3 =for comment openssl_manual_section:5
7 x509v3_config - X509 V3 certificate extension configuration format
11 Several of the OpenSSL utilities can add extensions to a certificate or
12 certificate request based on the contents of a configuration file.
14 Typically the application will contain an option to point to an extension
15 section. Each line of the extension section takes the form:
17 extension_name=[critical,] extension_options
19 If B<critical> is present then the extension will be critical.
21 The format of B<extension_options> depends on the value of B<extension_name>.
23 There are four main types of extension: I<string> extensions, I<multi-valued>
24 extensions, I<raw> and I<arbitrary> extensions.
26 String extensions simply have a string which contains either the value itself
27 or how it is obtained.
31 nsComment="This is a Comment"
33 Multi-valued extensions have a short form and a long form. The short form
34 is a list of names and values:
36 basicConstraints=critical,CA:true,pathlen:1
38 The long form allows the values to be placed in a separate section:
40 basicConstraints=critical,@bs_section
47 Both forms are equivalent.
49 The syntax of raw extensions is governed by the extension code: it can
50 for example contain data in multiple sections. The correct syntax to
51 use is defined by the extension code itself: check out the certificate
52 policies extension for an example.
54 If an extension type is unsupported then the I<arbitrary> extension syntax
55 must be used, see the L<ARBITRART EXTENSIONS|/"ARBITRARY EXTENSIONS"> section for more details.
57 =head1 STANDARD EXTENSIONS
59 The following sections describe each supported extension in detail.
61 =head2 Basic Constraints.
63 This is a multi valued extension which indicates whether a certificate is
64 a CA certificate. The first (mandatory) name is B<CA> followed by B<TRUE> or
65 B<FALSE>. If B<CA> is B<TRUE> then an optional B<pathlen> name followed by an
66 non-negative value can be included.
70 basicConstraints=CA:TRUE
72 basicConstraints=CA:FALSE
74 basicConstraints=critical,CA:TRUE, pathlen:0
76 A CA certificate B<must> include the basicConstraints value with the CA field
77 set to TRUE. An end user certificate must either set CA to FALSE or exclude the
78 extension entirely. Some software may require the inclusion of basicConstraints
79 with CA set to FALSE for end entity certificates.
81 The pathlen parameter indicates the maximum number of CAs that can appear
82 below this one in a chain. So if you have a CA with a pathlen of zero it can
83 only be used to sign end user certificates and not further CAs.
88 Key usage is a multi valued extension consisting of a list of names of the
91 The supporte names are: digitalSignature, nonRepudiation, keyEncipherment,
92 dataEncipherment, keyAgreement, keyCertSign, cRLSign, encipherOnly
97 keyUsage=digitalSignature, nonRepudiation
99 keyUsage=critical, keyCertSign
102 =head2 Extended Key Usage.
104 This extensions consists of a list of usages indicating purposes for which
105 the certificate public key can be used for,
107 These can either be object short names of the dotted numerical form of OIDs.
108 While any OID can be used only certain values make sense. In particular the
109 following PKIX, NS and MS values are meaningful:
113 serverAuth SSL/TLS Web Server Authentication.
114 clientAuth SSL/TLS Web Client Authentication.
115 codeSigning Code signing.
116 emailProtection E-mail Protection (S/MIME).
117 timeStamping Trusted Timestamping
118 msCodeInd Microsoft Individual Code Signing (authenticode)
119 msCodeCom Microsoft Commercial Code Signing (authenticode)
120 msCTLSign Microsoft Trust List Signing
121 msSGC Microsoft Server Gated Crypto
122 msEFS Microsoft Encrypted File System
123 nsSGC Netscape Server Gated Crypto
127 extendedKeyUsage=critical,codeSigning,1.2.3.4
128 extendedKeyUsage=nsSGC,msSGC
131 =head2 Subject Key Identifier.
133 This is really a string extension and can take two possible values. Either
134 the word B<hash> which will automatically follow the guidelines in RFC3280
135 or a hex string giving the extension value to include. The use of the hex
136 string is strongly discouraged.
140 subjectKeyIdentifier=hash
143 =head2 Authority Key Identifier.
145 The authority key identifier extension permits two options. keyid and issuer:
146 both can take the optional value "always".
148 If the keyid option is present an attempt is made to copy the subject key
149 identifier from the parent certificate. If the value "always" is present
150 then an error is returned if the option fails.
