Command Line Tools to Create Security Artifacts

There are several command line tools that assist in the creation of security artifacts, most notably, openssl and keytool. Here is how we are using these tools to construct our own security artifacts.

Creating a Key Store File Using Openssl

> openssl pkcs12 –export –out KS_FILE –inkey PRIV_FILE –in CER_FILE \ –passout file:PASS_FILE

Where:

• KS_FILE is the name of the key store file to create.
• PRIV_FILE is the path to the private key file.
• CER_FILE is the path to the public certificate file.
• PASS_FILE is the path to the file that contains the passphrase to use.

Creating a Trust Store File Using Keytool

> keytool –import –trustcacerts –alias collab-service \ –file CER_FILE –keystore TS_FILE –storepass PASS_PHRASE –noprompt

Where:

• CER_FILE is the path to the public certificate file.
• TS_FILE is the path of the trust store file to import into (or create).
• PASS_PHRASE is the actual pass phrase to use with the trust store.

You can create other security artifacts, such as private key, Client Signing Request (CSR) and self-signed certificate using openssl.