when outputting a self signed certificate.
           This may be specified as a decimal value or a hex value if preceded
           by 0x.

       -addext ext
           Add a specific extension to the certificate (if the -x509 option is
           present) or certificate request.  The argument must have the form
           of a key=value pair as it would appear in a config file.

           This option can be given multiple times.

       -extensions section
       -reqexts section
           These options specify alternative sections to include certificate
           extensions (if the -x509 option is present) or certificate request
           extensions. This allows several different sections to be used in
           the same configuration file to specify requests for a variety of
           purposes.

       -precert
           A poison extension will be added to the certificate, making it a
           "pre-certificate" (see RFC6962). This can be submitted to
           Certificate Transparency logs in order to obtain signed certificate
           timestamps (SCTs).  These SCTs can then be embedded into the pre-
           certificate as an extension, before removing the poison and signing
           the certificate.

           This implies the -new flag.

       -utf8
           This option causes field values to be interpreted as UTF8 strings,
           by default they are interpreted as ASCII. This means that the field
           values, whether prompted from a terminal or obtained from a
           configuration file, must be valid UTF8 strings.

       -nameopt option
           Option which determines how the subject or issuer names are
           displayed. The option argument can be a single option or multiple
           options separated by commas.  Alternatively the -nameopt switch may
           be used more than once to set multiple options. See the x509(1)
           manual page for details.

       -reqopt
           Customise the output format used with -text. The option argument
           can be a single option or multiple options separated by commas.

           See discussion of the  -certopt parameter in the x509(1) command.

       -newhdr
           Adds the word NEW to the PEM file header and footer lines on the
           outputted request. Some software (Netscape certificate server) and
           some CAs need this.

       -batch
           Non-interactive mode.

       -verbose
           Print extra details about the operations being performed.

       -engine id
           Specifying an engine (by its unique id string) will cause req to
           attempt to obtain a functional reference to the specified engine,
           thus initialising it if needed. The engine will then be set as the
           default for all available algorithms.

       -keygen_engine id
           Specifies an engine (by its unique id string) which would be used
           for key generation operations.

CONFIGURATION FILE FORMAT
       The configuration options are specified in the req section of the
       configuration file. As with all configuration files if no value is
       specified in the specific section (i.e. req) then the initial unnamed
       or default section is searched too.

       The options available are described in detail below.

       input_password output_password
           The passwords for the input private key file (if present) and the
           output private key file (if one will be created). The command line
           options passin and passout override the configuration file values.

       default_bits
           Specifies the default key size in bits.

           This option is used in conjunction with the -new option to generate
           a new key. It can be overridden by specifying an explicit key size
           in the -newkey option. The smallest accepted key size is 512 bits.
           If no key size is specified then 2048 bits is used.

       default_keyfile
           This is the default filename to write a private key to. If not
           specified the key is written to standard output. This can be
           overridden by the -keyout option.

       oid_file
           This specifies a file containing additional OBJECT IDENTIFIERS.
           Each line of the file should consist of the numerical form of the
           object identifier followed by white space then the short name
           followed by white space and finally the long name.

       oid_section
           This specifies a section in the configuration file containing extra
           object identifiers. Each line should consist of the short name of
           the object identifier followed by = and the numerical form. The
           short and long names are the same when this option is used.

       RANDFILE
           At startup the specified file is loaded into the random number
           generator, and at exit 256 bytes will be written to it.  It is used
           for private key generation.

       encrypt_key
           If this is set to no then if a private key is generated it is not
           encrypted. This is equivalent to the -nodes command line option.
           For compatibility encrypt_rsa_key is an equivalent option.

       default_md
           This option specifies the digest algorithm to use. Any digest
           supported by the OpenSSL dgst command can be used. This option can
           be overridden on the command line. Certain signing algorithms (i.e.
           Ed25519 and Ed448) will ignore any digest that has been set.

       string_mask
           This option masks out the use of certain string types in certain
           fields. Most users will not need to change this option.