152 The issuer option copies the issuer and serial number from the issuer
153 certificate. This will only be done if the keyid option fails or
154 is not included unless the "always" flag will always include the value.
158 authorityKeyIdentifier=keyid,issuer
161 =head2 Subject Alternative Name.
163 The subject alternative name extension allows various literal values to be
164 included in the configuration file. These include B<email> (an email address)
165 B<URI> a uniform resource indicator, B<DNS> (a DNS domain name), B<RID> (a
166 registered ID: OBJECT IDENTIFIER), B<IP> (an IP address), B<dirName>
167 (a distinguished name) and otherName.
169 The email option include a special 'copy' value. This will automatically
170 include and email addresses contained in the certificate subject name in
173 The IP address used in the B<IP> options can be in either IPv4 or IPv6 format.
175 The value of B<dirName> should point to a section containing the distinguished
176 name to use as a set of name value pairs. Multi values AVAs can be formed by
177 preceeding the name with a B<+> character.
179 otherName can include arbitrary data associated with an OID: the value
180 should be the OID followed by a semicolon and the content in standard
181 ASN1_generate_nconf() format.
185 subjectAltName=email:copy,email:my@other.address,URI:http://my.url.here/
186 subjectAltName=IP:192.168.7.1
187 subjectAltName=IP:13::17
188 subjectAltName=email:my@other.address,RID:1.2.3.4
189 subjectAltName=otherName:1.2.3.4;UTF8:some other identifier
191 subjectAltName=dirName:dir_sect
200 =head2 Issuer Alternative Name.
202 The issuer alternative name option supports all the literal options of
203 subject alternative name. It does B<not> support the email:copy option because
204 that would not make sense. It does support an additional issuer:copy option
205 that will copy all the subject alternative name values from the issuer
206 certificate (if possible).
210 issuserAltName = issuer:copy
213 =head2 Authority Info Access.
215 The authority information access extension gives details about how to access
216 certain information relating to the CA. Its syntax is accessOID;location
217 where I<location> has the same syntax as subject alternative name (except
218 that email:copy is not supported). accessOID can be any valid OID but only
219 certain values are meaningful, for example OCSP and caIssuers.
223 authorityInfoAccess = OCSP;URI:http://ocsp.my.host/
224 authorityInfoAccess = caIssuers;URI:http://my.ca/ca.html
227 =head2 CRL distribution points.
229 This is a multi-valued extension that supports all the literal options of
230 subject alternative name. Of the few software packages that currently interpret
231 this extension most only interpret the URI option.
233 Currently each option will set a new DistributionPoint with the fullName
234 field set to the given value.
236 Other fields like cRLissuer and reasons cannot currently be set or displayed:
237 at this time no examples were available that used these fields.
241 crlDistributionPoints=URI:http://myhost.com/myca.crl
242 crlDistributionPoints=URI:http://my.com/my.crl,URI:http://oth.com/my.crl
244 =head2 Certificate Policies.
246 This is a I<raw> extension. All the fields of this extension can be set by
247 using the appropriate syntax.
249 If you follow the PKIX recommendations and just using one OID then you just
250 include the value of that OID. Multiple OIDs can be set separated by commas,
253 certificatePolicies= 1.2.4.5, 1.1.3.4
255 If you wish to include qualifiers then the policy OID and qualifiers need to
256 be specified in a separate section: this is done by using the @section syntax
257 instead of a literal OID value.
259 The section referred to must include the policy OID using the name
260 policyIdentifier, cPSuri qualifiers can be included using the syntax:
264 userNotice qualifiers can be set using the syntax:
266 userNotice.nnn=@notice
268 The value of the userNotice qualifier is specified in the relevant section.
269 This section can include explicitText, organization and noticeNumbers
270 options. explicitText and organization are text strings, noticeNumbers is a
271 comma separated list of numbers. The organization and noticeNumbers options
272 (if included) must BOTH be present. If you use the userNotice option with IE5
273 then you need the 'ia5org' option at the top level to modify the encoding:
274 otherwise it will not be interpreted properly.
278 certificatePolicies=ia5org,1.2.3.4,1.5.6.7.8,@polsect
282 policyIdentifier = 1.3.5.8
283 CPS.1="http://my.host.name/"
284 CPS.2="http://my.your.name/"
289 explicitText="Explicit Text Here"
290 organization="Organisation Name"
291 noticeNumbers=1,2,3,4
293 The B<ia5org> option changes the type of the I<organization> field. In RFC2459
294 it can only be of type DisplayText. In RFC3280 IA5Strring is also permissible.
