X509V3_CONFIG(5)                                             OpenSSL                                            X509V3_CONFIG(5)



NAME
       x509v3_config - X509 V3 certificate extension configuration format

DESCRIPTION
       Several of the OpenSSL utilities can add extensions to a certificate or certificate request based on the contents of a
       configuration file.

       Typically the application will contain an option to point to an extension section. Each line of the extension section
       takes the form:

        extension_name=[critical,] extension_options

       If critical is present then the extension will be critical.

       The format of extension_options depends on the value of extension_name.

       There are four main types of extension: string extensions, multi-valued extensions, raw and arbitrary extensions.

       String extensions simply have a string which contains either the value itself or how it is obtained.

       For example:

        nsComment="This is a Comment"

       Multi-valued extensions have a short form and a long form. The short form is a list of names and values:

        basicConstraints=critical,CA:true,pathlen:1

       The long form allows the values to be placed in a separate section:

        basicConstraints=critical,@bs_section

        [bs_section]

        CA=true
        pathlen=1

       Both forms are equivalent.

       The syntax of raw extensions is governed by the extension code: it can for example contain data in multiple sections. The
       correct syntax to use is defined by the extension code itself: check out the certificate policies extension for an
       example.

       If an extension type is unsupported then the arbitrary extension syntax must be used, see the ARBITRARY EXTENSIONS
       section for more details.

STANDARD EXTENSIONS
       The following sections describe each supported extension in detail.

   Basic Constraints.
       This is a multi valued extension which indicates whether a certificate is a CA certificate. The first (mandatory) name is
       CA followed by TRUE or FALSE. If CA is TRUE then an optional pathlen name followed by an non-negative value can be
       included.

       For example:

        basicConstraints=CA:TRUE

        basicConstraints=CA:FALSE

        basicConstraints=critical,CA:TRUE, pathlen:0

       A CA certificate must include the basicConstraints value with the CA field set to TRUE. An end user certificate must
       either set CA to FALSE or exclude the extension entirely. Some software may require the inclusion of basicConstraints
       with CA set to FALSE for end entity certificates.

       The pathlen parameter indicates the maximum number of CAs that can appear below this one in a chain. So if you have a CA
       with a pathlen of zero it can only be used to sign end user certificates and not further CAs.

   Key Usage.
       Key usage is a multi valued extension consisting of a list of names of the permitted key usages.

       The supporte names are: digitalSignature, nonRepudiation, keyEncipherment, dataEncipherment, keyAgreement, keyCertSign,
       cRLSign, encipherOnly and decipherOnly.

       Examples:

        keyUsage=digitalSignature, nonRepudiation

        keyUsage=critical, keyCertSign

   Extended Key Usage.
       This extensions consists of a list of usages indicating purposes for which the certificate public key can be used for,

       These can either be object short names of the dotted numerical form of OIDs.  While any OID can be used only certain
       values make sense. In particular the following PKIX, NS and MS values are meaningful:

        Value                  Meaning
        -----                  -------
        serverAuth             SSL/TLS Web Server Authentication.
        clientAuth             SSL/TLS Web Client Authentication.
        codeSigning            Code signing.
        emailProtection        E-mail Protection (S/MIME).
        timeStamping           Trusted Timestamping
        msCodeInd              Microsoft Individual Code Signing (authenticode)
        msCodeCom              Microsoft Commercial Code Signing (authenticode)
        msCTLSign              Microsoft Trust List Signing
        msSGC                  Microsoft Server Gated Crypto
        msEFS                  Microsoft Encrypted File System
        nsSGC                  Netscape Server Gated Crypto

       Examples:

        extendedKeyUsage=critical,codeSigning,1.2.3.4
        extendedKeyUsage=nsSGC,msSGC

   Subject Key Identifier.
       This is really a string extension and can take two possible values. Either the word hash which will automatically follow
       the guidelines in RFC3280 or a hex string giving the extension value to include. The use of the hex string is strongly
       discouraged.

       Example:

        subjectKeyIdentifier=hash

   Authority Key Identifier.
       The authority key identifier extension permits two options. keyid and issuer: both can take the optional value "always".

       If the keyid option is present an attempt is made to copy the subject key identifier from the parent certificate. If the
       value "always" is present then an error is returned if the option fails.

       The issuer option copies the issuer and serial number from the issuer certificate. This will only be done if the keyid
       option fails or is not included unless the "always" flag will always include the value.

       Example:

        authorityKeyIdentifier=keyid,issuer

   Subject Alternative Name.
       The subject alternative name extension allows various literal values to be included in the configuration file. These
       include email (an email address) URI a uniform resource indicator, DNS (a DNS domain name), RID (a registered ID: OBJECT
       IDENTIFIER), IP (an IP address), dirName (a distinguished name) and otherName.

       The email option include a special 'copy' value. This will automatically include and email addresses contained in the
       certificate subject name in the extension.

       The IP address used in the IP options can be in either IPv4 or IPv6 format.

