<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"><title>PK12UTIL</title><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets Vsnapshot"><link rel="home" href="index.html" title="PK12UTIL"></head><body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">PK12UTIL</th></tr></table><hr></div><div class="refentry"><a name="pk12util"></a><div class="titlepage"></div><div class="refnamediv"><h2>Name</h2><p>pk12util — Export and import keys and certificate to or from a PKCS #12 file and the NSS database</p></div><div class="refsynopsisdiv"><h2>Synopsis</h2><div class="cmdsynopsis"><p><code class="command">pk12util</code>  [-i p12File|-l p12File|-o p12File] [-d [sql:]directory] [-h tokenname] [-P dbprefix] [-r] [-v] [-k slotPasswordFile|-K slotPassword] [-w p12filePasswordFile|-W p12filePassword]</p></div></div><div class="refsection"><a name="idm45659476549872"></a><h2>STATUS</h2><p>This documentation is still work in progress. Please contribute to the initial review in <a class="ulink" href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=836477" target="_top">Mozilla NSS bug 836477</a>
    </p></div><div class="refsection"><a name="description"></a><h2>Description</h2><p>The PKCS #12 utility, <span class="command"><strong>pk12util</strong></span>, 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.</p></div><div class="refsection"><a name="options"></a><h2>Options and Arguments</h2><p><span class="command"><strong>Options</strong></span></p><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term">-i p12file</span></dt><dd><p>Import keys and certificates from a PKCS #12 file into a security database.</p></dd><dt><span class="term">-l p12file</span></dt><dd><p>List the keys and certificates in PKCS #12 file.</p></dd><dt><span class="term">-o p12file</span></dt><dd><p>Export keys and certificates from the security database to a PKCS #12 file.</p></dd></dl></div><p><span class="command"><strong>Arguments</strong></span></p><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term">-c keyCipher</span></dt><dd><p>Specify the key encryption algorithm.</p></dd><dt><span class="term">-C certCipher</span></dt><dd><p>Specify the certiticate encryption algorithm.</p></dd><dt><span class="term">-d [sql:]directory</span></dt><dd><p>Specify the database directory into which to import to or export from certificates and keys.</p><p><span class="command"><strong>pk12util</strong></span> supports two types of databases: the legacy security databases (<code class="filename">cert8.db</code>, <code class="filename">key3.db</code>, and <code class="filename">secmod.db</code>) and new SQLite databases (<code class="filename">cert9.db</code>, <code class="filename">key4.db</code>, and <code class="filename">pkcs11.txt</code>). If the prefix <span class="command"><strong>sql:</strong></span> is not used, then the tool assumes that the given databases are in the old format.</p></dd><dt><span class="term">-h tokenname</span></dt><dd><p>Specify the name of the token to import into or export from.</p></dd><dt><span class="term">-k slotPasswordFile</span></dt><dd><p>Specify the text file containing the slot's password.</p></dd><dt><span class="term">-K slotPassword</span></dt><dd><p>Specify the slot's password.</p></dd><dt><span class="term">-m | --key-len  keyLength</span></dt><dd><p>Specify the desired length of the symmetric key to be used to encrypt the private key.</p></dd><dt><span class="term">-n | --cert-key-len  certKeyLength</span></dt><dd><p>Specify the desired length of the symmetric key to be used to encrypt the certificates and other meta-data.</p></dd><dt><span class="term">-n certname</span></dt><dd><p>Specify the nickname of the cert and private key to export.</p><p>The nickname can also be a PKCS #11 URI. For example, if you have a certificate named "my-server-cert" on the internal certificate store, it can be unambiguously specified as "pkcs11:token=NSS%20Certificate%20DB;object=my-server-cert". For details about the format, see RFC 7512.</p></dd><dt><span class="term">-P prefix</span></dt><dd><p>Specify the prefix used on the certificate and key databases. This option is provided as a special case. 
