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

-h, --help: Print usage information with a summary of the available options.
-v, --debug level: Set debug level, default: 1.
-+, --options file: Read command line options from file.
-t, --type type: Type of key to generate. Either rsa, ecdsa, ed25519, or ed448, defaults to rsa.
-s, --size bits: 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.
-p, --safe-primes: Generate RSA safe primes.
-f, --outform encoding: Encoding of the generated private key. Either der (ASN.1 DER) or pem (Base64 PEM), defaults to der.

RSA Threshold Cryptography

-n, --shares <n>: Number of private RSA key shares.
-l, --threshold <l>: 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

pki --gen --size 3072 > rsa_key.der: Generates a 3072-bit RSA private key.
pki --gen --type ecdsa --size 256 > ecdsa_key.der: Generates a 256-bit ECDSA private key.