Easy-RSA – command-line PKI management utility

Easy-RSA is a command-line utility for creating and managing a public key infrastructure with OpenSSL. It provides a more convenient layer around common certificate authority operations while retaining a straightforward file-based approach to keys, certificates and PKI data.

The software can be used to establish a private certificate authority for servers, clients, VPN infrastructure and other systems requiring locally issued X.509 certificates. Although Easy-RSA is developed alongside OpenVPN, it is a separate project and is not restricted to OpenVPN deployments.

Its command-line approach makes it well suited to systems without a graphical environment and to administrators who want certificate-management procedures that can be documented or incorporated into scripts.

Easy-RSA deliberately concentrates on the core tasks involved in operating a certificate authority. It does not try to provide the web interfaces, workflow engines or distributed services found in enterprise PKI suites. This keeps the software relatively lightweight and gives administrators direct access to the files and structures underpinning their certificate authority.

The utility is particularly useful where OpenSSL provides the required cryptographic functionality but its lower-level commands would make routine CA administration unnecessarily cumbersome.

This is free and open source software.

Key Features

• Creates root certificate authorities.
• Creates intermediate certificate authorities.
• Generates private keys and certificate signing requests.
• Signs certificates using a locally managed certificate authority.
• Revokes issued certificates.
• Generates certificate revocation lists.
• Supports configurable certificate properties through variables and configuration files.
• Provides command-line tools suitable for scripted workflows.
• Uses OpenSSL for the underlying cryptographic operations.
• Can be used independently of OpenVPN.

Website: github.com/OpenVPN/easy-rsa
Support:
Developer: OpenVPN Project
License: GNU General Public License v2.0

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