          Changing the names of the certificate and key databases is not recommended.</p></dd><dt><span class="term">-r</span></dt><dd><p>Dumps all of the data in raw (binary) form. This must be saved as a DER file. The default is to return information in a pretty-print ASCII format, which displays the information about the certificates and public keys in the p12 file.</p></dd><dt><span class="term">-v </span></dt><dd><p>Enable debug logging when importing.</p></dd><dt><span class="term">-w p12filePasswordFile</span></dt><dd><p>Specify the text file containing the pkcs #12 file password.</p></dd><dt><span class="term">-W p12filePassword</span></dt><dd><p>Specify the pkcs #12 file password.</p></dd></dl></div></div><div class="refsection"><a name="return-codes"></a><h2>Return Codes</h2><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p> 0 - No error</p></li><li class="listitem"><p> 1 - User Cancelled</p></li><li class="listitem"><p> 2 - Usage error</p></li><li class="listitem"><p> 6 - NLS init error</p></li><li class="listitem"><p> 8 - Certificate DB open error</p></li><li class="listitem"><p> 9 - Key DB open error</p></li><li class="listitem"><p> 10 - File initialization error</p></li><li class="listitem"><p> 11 - Unicode conversion error</p></li><li class="listitem"><p> 12 - Temporary file creation error</p></li><li class="listitem"><p> 13 - PKCS11 get slot error</p></li><li class="listitem"><p> 14 - PKCS12 decoder start error</p></li><li class="listitem"><p> 15 - error read from import file</p></li><li class="listitem"><p> 16 - pkcs12 decode error</p></li><li class="listitem"><p> 17 - pkcs12 decoder verify error</p></li><li class="listitem"><p> 18 - pkcs12 decoder validate bags error</p></li><li class="listitem"><p> 19 - pkcs12 decoder import bags error</p></li><li class="listitem"><p> 20 - key db conversion version 3 to version 2 error</p></li><li class="listitem"><p> 21 - cert db conversion version 7 to version 5 error</p></li><li class="listitem"><p> 22 - cert and key dbs patch error</p></li><li class="listitem"><p> 23 - get default cert db error</p></li><li class="listitem"><p> 24 - find cert by nickname error</p></li><li class="listitem"><p> 25 - create export context error</p></li><li class="listitem"><p> 26 - PKCS12 add password itegrity error</p></li><li class="listitem"><p> 27 - cert and key Safes creation error</p></li><li class="listitem"><p> 28 - PKCS12 add cert and key error</p></li><li class="listitem"><p> 29 - PKCS12 encode error</p></li></ul></div></div><div class="refsection"><a name="examples"></a><h2>Examples</h2><p><span class="command"><strong>Importing Keys and Certificates</strong></span></p><p>The most basic usage of <span class="command"><strong>pk12util</strong></span> for importing a certificate or key is the PKCS #12 input file (<code class="option">-i</code>) and some way to specify the security database being accessed (either <code class="option">-d</code> for a directory or <code class="option">-h</code> for a token).
    </p><p>
    pk12util -i p12File [-h tokenname] [-v] [-d [sql:]directory] [-P dbprefix] [-k slotPasswordFile|-K slotPassword] [-w p12filePasswordFile|-W p12filePassword]
    </p><p>For example:</p><p> </p><pre class="programlisting"># pk12util -i /tmp/cert-files/users.p12 -d sql:/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</pre><p><span class="command"><strong>Exporting Keys and Certificates</strong></span></p><p>Using the <span class="command"><strong>pk12util</strong></span> command to export certificates and keys requires both the name of the certificate to extract from the database (<code class="option">-n</code>) 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.
