NAME¶

pk12util - Export and import keys and certificate to or from a PKCS #12 file and the NSS database

SYNOPSIS¶

pk12util [-i p12File|-l p12File|-o p12File] [-c keyCipher] [-C certCipher] [-d directory] [-h tokenname] [-m | --key-len keyLength] [-M hashAlg] [-n certname] [-P dbprefix] [-r] [-v] [--cert-key-len certKeyLength] [-k slotPasswordFile|-K slotPassword] [-w p12filePasswordFile|-W p12filePassword]

STATUS¶

This documentation is still work in progress. Please contribute to the initial review in Mozilla NSS bug 836477[1]

DESCRIPTION¶

The PKCS #12 utility, pk12util, enables sharing certificates among any server that supports PKCS #12. The tool can import certificates and keys from PKCS #12 files into security databases, export certificates, and list certificates and keys.

OPTIONS AND ARGUMENTS¶

Options

-i p12file

-l p12file

-o p12file

Arguments

-c keyCipher

-C certCipher

-d directory

-h tokenname

-k slotPasswordFile

-K slotPassword

-m | --key-len keyLength

-M hashAlg

--cert-key-len certKeyLength

-n certname

-P prefix

-r

-v

-w p12filePasswordFile

-W p12filePassword

RETURN CODES¶

EXAMPLES¶

Importing Keys and Certificates

The most basic usage of pk12util for importing a certificate or key is the PKCS #12 input file (-i) and some way to specify the security database being accessed (either -d for a directory or -h for a token).

pk12util -i p12File [-h tokenname] [-v] [-d directory] [-P dbprefix] [-k slotPasswordFile|-K slotPassword] [-w p12filePasswordFile|-W p12filePassword]

For example:

# pk12util -i /tmp/cert-files/users.p12 -d /home/my/sharednssdb
Enter a password which will be used to encrypt your keys.
The password should be at least 8 characters long,
and should contain at least one non-alphabetic character.
Enter new password: 
Re-enter password: 
Enter password for PKCS12 file: 
pk12util: PKCS12 IMPORT SUCCESSFUL

Exporting Keys and Certificates

Using the pk12util command to export certificates and keys requires both the name of the certificate to extract from the database (-n) and the PKCS #12-formatted output file to write to. There are optional parameters that can be used to encrypt the file to protect the certificate material.

pk12util -o p12File -n certname [-c keyCipher] [-C certCipher] [-m|--key_len keyLen] [-n|--cert_key_len certKeyLen] [-d directory] [-P dbprefix] [-k slotPasswordFile|-K slotPassword] [-w p12filePasswordFile|-W p12filePassword]

For example:

# pk12util -o certs.p12 -n Server-Cert -d /home/my/sharednssdb
Enter password for PKCS12 file: 
Re-enter password: 

Listing Keys and Certificates

The information in a .p12 file are not human-readable. The certificates and keys in the file can be printed (listed) in a human-readable pretty-print format that shows information for every certificate and any public keys in the .p12 file.

pk12util -l p12File [-h tokenname] [-r] [-d directory] [-P dbprefix] [-k slotPasswordFile|-K slotPassword] [-w p12filePasswordFile|-W p12filePassword]

For example, this prints the default ASCII output:

# pk12util -l certs.p12
Enter password for PKCS12 file: 
Key(shrouded):


    Friendly Name: Thawte Freemail Member's Thawte Consulting (Pty) Ltd. ID


    Encryption algorithm: PKCS #12 V2 PBE With SHA-1 And 3KEY Triple DES-CBC


        Parameters:


            Salt:


                45:2e:6a:a0:03:4d:7b:a1:63:3c:15:ea:67:37:62:1f


            Iteration Count: 1 (0x1)
Certificate:


    Data:


        Version: 3 (0x2)


        Serial Number: 13 (0xd)


        Signature Algorithm: PKCS #1 SHA-1 With RSA Encryption


        Issuer: "E=personal-freemail@thawte.com,CN=Thawte Personal Freemail C


            A,OU=Certification Services Division,O=Thawte Consulting,L=Cape T


            own,ST=Western Cape,C=ZA"


