XCA – graphical certificate and key management

XCA, short for X Certificate and Key Management, is a graphical application for working with certificates, private keys, certificate signing requests and certificate authorities. It provides a desktop interface for many tasks that would otherwise involve direct use of OpenSSL commands and individual certificate files.

The application is useful for administrators who want to operate a small private certificate authority or simply organise cryptographic material through a graphical interface. Certificates, requests, keys and related objects are kept together in a database rather than being managed solely as separate files scattered around the filesystem.

XCA can also help maintain consistency when issuing groups of certificates. Reusable templates let administrators establish common certificate properties and apply them when generating new certificates or requests.

Its import and export facilities make the application useful beyond running a CA. Existing certificates and keys can be brought into the database for inspection and organisation, while objects can be exported in formats suitable for other applications and services.

XCA is built with Qt and OpenSSL and provides native support for Linux. It offers a relatively approachable interface while retaining access to detailed certificate and key-management operations.

This is free and open source software.

Key Features

• Creates root and subordinate certificate authorities.
• Generates private keys and certificate signing requests.
• Signs X.509 certificates using stored certificate authorities.
• Provides reusable templates for certificate properties and extensions.
• Imports and exports certificates, requests and cryptographic keys.
• Maintains PKI objects in a local database.
• Supports remote SQL databases through suitable Qt database drivers.
• Provides facilities for revoking certificates.
• Supports a wide range of certificate and key file formats.
• Uses OpenSSL for cryptographic operations.

Website: github.com/chris2511/xca
Support:
Developer: Christian Hohnstaedt
License: BSD 3-Clause License

XCA is written in C++. Learn C++ with our recommended free books and free tutorials.

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