    </p><p>pk12util -o p12File -n certname [-c keyCipher] [-C certCipher] [-m|--key_len keyLen] [-n|--cert_key_len certKeyLen] [-d [sql:]directory] [-P dbprefix] [-k slotPasswordFile|-K slotPassword] [-w p12filePasswordFile|-W p12filePassword]</p><p>For example:</p><pre class="programlisting"># pk12util -o certs.p12 -n Server-Cert -d sql:/home/my/sharednssdb
Enter password for PKCS12 file: 
Re-enter password: </pre><p><span class="command"><strong>Listing Keys and Certificates</strong></span></p><p>The information in a <code class="filename">.p12</code> 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 <code class="filename">.p12</code> file.
    </p><p>pk12util -l p12File [-h tokenname] [-r] [-d [sql:]directory] [-P dbprefix] [-k slotPasswordFile|-K slotPassword] [-w p12filePasswordFile|-W p12filePassword]</p><p>For example, this prints the default ASCII output:</p><pre class="programlisting"># 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"
    </pre><p>Alternatively, the <code class="option">-r</code> prints the certificates and then exports them into separate DER binary files. This allows the certificates to be fed to another application that supports <code class="filename">.p12</code> files. Each certificate is written to a sequentially-number file, beginning with <code class="filename">file0001.der</code> and continuing through <code class="filename">file000N.der</code>, incrementing the number for every certificate:</p><pre class="programlisting">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
    </pre></div><div class="refsection"><a name="encryption"></a><h2>Password Encryption</h2><p>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 PKCS #12 SHA-1 and 3-key triple DES for private key encryption. When not in FIPS mode, PKCS #12 SHA-1 and 40-bit RC4 is used for certificate encryption. When in FIPS mode, there is no certificate encryption. If certificate encryption is not wanted, specify <strong class="userinput"><code>"NONE"</code></strong> as the argument of the <code class="option">-C</code> option.</p><p>The private key is always protected with strong encryption by default.</p><p>Several types of ciphers are supported.</p><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term">PKCS #5 password-based encryption</span></dt><dd><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p>PBES2 with AES-CBC-Pad as underlying encryption scheme (<strong class="userinput"><code>"AES-128-CBC"</code></strong>, <strong class="userinput"><code>"AES-192-CBC"</code></strong>, and <strong class="userinput"><code>"AES-256-CBC"</code></strong>)</p></li></ul></div></dd><dt><span class="term">PKCS #12 password-based encryption</span></dt><dd><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p>SHA-1 and 128-bit RC4 (<strong class="userinput"><code>"PKCS #12 V2 PBE With SHA-1 And 128 Bit RC4"</code></strong> or <strong class="userinput"><code>"RC4"</code></strong>)</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>SHA-1 and 40-bit RC4 (<strong class="userinput"><code>"PKCS #12 V2 PBE With SHA-1 And 40 Bit RC4"</code></strong>) (used by default for certificate encryption in non-FIPS mode)</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>SHA-1 and 3-key triple-DES (<strong class="userinput"><code>"PKCS #12 V2 PBE With SHA-1 And 3KEY Triple DES-CBC"</code></strong> or <strong class="userinput"><code>"DES-EDE3-CBC"</code></strong>)</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>SHA-1 and 128-bit RC2 (<strong class="userinput"><code>"PKCS #12 V2 PBE With SHA-1 And 128 Bit RC2 CBC"</code></strong> or <strong class="userinput"><code>"RC2-CBC"</code></strong>)</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>SHA-1 and 40-bit RC2 (<strong class="userinput"><code>"PKCS #12 V2 PBE With SHA-1 And 40 Bit RC2 CBC"</code></strong>)</p></li></ul></div></dd></dl></div><p>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 <span class="emphasis"><em>no security module can perform the requested operation</em></span>.</p></div><div class="refsection"><a name="databases"></a><h2>NSS Database Types</h2><p>NSS originally used BerkeleyDB databases to store security information. 
