Certificates

Certificates

This guide covers certificate operations: issuance, listing, inspection, and verification.

1. What is a Certificate?

A certificate is a digitally signed document that binds a public key to an identity. X.509 certificates contain:

• Subject: The entity the certificate identifies
• Issuer: The CA that signed the certificate
• Validity: Not Before / Not After dates
• Public Key: The subject’s public key
• Extensions: Key usage, SANs, constraints
• Signature: CA’s digital signature

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2. CLI Commands

cert issue

Issue a certificate from a Certificate Signing Request (CSR).

qpki cert issue [flags]

Note: This command requires a CSR file (--csr). For direct issuance with automatic key generation, use qpki credential enroll instead. See Credentials.

Flags:

Flag	Short	Default	Description
--ca-dir	-d	./ca	CA directory
--profile	-P	required	Certificate profile (e.g., ec/tls-server)
--csr		required	CSR file
--cn		""	Override common name from CSR
--dns		""	DNS SANs (comma-separated)
--ip		""	IP SANs (comma-separated)
--out	-o	""	Output certificate file
--days		0	Validity period (overrides profile default)
--attest-cert		""	Attestation cert for ML-KEM CSR (RFC 9883)
--ca-passphrase		""	CA key passphrase

Examples:

# From classical CSR (ECDSA, RSA)
qpki cert issue --ca-dir ./myca --profile ec/tls-server \
  --csr server.csr --out server.pem

# From PQC CSR (ML-DSA)
qpki cert issue --ca-dir ./myca --profile ml/tls-server \
  --csr mldsa.csr --out server.pem

# From ML-KEM CSR (requires attestation certificate)
qpki cert issue --ca-dir ./myca --profile ml-kem/client \
  --csr kem.csr --attest-cert sign.pem --out kem.pem

# From hybrid CSR (created with 'csr gen --hybrid')
# The PQC key is automatically extracted from the CSR
qpki cert issue --ca-dir ./myca --profile hybrid/catalyst/tls-server \
  --csr hybrid.csr --out server.pem

Hybrid certificates: When using a hybrid CSR (created with csr gen --hybrid), the PQC public key is automatically extracted from the CSR’s SubjectAltPublicKeyInfo attribute. No additional flag is needed — the profile determines the certificate mode (Catalyst or Composite). See Hybrid Migration for details.

cert list

List certificates in a CA.

qpki cert list [flags]

Flags:

Flag	Short	Default	Description
--ca-dir	-d	./ca	CA directory
--status		all	Filter by status (valid, revoked, expired, all)

Examples:

# List all certificates
qpki cert list --ca-dir ./myca

qpki cert list --ca-dir ./myca --status valid

qpki cert list --ca-dir ./myca --status revoked

cert info

Display information about a certificate.

qpki cert info <serial> [flags]

Flags:

Flag	Short	Default	Description
--ca-dir	-d	./ca	CA directory

Example:

qpki cert info 0x03 --ca-dir ./myca

inspect

Display information about certificates or keys.

qpki inspect <file> [flags]

Examples:

# Show certificate details
qpki inspect certificate.pem

qpki inspect private.key

qpki inspect ./myca/versions/v1/certs/ca.ecdsa-p256.pem

cert verify

Verify a certificate’s validity and revocation status.

qpki cert verify <certificate> [flags]

Flags:

Flag	Short	Default	Description
--ca		required	CA certificate (PEM)
--crl			CRL file for revocation check (PEM/DER)
--ocsp			OCSP responder URL

Checks performed:

• Certificate signature (signed by CA)
• Validity period (not before / not after)
• Critical extensions
• Revocation status (if —crl or —ocsp provided)

Examples:

# Basic validation
qpki cert verify server.pem --ca ca.pem

qpki cert verify server.pem --ca ca.pem --crl ca/crl/ca.crl

qpki cert verify server.pem --ca ca.pem --ocsp http://localhost:8080

Exit codes:

• 0: Certificate is valid
• 1: Certificate is invalid, expired, or revoked

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3. Certificate Profiles

See Profiles for the complete list of certificate profiles. Common end-entity profiles:

Profile	Algorithm	Validity	Description
ec/tls-server	EC P-256	1 year	TLS server certificate
ec/tls-client	EC P-256	1 year	TLS client certificate
ml/tls-server	ML-DSA-65	1 year	PQC TLS server
hybrid/catalyst/tls-server	EC + ML-DSA	1 year	Hybrid TLS server

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See Also

• CA - Certificate Authority management
• CRL - Certificate revocation and CRL management
• Credentials - Credential lifecycle
• Keys & CSR - Key generation and CSR operations
• Profiles - Certificate profile templates