       The value of dirName should point to a section containing the distinguished name to use as a set of name value pairs.
       Multi values AVAs can be formed by preceeding the name with a + character.

       otherName can include arbitrary data associated with an OID: the value should be the OID followed by a semicolon and the
       content in standard ASN1_generate_nconf(3) format.

       Examples:

        subjectAltName=email:copy,email:myATother.address,URI:http://my.url.here/
        subjectAltName=IP:192.168.7.1
        subjectAltName=IP:13::17
        subjectAltName=email:myATother.address,RID:1.2.3.4
        subjectAltName=otherName:1.2.3.4;UTF8:some other identifier

        subjectAltName=dirName:dir_sect

        [dir_sect]
        C=UK
        O=My Organization
        OU=My Unit
        CN=My Name

   Issuer Alternative Name.
       The issuer alternative name option supports all the literal options of subject alternative name. It does not support the
       email:copy option because that would not make sense. It does support an additional issuer:copy option that will copy all
       the subject alternative name values from the issuer certificate (if possible).

       Example:

        issuserAltName = issuer:copy

   Authority Info Access.
       The authority information access extension gives details about how to access certain information relating to the CA. Its
       syntax is accessOID;location where location has the same syntax as subject alternative name (except that email:copy is
       not supported). accessOID can be any valid OID but only certain values are meaningful, for example OCSP and caIssuers.

       Example:

        authorityInfoAccess = OCSP;URI:http://ocsp.my.host/
        authorityInfoAccess = caIssuers;URI:http://my.ca/ca.html

   CRL distribution points.
       This is a multi-valued extension whose options can be either in name:value pair using the same form as subject
       alternative name or a single value representing a section name containing all the distribution point fields.

       For a name:value pair a new DistributionPoint with the fullName field set to the given value both the cRLissuer and
       reasons fields are omitted in this case.

       In the single option case the section indicated contains values for each field. In this section:

       If the name is "fullname" the value field should contain the full name of the distribution point in the same format as
       subject alternative name.

       If the name is "relativename" then the value field should contain a section name whose contents represent a DN fragment
       to be placed in this field.

       The name "CRLIssuer" if present should contain a value for this field in subject alternative name format.

       If the name is "reasons" the value field should consist of a comma separated field containing the reasons. Valid reasons
       are: "keyCompromise", "CACompromise", "affiliationChanged", "superseded", "cessationOfOperation", "certificateHold",
       "privilegeWithdrawn" and "AACompromise".

       Simple examples:

        crlDistributionPoints=URI:http://myhost.com/myca.crl
        crlDistributionPoints=URI:http://my.com/my.crl,URI:http://oth.com/my.crl

       Full distribution point example:

        crlDistributionPoints=crldp1_section

        [crldp1_section]

        fullname=URI:http://myhost.com/myca.crl
        CRLissuer=dirName:issuer_sect
        reasons=keyCompromise, CACompromise

        [issuer_sect]
        C=UK
        O=Organisation
        CN=Some Name

   Issuing Distribution Point
       This extension should only appear in CRLs. It is a multi valued extension whose syntax is similar to the "section"
       pointed to by the CRL distribution points extension with a few differences.

       The names "reasons" and "CRLissuer" are not recognized.

       The name "onlysomereasons" is accepted which sets this field. The value is in the same format as the CRL distribution
       point "reasons" field.

       The names "onlyuser", "onlyCA", "onlyAA" and "indirectCRL" are also accepted the values should be a boolean value (TRUE
       or FALSE) to indicate the value of the corresponding field.

       Example:

        issuingDistributionPoint=critical, @idp_section

        [idp_section]

        fullname=URI:http://myhost.com/myca.crl
        indirectCRL=TRUE
        onlysomereasons=keyCompromise, CACompromise

        [issuer_sect]
        C=UK
        O=Organisation
        CN=Some Name

   Certificate Policies.
       This is a raw extension. All the fields of this extension can be set by using the appropriate syntax.

       If you follow the PKIX recommendations and just using one OID then you just include the value of that OID. Multiple OIDs
       can be set separated by commas, for example:

        certificatePolicies= 1.2.4.5, 1.1.3.4

       If you wish to include qualifiers then the policy OID and qualifiers need to be specified in a separate section: this is
       done by using the @section syntax instead of a literal OID value.

       The section referred to must include the policy OID using the name policyIdentifier, cPSuri qualifiers can be included
       using the syntax:

        CPS.nnn=value

       userNotice qualifiers can be set using the syntax:

        userNotice.nnn=@notice

       The value of the userNotice qualifier is specified in the relevant section.  This section can include explicitText,
       organization and noticeNumbers options. explicitText and organization are text strings, noticeNumbers is a comma
       separated list of numbers. The organization and noticeNumbers options (if included) must BOTH be present. If you use the
       userNotice option with IE5 then you need the 'ia5org' option at the top level to modify the encoding: otherwise it will
       not be interpreted properly.

