A pkcs12 keystore is commonly used for both S/MIME User Certificates and SSL/TLS Server Certificates. The keystore may contain both private keys and their corresponding certificates with or without a complete chain. The keystore’s purpose is to store the credential of an identity, being a person, … [Read more...] about pkcs12
PKCS7 as SignedData, a certificate bundle and OpenSSL
Introduction to PKCS7 What is PKCS7? It is a standard in the "Public Key Cryptography Standards" used as a cryptographic message syntax and as a format for an X.509 certificate and corresponding chain. The bundle or bag does not have to be a full chain and order does not matter as the final chain … [Read more...] about PKCS7 as SignedData, a certificate bundle and OpenSSL
openssl cms – Sign and encrypt or decrypt email messages
The openssl cms utility will digitally sign, verify, encrypt and decrypt S/MIME version 3.1 mail and messages. Checkout our smime article on how to get an email certificate and extract the public and private key for use in these commands. To purchase an Email certificate, we recommend starting … [Read more...] about openssl cms – Sign and encrypt or decrypt email messages
PKCS8 (PKCS #8) format – openssl pkcs8
PKCS8 is the eighth of the Public-Key Cryptography Standards (PKCS) and is a syntax for storing private key material. The private keys may be encrypted with a symmetric key algorithm. If the usage of your key requires it to be in plain text, make sure it is stored in a secured location. If at all … [Read more...] about PKCS8 (PKCS #8) format – openssl pkcs8
openssl rand – Generate random numbers and passwords
To generate random bytes with openssl, use the openssl rand utility which is the openssl random number generator. This utility utilizes a CSPRNG, a cryptographically secure pseudo-random number generator. As of v1.1.1, openssl will use a trusted entropy source provided by the operating system to … [Read more...] about openssl rand – Generate random numbers and passwords
openssl crl
The openssl crl command and utility will process CRL (Certificate Revocation List) files in both DER and PEM format. CRL locations can be found on the X.509 certificate itself, under the "CRL Endpoints" section. Here is a screenshot from the Mozilla Firefox certificate viewer of the SSL … [Read more...] about openssl crl
openssl passwd
The openssl passwd command can be used to compute password hashes. openssl passwd examples To compute the password hash without a salt, run the following command: openssl passwd -crypt password To compute a salted password hash, run the following command using the crypt algorithm (which … [Read more...] about openssl passwd
openssl ca
The openssl ca command and utility is a lightweight piece of software that can be used to perform minimal CA (Certification Authority) functions. The command can sign and issue new certificates including self-signed Root CA certificates, generate CRLs (Certificate Revocation Lists), and other CA … [Read more...] about openssl ca