step Command Examples
An easy-to-use CLI tool for building, operating, and automating Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) systems and workflows. See also:
openssl
. More information: https://smallstep.com/docs/step-cli/.
- Inspect the contents of a certificate:
step certificate inspect {{path/to/certificate.crt}}
- Create a root CA certificate and a key (append
--no-password --insecure
to skip private key password protection):
step certificate create "{{Example Root CA}}" {{path/to/root-ca.crt}} {{path/to/root-ca.key}} --profile root-ca
- Generate a certificate for a specific hostname and sign it with the root CA (generating a CSR can be skipped for simplification):
step certificate create {{hostname.example.com}} {{path/to/hostname.crt}} {{path/to/hostname.key}} --profile leaf --ca {{path/to/root-ca.crt}} --ca-key {{path/to/root-ca.key}}
- Verify a certificate chain:
step certificate verify {{path/to/hostname.crt}} --roots {{path/to/root-ca.crt}} --verbose
- Convert a PEM format certificate to DER and write it to disk:
step certificate format {{path/to/certificate.pem}} --out {{path/to/certificate.der}}
- Install or uninstall a root certificate in the system's default trust store:
step certificate {{install|uninstall}} {{path/to/root-ca.crt}}
- Create a RSA/EC private and public keypair (append
--no-password --insecure
to skip private key password protection):
step crypto keypair {{path/to/public_key}} {{path/to/private_key}} --kty {{RSA|EC}}
- Show help for subcommands:
step {{path|base64|certificate|completion|context|crl|crypto|oauth|ca|beta|ssh}} --help