openssl_genrsa(1) - NetBSD Manual Pages

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GENRSA(1)                    OpenSSL                    GENRSA(1)



NAME

       genrsa - generate an RSA private key


LIBRARY

       libcrypto, -lcrypto


SYNOPSIS

       openssl genrsa [-out filename] [-passout arg] [-des]
       [-des3] [-idea] [-f4] [-3] [-rand file(s)] [numbits]


DESCRIPTION

       The genrsa command generates an RSA private key.


OPTIONS

       -out filename
           the output filename. If this argument is not specified
           then standard output is used.

       -passout arg
           the output file password source. For more information
           about the format of arg see the PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS
           section in openssl(1).

       -des|-des3|-idea
           These options encrypt the private key with the DES,
           triple DES, or the IDEA ciphers respectively before
           outputting it. If none of these options is specified
           no encryption is used. If encryption is used a pass
           phrase is prompted for if it is not supplied via the
           -passout argument.

       -F4|-3
           the public exponent to use, either 65537 or 3. The
           default is 65537.

       -rand file(s)
           a file or files containing random data used to seed
           the random number generator, or an EGD socket (see
           RAND_egd(3)).  Multiple files can be specified sepa-
           rated by a OS-dependent character.  The separator is ;
           for MS-Windows, , for OpenVMS, and : for all others.

       numbits
           the size of the private key to generate in bits. This
           must be the last option specified. The default is 512.


NOTES

       RSA private key generation essentially involves the gener-
       ation of two prime numbers. When generating a private key
       various symbols will be output to indicate the progress of
       the generation. A . represents each number which has
       passed an initial sieve test, + means a number has passed
       a single round of the Miller-Rabin primality test. A new-
       line means that the number has passed all the prime tests



2001-04-12                    0.9.6g                            1





GENRSA(1)                    OpenSSL                    GENRSA(1)


       (the actual number depends on the key size).

       Because key generation is a random process the time taken
       to generate a key may vary somewhat.


BUGS

       A quirk of the prime generation algorithm is that it can-
       not generate small primes. Therefore the number of bits
       should not be less that 64. For typical private keys this
       will not matter because for security reasons they will be
       much larger (typically 1024 bits).


SEE ALSO

       openssl_gendsa(1)











































2001-04-12                    0.9.6g                            2