    

Alternatively, the -r prints the certificates and then exports them into separate DER binary files. This allows the certificates to be fed to another application that supports .p12 files. Each certificate is written to a sequentially-number file, beginning with file0001.der and continuing through file000N.der, incrementing the number for every certificate:

pk12util -l test.p12 -r
Enter password for PKCS12 file: 
Key(shrouded):


    Friendly Name: Thawte Freemail Member's Thawte Consulting (Pty) Ltd. ID


    Encryption algorithm: PKCS #12 V2 PBE With SHA-1 And 3KEY Triple DES-CBC


        Parameters:


            Salt:


                45:2e:6a:a0:03:4d:7b:a1:63:3c:15:ea:67:37:62:1f


            Iteration Count: 1 (0x1)
Certificate    Friendly Name: Thawte Personal Freemail Issuing CA - Thawte Consulting
Certificate    Friendly Name: Thawte Freemail Member's Thawte Consulting (Pty) Ltd. ID


    

PASSWORD ENCRYPTION¶

PKCS #12 provides for not only the protection of the private keys but also the certificate and meta-data associated with the keys. Password-based encryption is used to protect private keys on export to a PKCS #12 file and, optionally, the associated certificates. If no algorithm is specified, the tool defaults to using AES-256-CBC for private key encryption and AES-128-CBC for certificate encryption. If certificate encryption is not wanted, specify "NONE" as the argument of the -C option.

The private key is always protected with strong encryption by default.

Several types of ciphers are supported.

PKCS #5 password-based encryption

PKCS #12 password-based encryption

With PKCS #12, the crypto provider may be the soft token module or an external hardware module. If the cryptographic module does not support the requested algorithm, then the next best fit will be selected (usually the default). If no suitable replacement for the desired algorithm can be found, the tool returns the error no security module can perform the requested operation.

NSS DATABASE TYPES¶

NSS originally used BerkeleyDB databases to store security information. The last versions of these legacy databases are:

BerkeleyDB has performance limitations, though, which prevent it from being easily used by multiple applications simultaneously. NSS has some flexibility that allows applications to use their own, independent database engine while keeping a shared database and working around the access issues. Still, NSS requires more flexibility to provide a truly shared security database.

In 2009, NSS introduced a new set of databases that are SQLite databases rather than BerkleyDB. These new databases provide more accessibility and performance:

Because the SQLite databases are designed to be shared, these are the shared database type. The shared database type is preferred; the legacy format is included for backward compatibility.

By default, the tools (certutil, pk12util, modutil) assume that the given security databases use the SQLite type.

For an engineering draft on the changes in the shared NSS databases, see the NSS project wiki:

COMPATIBILITY NOTES¶

The exporting behavior of pk12util has changed over time, while importing files exported with older versions of NSS is still supported.

Until the 3.30 release, pk12util used the UTF-16 encoding for the PKCS #5 password-based encryption schemes, while the recommendation is to encode passwords in UTF-8 if the used encryption scheme is defined outside of the PKCS #12 standard.

Until the 3.31 release, even when "AES-128-CBC" or "AES-192-CBC" is given from the command line, pk12util always used 256-bit AES as the underlying encryption scheme.

For historical reasons, pk12util accepts password-based encryption schemes not listed in this document. However, those schemes are not officially supported and may have issues in interoperability with other tools.

SEE ALSO¶

certutil (1)

modutil (1)

The NSS wiki has information on the new database design and how to configure applications to use it.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES¶

For information about NSS and other tools related to NSS (like JSS), check out the NSS project wiki at http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/pki/nss/. The NSS site relates directly to NSS code changes and releases.

Mailing lists: https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-tech-crypto

IRC: Freenode at #dogtag-pki

AUTHORS¶

The NSS tools were written and maintained by developers with Netscape, Red Hat, Sun, Oracle, Mozilla, and Google.

Authors: Elio Maldonado <emaldona@redhat.com>, Deon Lackey <dlackey@redhat.com>.

LICENSE¶

Licensed under the Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.

NOTES¶

1.

Mozilla NSS bug 836477