OpenSSL PKCS10 CSR Utilities

PKCS10 (CSR) Information

• Extension(s) .csr, .pem, .p10
• PKCS #10 (PKCS10) is the most common Certificate Signing Request (CSR) format. The term CSR often implies PKCS10 format, though other CSR formats exist.
• A PEM-encoded PKCS10 file is plain text, with base64-encoded payload data. It contains a line that reads "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----" or "-----BEGIN NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----".

PKCS10 Commands

1. View the contents of a PKCS10 (CSR) PEM-formatted file.
   1. # openssl req -noout -text -in <certificate>.csr
2. Generate a new PKCS10 (CSR) PEM-formatted file.
   1. # openssl req -new -key <keyfile>.key -out <certificate>.csr

Further Reading

1. PKCS10 Certificate Signing Request
2. OpenSSL CSR