295 Some software (for example some versions of MSIE) may require ia5org.
297 =head2 Policy Constraints
299 This is a multi-valued extension which consisting of the names
300 B<requireExplicitPolicy> or B<inhibitPolicyMapping> and a non negative intger
301 value. At least one component must be present.
305 policyConstraints = requireExplicitPolicy:3
308 =head2 Inhibit Any Policy
310 This is a string extension whose value must be a non negative integer.
317 =head2 Name Constraints
319 The name constraints extension is a multi-valued extension. The name should
320 begin with the word B<permitted> or B<excluded> followed by a B<;>. The rest of
321 the name and the value follows the syntax of subjectAltName except email:copy
322 is not supported and the B<IP> form should consist of an IP addresses and
323 subnet mask separated by a B</>.
327 nameConstraints=permitted;IP:192.168.0.0/255.255.0.0
329 nameConstraints=permitted;email:.somedomain.com
331 nameConstraints=excluded;email:.com
333 =head1 DEPRECATED EXTENSIONS
335 The following extensions are non standard, Netscape specific and largely
336 obsolete. Their use in new applications is discouraged.
338 =head2 Netscape String extensions.
340 Netscape Comment (B<nsComment>) is a string extension containing a comment
341 which will be displayed when the certificate is viewed in some browsers.
345 nsComment = "Some Random Comment"
347 Other supported extensions in this category are: B<nsBaseUrl>,
348 B<nsRevocationUrl>, B<nsCaRevocationUrl>, B<nsRenewalUrl>, B<nsCaPolicyUrl>
349 and B<nsSslServerName>.
352 =head2 Netscape Certificate Type
354 This is a multi-valued extensions which consists of a list of flags to be
355 included. It was used to indicate the purposes for which a certificate could
356 be used. The basicConstraints, keyUsage and extended key usage extensions are
359 Acceptable values for nsCertType are: B<client>, B<server>, B<email>,
360 B<objsign>, B<reserved>, B<sslCA>, B<emailCA>, B<objCA>.
363 =head1 ARBITRARY EXTENSIONS
365 If an extension is not supported by the OpenSSL code then it must be encoded
366 using the arbitrary extension format. It is also possible to use the arbitrary
367 format for supported extensions. Extreme care should be taken to ensure that
368 the data is formatted correctly for the given extension type.
370 There are two ways to encode arbitrary extensions.
372 The first way is to use the word ASN1 followed by the extension content
373 using the same syntax as ASN1_generate_nconf(). For example:
375 1.2.3.4=critical,ASN1:UTF8String:Some random data
377 1.2.3.4=ASN1:SEQUENCE:seq_sect
384 It is also possible to use the word DER to include the raw encoded data in any
387 1.2.3.4=critical,DER:01:02:03:04
390 The value following DER is a hex dump of the DER encoding of the extension
391 Any extension can be placed in this form to override the default behaviour.
394 basicConstraints=critical,DER:00:01:02:03
398 There is no guarantee that a specific implementation will process a given
399 extension. It may therefore be sometimes possible to use certificates for
400 purposes prohibited by their extensions because a specific application does
401 not recognize or honour the values of the relevant extensions.
403 The DER and ASN1 options should be used with caution. It is possible to create
404 totally invalid extensions if they are not used carefully.
409 If an extension is multi-value and a field value must contain a comma the long
410 form must be used otherwise the comma would be misinterpreted as a field
411 separator. For example:
413 subjectAltName=URI:ldap://somehost.com/CN=foo,OU=bar
415 will produce an error but the equivalent form:
417 subjectAltName=@subject_alt_section
419 [subject_alt_section]
420 subjectAltName=URI:ldap://somehost.com/CN=foo,OU=bar
424 Due to the behaviour of the OpenSSL B<conf> library the same field name
425 can only occur once in a section. This means that:
427 subjectAltName=@alt_section
434 will only recognize the last value. This can be worked around by using the form:
443 The X509v3 extension code was first added to OpenSSL 0.9.2.
445 Policy mappings, inhibit any policy and name constraints support was added in
448 The B<directoryName> and B<otherName> option as well as the B<ASN1> option
449 for arbitrary extensions was added in OpenSSL 0.9.8
453 L<req(1)|req(1)>, L<ca(1)|ca(1)>, L<x509(1)|x509(1)>