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EasyRSA-Renew-and-Revoke.md

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Easy-RSA 3 Certificate Renewal and Revocation Documentation

This document explains how the differing versions of Easy-RSA 3 work with regard to Renewal and Revocation of Certificates.

In summary:

Easy-RSA Version 3.1.7 provides the most flexible support of renewal. This includes command rewind-renew, which is required to recover certificates renewed by renew command version 1. However, this does not include renewing any supported certificate attributes.

Easy-RSA Version 3.2.1 is preferred for future support.

Reason codes available for revoke commands

The follow is an exhaustive list of available reason codes, with abbreviations:

  • us | uns* | unspecified

  • kc | key* | keyCompromise

  • cc | ca* | CACompromise

  • ac | aff* | affiliationChanged

  • ss | sup* | superseded

  • co | ces* | cessationOfOperation

  • ch | cer* | certificateHold

    reason must be one of these abbreviations/codes, otherwise not be used.

Easy-RSA version 3.2.x

For Easy-RSA Version 3.2.0, command renew is NOT supported.

Please upgrade to Easy-RSA Version 3.2.1

For Easy-RSA Version 3.2.1+, command renew is supported.

The command renew has been rewritten and now supports the renewal of supported attributes. During renewal, the certificate is inspected and all supported attributes are applied to the renewed certificate, as they were in the original.

User added attributes from $EASYRSA_EXTRA_EXTS, that are not supported, are dropped.

If the renewed certificate requires unsupported attibutes or changing the commonName then the following process, that of expiry and then signing a new certificate from the original request file, is required.

The expiry and signing process is as follows:

  1. Command expire <NAME>

    This will move an existing certificate from pki/issued to pki/expired, so that a new certificate can be signed, using the original request.

    Generally, renewing is required ONLY when a certificate is due to expire. This means that certificates moved to pki/expired are expected to be expired or to expire in the near future, however, this is not a requirement.

  2. Command sign-req <TYPE> <NAME>

    Sign a new certificate. This allows ALL command line customisations to be used.

  3. If required, command revoke-expired can be used to revoke an expired certificate in the pki/expired directory.

This approach allows original certificates, which have been edited during sign-req, to be edited the same way.

Easy-RSA version 3.1.x

Command Details: renew

easyrsa renew file-name-base [ cmd-opts ]

renew is only available since Easy-RSA version 3.0.6

renew has three different versions:

  • renew Version 1: Easy-RSA version 3.0.6, 3.0.7 and 3.0.8.

    • Both certificate and private key are rebuilt.
    • Once a certificate has been renewed it cannot be revoked.

  • renew Version 2: Easy-RSA version 3.0.9 and 3.1.0.

    • Both certificate and private key are rebuilt.

    • Once a certificate has been renewed it can be revoked.

    • Use command:

      revoke-renewed file-name-base [ reason ]

  • renew Version 3: Easy-RSA version 3.1.1+.

    • Only certificate is renewed.
    • The original renew command has been renamed to rebuild, which rebuilds both certificate and private key.

Resolving issues with renew version 1

Upgrade Easy-RSA to version 3.1.1+ is required.

renew version 1 rebuilds the certificate and private key.

Once a certificate has been renewed by version 1, the files are saved in the renewed/ storage area by serialNumber. These files must be recovered by using command:

easyrsa rewind-renew serialNumber

Command rewind-renew is only available in Easy-RSA version 3.1.1 to 3.1.7.

Once rewind-renew has recovered the files, the certificate can be revoked:

easyrsa revoke-renewed file-name-base [ reason ]

Using renew version 2

Upgrade Easy-RSA to version 3.1.1+ is required.

renew version 2 rebuilds the certificate and private key.

Renewed certificate can be revoked:

easyrsa revoke-renewed file-name-base [ reason ]

Using renew version 3

Upgrade Easy-RSA to version 3.1.1+ is required.

renew version 3 renews the certificate only.

Renewed certificate can be revoked:

easyrsa revoke-renewed file-name-base [ reason ]

This is the preferred method to renew a certificate because the original private key is still valid.

renew version 3 is only available since Easy-RSA version 3.1.1+.

Easy-RSA Reporting tools for certificate status

Easy-RSA version 3.1.x, also has the following tools to keep track of certificate status:

easyrsa [ --days=# ] show-expire [ file-name-base ]

show-expire shows all certificates which will expire in given --days.

easyrsa show-renew [ file-name-base ]

show-renew shows all certificates which have been renewed, where the old certificate has not been revoked.

easyrsa show-revoke [ file-name-base ]

show-revoke shows all certificates which have been revoked.

About command rebuild

If rebuild is used then the output directory of old certificate, key and request is also the renewed directory. Use revoke-renewed to revoke an old certificate/key pair, which has been rebuilt by command rebuild.

Renew CA Certificate

Easy-RSA Version 3.2.1+ supports a simple way to effectively renew a CA Certificate.

Preamble - Specifically for use with OpenVPN:

When a CA certificate expires it must be replaced, this is unavoidable. No matter what method is used to create a new or renewed CA certificate, that CA certificate must be distributed to all of your servers and clients.

Please consider the method outlined here, which requires very little work:

  1. Before you do anything else -- Make a BACKUP of your current PKI.

  2. Use command init-pki soft

    This will reset your current PKI but will keep your vars setting file and your current Request files [CSR], in the pki/reqs directory.

    If you have an Easy-RSA generated TLS key for OpenVPN, that will also be preserved. However, it will NOT be used for new inline files. The file pki/private/easyrsa-tls.key will be moved to pki/easyrsa-keepsafe-tls.key, for safe keeping. Easy-RSA will display a warning that this key is still valid and possibly in use, before allowing another TLS key to be generated.

  3. Use command build-ca

    (With or without password and other preferences)

    This will build a completely new CA Certificate and private key.

    Use option --days to extend the lifetime of your new CA.

  4. Use command sign-req <TYPE> <NAME>

    (With or without other preferences, password is not relavent)

    This will use an existing Request to sign a new Certificate.

    This will NOT generate a new Private Key for each new Certificate.

    This will generate new inline files that can be distributed publicly. These inline files will not contain any security sensitive data.

    This means that you will have a new CA certificate and private key. And signed certificates for all of your users, including servers.

  5. Distribute the new inline files to all members of your PKI/VPN.

    These new inline files will not contain the user private key or the OpenVPN Pre-shared TLS key.

    These new inline files can be used by OpenVPN, examples below:

    • specify: --config <INLNE-FILE> in the OpenVPN user config file.
    • Use copy/paste to add the new details to the OpenVPN user config file.
    • Use cat to append the inline file to the OpenVPN user config file.

    Note: inline files in the pki/inline/private directory include security keys, which MUST only be transmitted over a secure connection, such as https.

    As of Easy-RSA Version 3.2.1, this is the only supported way to renew an expired CA certificate.