       Example:

        certificatePolicies=ia5org,1.2.3.4,1.5.6.7.8,@polsect

        [polsect]

        policyIdentifier = 1.3.5.8
        CPS.1="http://my.host.name/"
        CPS.2="http://my.your.name/"
        userNotice.1=@notice

        [notice]

        explicitText="Explicit Text Here"
        organization="Organisation Name"
        noticeNumbers=1,2,3,4

       The ia5org option changes the type of the organization field. In RFC2459 it can only be of type DisplayText. In RFC3280
       IA5Strring is also permissible.  Some software (for example some versions of MSIE) may require ia5org.

   Policy Constraints
       This is a multi-valued extension which consisting of the names requireExplicitPolicy or inhibitPolicyMapping and a non
       negative intger value. At least one component must be present.

       Example:

        policyConstraints = requireExplicitPolicy:3

   Inhibit Any Policy
       This is a string extension whose value must be a non negative integer.

       Example:

        inhibitAnyPolicy = 2

   Name Constraints
       The name constraints extension is a multi-valued extension. The name should begin with the word permitted or excluded
       followed by a ;. The rest of the name and the value follows the syntax of subjectAltName except email:copy is not
       supported and the IP form should consist of an IP addresses and subnet mask separated by a /.

       Examples:

        nameConstraints=permitted;IP:192.168.0.0/255.255.0.0

        nameConstraints=permitted;email:.somedomain.com

        nameConstraints=excluded;email:.com
       issuingDistributionPoint = idp_section

   OCSP No Check
       The OCSP No Check extension is a string extension but its value is ignored.

       Example:

        noCheck = ignored

DEPRECATED EXTENSIONS
       The following extensions are non standard, Netscape specific and largely obsolete. Their use in new applications is
       discouraged.

   Netscape String extensions.
       Netscape Comment (nsComment) is a string extension containing a comment which will be displayed when the certificate is
       viewed in some browsers.

       Example:

        nsComment = "Some Random Comment"

       Other supported extensions in this category are: nsBaseUrl, nsRevocationUrl, nsCaRevocationUrl, nsRenewalUrl,
       nsCaPolicyUrl and nsSslServerName.

   Netscape Certificate Type
       This is a multi-valued extensions which consists of a list of flags to be included. It was used to indicate the purposes
       for which a certificate could be used. The basicConstraints, keyUsage and extended key usage extensions are now used
       instead.

       Acceptable values for nsCertType are: client, server, email, objsign, reserved, sslCA, emailCA, objCA.

ARBITRARY EXTENSIONS
       If an extension is not supported by the OpenSSL code then it must be encoded using the arbitrary extension format. It is
       also possible to use the arbitrary format for supported extensions. Extreme care should be taken to ensure that the data
       is formatted correctly for the given extension type.

       There are two ways to encode arbitrary extensions.

       The first way is to use the word ASN1 followed by the extension content using the same syntax as ASN1_generate_nconf(3).
       For example:

        1.2.3.4=critical,ASN1:UTF8String:Some random data

        1.2.3.4=ASN1:SEQUENCE:seq_sect

        [seq_sect]

        field1 = UTF8:field1
        field2 = UTF8:field2

       It is also possible to use the word DER to include the raw encoded data in any extension.

        1.2.3.4=critical,DER:01:02:03:04
        1.2.3.4=DER:01020304

       The value following DER is a hex dump of the DER encoding of the extension Any extension can be placed in this form to
       override the default behaviour.  For example:

        basicConstraints=critical,DER:00:01:02:03

WARNING
       There is no guarantee that a specific implementation will process a given extension. It may therefore be sometimes
       possible to use certificates for purposes prohibited by their extensions because a specific application does not
       recognize or honour the values of the relevant extensions.

       The DER and ASN1 options should be used with caution. It is possible to create totally invalid extensions if they are not
       used carefully.

NOTES
       If an extension is multi-value and a field value must contain a comma the long form must be used otherwise the comma
       would be misinterpreted as a field separator. For example:

        subjectAltName=URI:ldap://somehost.com/CN=foo,OU=bar

       will produce an error but the equivalent form:

        subjectAltName=@subject_alt_section

        [subject_alt_section]
        subjectAltName=URI:ldap://somehost.com/CN=foo,OU=bar

       is valid.

       Due to the behaviour of the OpenSSL conf library the same field name can only occur once in a section. This means that:

        subjectAltName=@alt_section

        [alt_section]

        email=steve@here
        email=steve@there

       will only recognize the last value. This can be worked around by using the form:

        [alt_section]

        email.1=steve@here
        email.2=steve@there

HISTORY
       The X509v3 extension code was first added to OpenSSL 0.9.2.

       Policy mappings, inhibit any policy and name constraints support was added in OpenSSL 0.9.8

       The directoryName and otherName option as well as the ASN1 option for arbitrary extensions was added in OpenSSL 0.9.8

SEE ALSO
       req(1), ca(1), x509(1), ASN1_generate_nconf(3)



1.0.0e                                                     2006-11-07                                           X509V3_CONFIG(5)