blob: f4ed9593ae2695e0855530c988b82fcf5239caca [file] [log] [blame]
Dr. Stephen Hensonaba3e651999-11-10 02:52:17 +00001=pod
2
3=head1 NAME
4
5genrsa - generate an RSA private key
6
Dr. Stephen Hensonaba3e651999-11-10 02:52:17 +00007=head1 SYNOPSIS
8
9B<openssl> B<genrsa>
A J Mohan Rao169394d2016-02-05 11:58:45 -050010[B<-help>]
Dr. Stephen Hensonaba3e651999-11-10 02:52:17 +000011[B<-out filename>]
Dr. Stephen Hensona3fe3822000-02-16 23:16:01 +000012[B<-passout arg>]
Rich Salzfc1d88f2014-07-02 22:42:40 -040013[B<-aes128>]
Rich Salzfc1d88f2014-07-02 22:42:40 -040014[B<-aes192>]
15[B<-aes256>]
Paulid42d0a42017-02-01 10:10:13 +100016[B<-aria128>]
17[B<-aria192>]
18[B<-aria256>]
Rich Salzfc1d88f2014-07-02 22:42:40 -040019[B<-camellia128>]
20[B<-camellia192>]
21[B<-camellia256>]
Dr. Stephen Hensonaba3e651999-11-10 02:52:17 +000022[B<-des>]
23[B<-des3>]
24[B<-idea>]
25[B<-f4>]
26[B<-3>]
Richard Levitte95979022000-01-15 23:19:22 +000027[B<-rand file(s)>]
Richard Levittebfa35552003-01-30 22:02:27 +000028[B<-engine id>]
Dr. Stephen Hensonaba3e651999-11-10 02:52:17 +000029[B<numbits>]
30
31=head1 DESCRIPTION
32
33The B<genrsa> command generates an RSA private key.
34
35=head1 OPTIONS
36
37=over 4
38
A J Mohan Rao169394d2016-02-05 11:58:45 -050039=item B<-help>
40
41Print out a usage message.
42
Dr. Stephen Hensonf07fb9b2000-02-08 01:34:59 +000043=item B<-out filename>
44
A J Mohan Rao169394d2016-02-05 11:58:45 -050045Output the key to the specified file. If this argument is not specified then
46standard output is used.
Dr. Stephen Hensonf07fb9b2000-02-08 01:34:59 +000047
Dr. Stephen Hensona3fe3822000-02-16 23:16:01 +000048=item B<-passout arg>
Dr. Stephen Hensonf07fb9b2000-02-08 01:34:59 +000049
Dr. Stephen Hensona3fe3822000-02-16 23:16:01 +000050the output file password source. For more information about the format of B<arg>
Rich Salz9b869742015-08-17 15:21:33 -040051see the B<PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS> section in L<openssl(1)>.
Dr. Stephen Hensonf07fb9b2000-02-08 01:34:59 +000052
Paulid42d0a42017-02-01 10:10:13 +100053=item B<-aes128|-aes192|-aes256|-aria128|-aria192|-aria256|-camellia128|-camellia192|-camellia256|-des|-des3|-idea>
Dr. Stephen Hensonaba3e651999-11-10 02:52:17 +000054
Rich Salzfc1d88f2014-07-02 22:42:40 -040055These options encrypt the private key with specified
56cipher before outputting it. If none of these options is
Dr. Stephen Hensonf07fb9b2000-02-08 01:34:59 +000057specified no encryption is used. If encryption is used a pass phrase is prompted
Dr. Stephen Hensona3fe3822000-02-16 23:16:01 +000058for if it is not supplied via the B<-passout> argument.
Dr. Stephen Hensonaba3e651999-11-10 02:52:17 +000059
60=item B<-F4|-3>
61
62the public exponent to use, either 65537 or 3. The default is 65537.
63
Richard Levitte95979022000-01-15 23:19:22 +000064=item B<-rand file(s)>
Dr. Stephen Hensonaba3e651999-11-10 02:52:17 +000065
66a file or files containing random data used to seed the random number
Rich Salz9b869742015-08-17 15:21:33 -040067generator, or an EGD socket (see L<RAND_egd(3)>).
Alex Gaynor35ed3932016-03-19 12:28:58 -040068Multiple files can be specified separated by an OS-dependent character.
Richard Levitteb87ef942000-04-12 16:48:20 +000069The separator is B<;> for MS-Windows, B<,> for OpenVMS, and B<:> for
Ulf Möllera4cfd172000-02-24 17:18:51 +000070all others.
Dr. Stephen Hensonaba3e651999-11-10 02:52:17 +000071
Richard Levittebfa35552003-01-30 22:02:27 +000072=item B<-engine id>
73
Dr. Stephen Hensone5fa8642009-04-15 15:27:03 +000074specifying an engine (by its unique B<id> string) will cause B<genrsa>
Richard Levittebfa35552003-01-30 22:02:27 +000075to attempt to obtain a functional reference to the specified engine,
76thus initialising it if needed. The engine will then be set as the default
77for all available algorithms.
78
Dr. Stephen Hensonaba3e651999-11-10 02:52:17 +000079=item B<numbits>
80
81the size of the private key to generate in bits. This must be the last option
Adrian Vollmer013bc442017-02-27 15:51:21 +010082specified. The default is 2048.
Dr. Stephen Hensonaba3e651999-11-10 02:52:17 +000083
84=back
85
86=head1 NOTES
87
88RSA private key generation essentially involves the generation of two prime
89numbers. When generating a private key various symbols will be output to
Dr. Stephen Hensona3fe3822000-02-16 23:16:01 +000090indicate the progress of the generation. A B<.> represents each number which
91has passed an initial sieve test, B<+> means a number has passed a single
92round of the Miller-Rabin primality test. A newline means that the number has
93passed all the prime tests (the actual number depends on the key size).
Dr. Stephen Hensonaba3e651999-11-10 02:52:17 +000094
95Because key generation is a random process the time taken to generate a key
96may vary somewhat.
97
98=head1 BUGS
99
100A quirk of the prime generation algorithm is that it cannot generate small
101primes. Therefore the number of bits should not be less that 64. For typical
102private keys this will not matter because for security reasons they will
103be much larger (typically 1024 bits).
104
105=head1 SEE ALSO
106
Rich Salz9b869742015-08-17 15:21:33 -0400107L<gendsa(1)>
Ulf Möller369782a2000-03-18 22:00:26 +0000108
Rich Salze2f92612016-05-18 11:44:05 -0400109=head1 COPYRIGHT
110
Paulid42d0a42017-02-01 10:10:13 +1000111Copyright 2000-2017 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
Rich Salze2f92612016-05-18 11:44:05 -0400112
113Licensed under the OpenSSL license (the "License"). You may not use
114this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy
115in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
116L<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.
117
118=cut