           It can be set to several values default which is also the default
           option uses PrintableStrings, T61Strings and BMPStrings if the pkix
           value is used then only PrintableStrings and BMPStrings will be
           used. This follows the PKIX recommendation in RFC2459. If the
           utf8only option is used then only UTF8Strings will be used: this is
           the PKIX recommendation in RFC2459 after 2003. Finally the nombstr
           option just uses PrintableStrings and T61Strings: certain software
           has problems with BMPStrings and UTF8Strings: in particular
           Netscape.

       req_extensions
           This specifies the configuration file section containing a list of
           extensions to add to the certificate request. It can be overridden
           by the -reqexts command line switch. See the x509v3_config(5)
           manual page for details of the extension section format.

       x509_extensions
           This specifies the configuration file section containing a list of
           extensions to add to certificate generated when the -x509 switch is
           used. It can be overridden by the -extensions command line switch.

       prompt
           If set to the value no this disables prompting of certificate
           fields and just takes values from the config file directly. It also
           changes the expected format of the distinguished_name and
           attributes sections.

       utf8
           If set to the value yes then field values to be interpreted as UTF8
           strings, by default they are interpreted as ASCII. This means that
           the field values, whether prompted from a terminal or obtained from
           a configuration file, must be valid UTF8 strings.

       attributes
           This specifies the section containing any request attributes: its
           format is the same as distinguished_name. Typically these may
           contain the challengePassword or unstructuredName types. They are
           currently ignored by OpenSSL's request signing utilities but some
           CAs might want them.

       distinguished_name
           This specifies the section containing the distinguished name fields
           to prompt for when generating a certificate or certificate request.
           The format is described in the next section.

DISTINGUISHED NAME AND ATTRIBUTE SECTION FORMAT
       There are two separate formats for the distinguished name and attribute
       sections. If the prompt option is set to no then these sections just
       consist of field names and values: for example,

        CN=My Name
        OU=My Organization
        emailAddress=someone@somewhere.org

       This allows external programs (e.g. GUI based) to generate a template
       file with all the field names and values and just pass it to req. An
       example of this kind of configuration file is contained in the EXAMPLES
       section.

       Alternatively if the prompt option is absent or not set to no then the
       file contains field prompting information. It consists of lines of the
       form:

        fieldName="prompt"
        fieldName_default="default field value"
        fieldName_min= 2
        fieldName_max= 4

       "fieldName" is the field name being used, for example commonName (or
       CN).  The "prompt" string is used to ask the user to enter the relevant
       details. If the user enters nothing then the default value is used if
       no default value is present then the field is omitted. A field can
       still be omitted if a default value is present if the user just enters
       the '.' character.

       The number of characters entered must be between the fieldName_min and
       fieldName_max limits: there may be additional restrictions based on the
       field being used (for example countryName can only ever be two
       characters long and must fit in a PrintableString).

       Some fields (such as organizationName) can be used more than once in a
       DN. This presents a problem because configuration files will not
       recognize the same name occurring twice. To avoid this problem if the
       fieldName contains some characters followed by a full stop they will be
       ignored. So for example a second organizationName can be input by
       calling it "1.organizationName".

       The actual permitted field names are any object identifier short or
       long names. These are compiled into OpenSSL and include the usual
       values such as commonName, countryName, localityName, organizationName,
       organizationalUnitName, stateOrProvinceName. Additionally emailAddress
       is included as well as name, surname, givenName, initials, and
       dnQualifier.

       Additional object identifiers can be defined with the oid_file or
       oid_section options in the configuration file. Any additional fields
       will be treated as though they were a DirectoryString.

EXAMPLES
       Examine and verify certificate request:

        openssl req -in req.pem -text -verify -noout

       Create a private key and then generate a certificate request from it:

        openssl genrsa -out key.pem 2048
        openssl req -new -key key.pem -out req.pem

       The same but just using req:

        openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout key.pem -out req.pem

       Generate a self signed root certificate:

        openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout key.pem -out req.pem

       Example of a file pointed to by the oid_file option:

        1.2.3.4        shortName       A longer Name
        1.2.3.6        otherName       Other longer Name

       Example of a section pointed to by oid_section making use of variable
       expansion:

        testoid1=1.2.3.5
        testoid2=${testoid1}.6

       Sample configuration file prompting for field values:

        [ req ]
        default_bits           = 2048
        default_keyfile        = privkey.pem
        distinguished_name     = req_distinguished_name
        attributes             = req_attributes
        req_extensions         = v3_ca

        dirstring_type = nobmp

        [ req_distinguished_name ]
        countryName                    = Country Name (2 letter code)
        countryName_default            = AU
        countryName_min                = 2
        countryName_max                = 2

        localityName                   = Locality Name (eg, city)

        organizationalUnitName         = Organizational Unit Name (eg, section)

        commonName                     = Common Name (eg, YOUR name)
        commonName_max                 = 64

        emailAddress                   = Email Address
        emailAddress_max               = 40

