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PKI --GEN(1) strongSwan PKI --GEN(1)

NAME

pki --gen - Generate a new RSA or ECDSA private key

SYNOPSIS

pki --gen [--type type] [--size bits] [--safe-primes] [--shares n] [--threshold l] [--outform encoding] [--debug level]
pki --gen --options file
pki --gen -h | --help

DESCRIPTION

This sub-command of pki(1) is used to generate a new RSA or ECDSA private key.

OPTIONS

Print usage information with a summary of the available options.
Set debug level, default: 1.
-+, --options file
Read command line options from file.
Type of key to generate. Either rsa or ecdsa, defaults to rsa.
Key length in bits. Defaults to 2048 for rsa and 384 for ecdsa. For ecdsa only three values are currently supported: 256, 384 and 521.
Generate RSA safe primes.
Encoding of the generated private key. Either der (ASN.1 DER) or pem (Base64 PEM), defaults to der.

RSA Threshold Cryptography

Number of private RSA key shares.
Minimum number of participating RSA key shares.

PROBLEMS ON HOSTS WITH LOW ENTROPY

If the gmp plugin is used to generate RSA private keys the key material is read from /dev/random (via the random plugin). Therefore, the command may block if the system's entropy pool is empty. To avoid this, either use a hardware random number generator to feed /dev/random or use OpenSSL (via the openssl plugin or the command line) which is not as strict in regards to the quality of the key material (it reads from /dev/urandom if necessary). It is also possible to configure the devices used by the random plugin in strongswan.conf(5). Setting libstrongswan.plugins.random.random to /dev/urandom forces the plugin to treat bytes read from /dev/urandom as high grade random data, thus avoiding the blocking. Of course, this doesn't change the fact that the key material generated this way is of lower quality.

EXAMPLES

Generates a 3072-bit RSA private key.
Generates a 256-bit ECDSA private key.

SEE ALSO

pki(1)

2013-07-31 5.2.0