Hi, This is a followup to an earlier inquiry regarding CA certificates in a certificate chain.
I got a test configuration, where I have a root CA and a subroot CA by first creating two self-signed CAs (ATEST4 and ATEST5), and then getting the ATEST4 CA to re-sign the ATEST5 CA's cert. It seems like this is working, i.e., I can issue client and server certificates from the subroot CA, and they seem to work all right and I can verify the cert chain from the end certificate back to the root CA certificate. But, I was looking at the CA certs that I ended up with, using "openssl x509", and got: This is the SUB ROOT CA's Cert: Certificate: Data: Version: 3 (0x2) Serial Number: 10:bf:34:36:b6:96:bd:35:07:b5:c5:92:8e:ce:df:9d Signature Algorithm: sha1WithRSAEncryption Issuer: [EMAIL PROTECTED], C=US, O=ATest4Dept, OU=ATest4Co, CN=ATEST4 Validity Not Before: Mar 2 06:08:03 2005 GMT Not After : Feb 27 09:22:27 2008 GMT Subject: [EMAIL PROTECTED], C=US, O=ATest5Dept, OU=ATest5Co, CN=ATEST5 Subject Public Key Info: Public Key Algorithm: rsaEncryption RSA Public Key: (1024 bit) Modulus (1024 bit): 00:97:95:7d:be:91:24:0e:da:c6:ab:0f:5f:6d:53: 4d:7a:a8:9a:a8:5a:8d:38:04:1d:61:cf:a9:5b:bb: 7b:8f:d1:42:6f:88:db:4e:12:db:e0:30:59:ea:84: . <snip> . 24:07:49:62:e3:a7:78:9b:fd:59:47:12:9b:85:6b: 87:73:8d:32:ff:52:3b:13:c1 Exponent: 65537 (0x10001) X509v3 extensions: X509v3 Basic Constraints: critical CA:TRUE X509v3 Key Usage: critical Digital Signature, Certificate Sign, CRL Sign X509v3 Authority Key Identifier: keyid:FF:78:E3:03:37:8D:EA:0F:1D:ED:B0:C7:D2:48:49:C6:90:D1:D5:B0 X509v3 Subject Key Identifier: 8F:42:40:96:67:D8:48:02:06:B5:F0:68:7D:59:F5:6A:E5:14:92:68 Signature Algorithm: sha1WithRSAEncryption 78:4f:38:1f:f8:82:89:b7:42:49:f0:8e:81:46:a3:5a:40:bc: d1:f9:7a:fd:ea:e4:96:17:52:cc:c6:c0:9b:dd:56:40:fc:6c: . <snip> . 08:0b:28:03:63:78:52:d2:08:f9:63:69:0a:f5:65:0f:44:d3: 95:d7:93:ce:7d:8a:e5:70:e4:3d:11:8e:92:e5:3e:0b:b0:a2: 09:c3 This is the ROOT CA's Cert: Certificate: Data: Version: 1 (0x0) Serial Number: 8c:5e:50:92:11:7d:d1:77:c6:52:ab:7d:be:65:7f:3a Signature Algorithm: sha1WithRSAEncryption Issuer: [EMAIL PROTECTED], C=US, O=ATest4Dept, OU=ATest4Co, CN=ATEST4 Validity Not Before: Mar 2 05:38:29 2005 GMT Not After : Mar 1 09:19:53 2008 GMT Subject: [EMAIL PROTECTED], C=US, O=ATest4Dept, OU=ATest4Co, CN=ATEST4 Subject Public Key Info: Public Key Algorithm: rsaEncryption RSA Public Key: (1024 bit) Modulus (1024 bit): 00:b6:a1:fd:a8:66:eb:75:40:9c:84:a0:f7:21:80: 89:84:87:2b:9a:4c:b0:be:97:69:0c:36:15:9b:96: . <snip> . b6:43:25:95:17:4d:ee:e3:5d:26:c3:df:33:50:ce: 70:96:41:eb:f4:2a:6d:98:ff Exponent: 65537 (0x10001) Signature Algorithm: sha1WithRSAEncryption ad:b0:f1:d6:39:85:36:f1:35:7e:5c:5f:ce:24:58:e0:97:c5: f1:41:d3:5b:b6:9d:48:2b:f3:1d:51:28:e9:ee:8f:35:45:3b: . <snip> . 01:fa:d3:7e:f7:47:a6:34:ad:88:71:35:23:a5:25:0f:d0:3b: 94:56:37:8c:06:22:3e:7e:83:ab:ba:f2:de:b5:86:60:03:22: 38:89 Per earlier messages from Steve Henson, the SUB ROOT CA (CN=ATEST5) has "Basic Constraints" with "CA=TRUE", and "Digital Signature, Certificate Sign, CRL Sign". However, I noticed that the ROOT CA (CN=ATEST4) certificate doesn't have any of these extensions (e.g., "CA=TRUE", etc.), and yet, it was able to re-sign the SUB ROOT CA (CN=ATEST5) certificate, and the SUB ROOT CA seems to be able to issue proper end user certs. The questions that I have are: 1) Do both of these CA certs look "all right"? 2) Does the ROOT CA cert look "all right" for a CA certificate, i.e., does it look like a valid ROOT CA certificate? Thanks in advance, Jim ______________________________________________________________________ OpenSSL Project http://www.openssl.org User Support Mailing List openssl-users@openssl.org Automated List Manager [EMAIL PROTECTED]