        [ req_attributes ]
        challengePassword              = A challenge password
        challengePassword_min          = 4
        challengePassword_max          = 20

        [ v3_ca ]

        subjectKeyIdentifier=hash
        authorityKeyIdentifier=keyid:always,issuer:always
        basicConstraints = critical, CA:true

       Sample configuration containing all field values:

        RANDFILE               = $ENV::HOME/.rnd

        [ req ]
        default_bits           = 2048
        default_keyfile        = keyfile.pem
        distinguished_name     = req_distinguished_name
        attributes             = req_attributes
        prompt                 = no
        output_password        = mypass

        [ req_distinguished_name ]
        C                      = GB
        ST                     = Test State or Province
        L                      = Test Locality
        O                      = Organization Name
        OU                     = Organizational Unit Name
        CN                     = Common Name
        emailAddress           = test@email.address

        [ req_attributes ]
        challengePassword              = A challenge password

       Example of giving the most common attributes (subject and extensions)
       on the command line:

        openssl req -new -subj "/C=GB/CN=foo" \
                         -addext "subjectAltName = DNS:foo.co.uk" \
                         -addext "certificatePolicies = 1.2.3.4" \
                         -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout key.pem -out req.pem

NOTES
       The header and footer lines in the PEM format are normally:

        -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----
        -----END CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----

       some software (some versions of Netscape certificate server) instead
       needs:

        -----BEGIN NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----
        -----END NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----

       which is produced with the -newhdr option but is otherwise compatible.
       Either form is accepted transparently on input.

       The certificate requests generated by Xenroll with MSIE have extensions
       added. It includes the keyUsage extension which determines the type of
       key (signature only or general purpose) and any additional OIDs entered
       by the script in an extendedKeyUsage extension.

DIAGNOSTICS
       The following messages are frequently asked about:

               Using configuration from /some/path/openssl.cnf
               Unable to load config info

       This is followed some time later by...

               unable to find 'distinguished_name' in config
               problems making Certificate Request

       The first error message is the clue: it can't find the configuration
       file! Certain operations (like examining a certificate request) don't
       need a configuration file so its use isn't enforced. Generation of
       certificates or requests however does need a configuration file. This
       could be regarded as a bug.

       Another puzzling message is this:

               Attributes:
                   a0:00

       this is displayed when no attributes are present and the request
       includes the correct empty SET OF structure (the DER encoding of which
       is 0xa0 0x00). If you just see:

               Attributes:

       then the SET OF is missing and the encoding is technically invalid (but
       it is tolerated). See the description of the command line option
       -asn1-kludge for more information.

BUGS
       OpenSSL's handling of T61Strings (aka TeletexStrings) is broken: it
       effectively treats them as ISO-8859-1 (Latin 1), Netscape and MSIE have
       similar behaviour.  This can cause problems if you need characters that
       aren't available in PrintableStrings and you don't want to or can't use
       BMPStrings.

       As a consequence of the T61String handling the only correct way to
       represent accented characters in OpenSSL is to use a BMPString:
       unfortunately Netscape currently chokes on these. If you have to use
       accented characters with Netscape and MSIE then you currently need to
       use the invalid T61String form.

       The current prompting is not very friendly. It doesn't allow you to
       confirm what you've just entered. Other things like extensions in
       certificate requests are statically defined in the configuration file.
       Some of these: like an email address in subjectAltName should be input
       by the user.

SEE ALSO
       x509(1), ca(1), genrsa(1), gendsa(1), config(5), x509v3_config(5)

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright 2000-2019 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.

       Licensed under the OpenSSL license (the "License").  You may not use
       this file except in compliance with the License.  You can obtain a copy
       in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
       <https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.

1.1.1f                            2024-07-30                         REQ(1SSL)

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | CONFIGURATION FILE FORMAT | DISTINGUISHED NAME AND ATTRIBUTE SECTION FORMAT | EXAMPLES | NOTES | DIAGNOSTICS | BUGS | SEE ALSO | COPYRIGHT