The last versions of these <span class="emphasis"><em>legacy</em></span> databases are:</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p>
			cert8.db for certificates
		</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
			key3.db for keys
		</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
			secmod.db for PKCS #11 module information
		</p></li></ul></div><p>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.</p><p>In 2009, NSS introduced a new set of databases that are SQLite databases rather than 
BerkleyDB. These new databases provide more accessibility and performance:</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p>
			cert9.db for certificates
		</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
			key4.db for keys
		</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
			pkcs11.txt, which is listing of all of the PKCS #11 modules contained in a new subdirectory in the security databases directory
		</p></li></ul></div><p>Because the SQLite databases are designed to be shared, these are the <span class="emphasis"><em>shared</em></span> database type. The shared database type is preferred; the legacy format is included for backward compatibility.</p><p>By default, the tools (<span class="command"><strong>certutil</strong></span>, <span class="command"><strong>pk12util</strong></span>, <span class="command"><strong>modutil</strong></span>) assume that the given security databases follow the more common legacy type. 
Using the SQLite databases must be manually specified by using the <span class="command"><strong>sql:</strong></span> prefix with the given security directory. For example:</p><pre class="programlisting"># pk12util -i /tmp/cert-files/users.p12 -d sql:/home/my/sharednssdb</pre><p>To set the shared database type as the default type for the tools, set the <code class="envar">NSS_DEFAULT_DB_TYPE</code> environment variable to <code class="envar">sql</code>:</p><pre class="programlisting">export NSS_DEFAULT_DB_TYPE="sql"</pre><p>This line can be set added to the <code class="filename">~/.bashrc</code> file to make the change permanent.</p><p>Most applications do not use the shared database by default, but they can be configured to use them. For example, this how-to article covers how to configure Firefox and Thunderbird to use the new shared NSS databases:</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p>
			https://wiki.mozilla.org/NSS_Shared_DB_Howto</p></li></ul></div><p>For an engineering draft on the changes in the shared NSS databases, see the NSS project wiki:</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p>
			https://wiki.mozilla.org/NSS_Shared_DB
		</p></li></ul></div></div><div class="refsection"><a name="compatibility"></a><h2>Compatibility Notes</h2><p>The exporting behavior of <span class="command"><strong>pk12util</strong></span> has changed over time, while importing files exported with older versions of NSS is still supported.</p><p>Until the 3.30 release, <span class="command"><strong>pk12util</strong></span> 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.</p><p>Until the 3.31 release, even when <strong class="userinput"><code>"AES-128-CBC"</code></strong> or <strong class="userinput"><code>"AES-192-CBC"</code></strong> is given from the command line, <span class="command"><strong>pk12util</strong></span> always used 256-bit AES as the underlying encryption scheme.</p><p>For historical reasons, <span class="command"><strong>pk12util</strong></span> 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.</p></div><div class="refsection"><a name="seealso"></a><h2>See Also</h2><p>certutil (1)</p><p>modutil (1)</p><p>The NSS wiki has information on the new database design and how to configure applications to use it.</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p>
			https://wiki.mozilla.org/NSS_Shared_DB_Howto</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
			https://wiki.mozilla.org/NSS_Shared_DB
		</p></li></ul></div></div><div class="refsection"><a name="resources"></a><h2>Additional Resources</h2><p>For information about NSS and other tools related to NSS (like JSS), check out the NSS project wiki at <a class="ulink" href="http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/pki/nss/" target="_top">http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/pki/nss/</a>. The NSS site relates directly to NSS code changes and releases.</p><p>Mailing lists: https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-tech-crypto</p><p>IRC: Freenode at #dogtag-pki</p></div><div class="refsection"><a name="authors"></a><h2>Authors</h2><p>The NSS tools were written and maintained by developers with Netscape, Red Hat,  Sun, Oracle, Mozilla, and Google.</p><p>
	Authors: Elio Maldonado &lt;emaldona@redhat.com&gt;, Deon Lackey &lt;dlackey@redhat.com&gt;.
    </p></div><div class="refsection"><a name="license"></a><h2>LICENSE</h2><p>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/.
    </p></div></div><div class="navfooter"><hr></div></body></html>