2N/A<!
DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V4.1//EN">
2N/A <
date>June 30, 2000</
date>
2N/A <
refentrytitle><
application>dnssec-keygen</
application></
refentrytitle>
2N/A <
manvolnum>8</
manvolnum>
2N/A <
refmiscinfo>BIND9</
refmiscinfo>
2N/A <
refname><
application>dnssec-keygen</
application></
refname>
2N/A <
refpurpose>DNSSEC key generation tool</
refpurpose>
2N/A <
command>dnssec-keygen</
command>
2N/A <
arg choice="req">-a <
replaceable class="parameter">algorithm</
replaceable></
arg>
2N/A <
arg choice="req">-b <
replaceable class="parameter">keysize</
replaceable></
arg>
32N/A <
arg choice="req">-n <
replaceable class="parameter">nametype</
replaceable></
arg>
32N/A <
arg><
option>-c <
replaceable class="parameter">class</
replaceable></
option></
arg>
2N/A <
arg><
option>-e</
option></
arg>
2N/A <
arg><
option>-g <
replaceable class="parameter">generator</
replaceable></
option></
arg>
26N/A <
arg><
option>-h</
option></
arg>
38N/A <
arg><
option>-p <
replaceable class="parameter">protocol</
replaceable></
option></
arg>
38N/A <
arg><
option>-r <
replaceable class="parameter">randomdev</
replaceable></
option></
arg>
38N/A <
arg><
option>-s <
replaceable class="parameter">strength</
replaceable></
option></
arg>
29N/A <
arg><
option>-t <
replaceable class="parameter">type</
replaceable></
option></
arg>
29N/A <
arg><
option>-v <
replaceable class="parameter">level</
replaceable></
option></
arg>
29N/A <
arg choice="req">name</
arg>
26N/A <
title>DESCRIPTION</
title>
38N/A <
command>dnssec-keygen</
command> generates keys for DNSSEC
2N/A (Secure DNS), as defined in RFC 2535. It can also generate
6N/A keys for use with TSIG (Transaction Signatures), as
2N/A defined in RFC 2845.
34N/A <
title>OPTIONS</
title>
34N/A <
term>-a <
replaceable class="parameter">algorithm</
replaceable></
term>
12N/A Selects the cryptographic algorithm. The value of
2N/A <
option>algorithm</
option> must be one of RSAMD5 or RSA,
16N/A DSA, DH (Diffie Hellman), or HMAC-MD5. These values
16N/A are case insensitive.
34N/A Note that for DNSSEC, DSA is a mandatory to implement algorithm,
16N/A and RSA is recommended. For TSIG, HMAC-MD5 is mandatory.
12N/A <
term>-b <
replaceable class="parameter">keysize</
replaceable></
term>
12N/A Specifies the number of bits in the key. The choice of key
12N/A size depends on the algorithm used. RSA keys must be between
12N/A 512 and 2048 bits. Diffie Hellman keys must be between
12N/A 128 and 4096 bits. DSA keys must be between 512 and 1024
12N/A bits and an exact multiple of 64. HMAC-MD5 keys must be
12N/A between 1 and 512 bits.
2N/A <
term>-n <
replaceable class="parameter">nametype</
replaceable></
term>
2N/A Specifies the owner type of the key. The value of
2N/A <
option>nametype</
option> must either be ZONE (for a DNSSEC
2N/A zone key), HOST or ENTITY (for a key associated with a host),
2N/A or USER (for a key associated with a user). These values are
2N/A <
term>-c <
replaceable class="parameter">class</
replaceable></
term>
2N/A Indicates that the DNS record containing the key should have
2N/A the specified class. If not specified, class IN is used.
2N/A If generating an RSA key, use a large exponent.
2N/A <
term>-g <
replaceable class="parameter">generator</
replaceable></
term>
2N/A If generating a Diffie Hellman key, use this generator.
2N/A Allowed values are 2 and 5. If no generator
2N/A is specified, a known prime from RFC 2539 will be used
2N/A if possible; otherwise the default is 2.
Prints a short summary of the options and arguments to
<
command>dnssec-keygen</
command>.
<
term>-p <
replaceable class="parameter">protocol</
replaceable></
term>
Sets the protocol value for the generated key. The protocol
is a number between 0 and 255. The default is 2 (email) for
keys of type USER and 3 (DNSSEC) for all other key types.
Other possible values for this argument are listed in
RFC 2535 and its successors.
<
term>-r <
replaceable class="parameter">randomdev</
replaceable></
term>
Specifies the source of randomness. If the operating
system does not provide a <
filename>/
dev/
random</
filename>
or equivalent device, the default source of randomness
is keyboard input. <
filename>randomdev</
filename> specifies
the name of a character device or file containing random
data to be used instead of the default. The special value
<
filename>keyboard</
filename> indicates that keyboard
<
term>-s <
replaceable class="parameter">strength</
replaceable></
term>
Specifies the strength value of the key. The strength is
a number between 0 and 15, and currently has no defined
<
term>-t <
replaceable class="parameter">type</
replaceable></
term>
Indicates the use of the key. <
option>type</
option> must be
one of AUTHCONF, NOAUTHCONF, NOAUTH, or NOCONF. The default
is AUTHCONF. AUTH refers to the ability to authenticate
data, and CONF the ability to encrypt data.
<
term>-v <
replaceable class="parameter">level</
replaceable></
term>
Sets the debugging level.
<
title>GENERATED KEYS</
title>
When <
command>dnssec-keygen</
command> completes successfully,
it prints a string of the form <
filename>Knnnn.+aaa+iiiii</
filename>
to the standard output. This is an identification string for
the key it has generated. These strings can be used as arguments
to <
command>dnssec-makekeyset</
command>.
<
filename>nnnn</
filename> is the key name.
<
filename>aaa</
filename> is the numeric representation of the algorithm.
<
filename>iiiii</
filename> is the key identifier (or footprint).
<
command>dnssec-keygen</
command> creates two file, with names based
on the printed string. <
filename>Knnnn.+aaa+
iiiii.key</
filename>
contains the public key, and
<
filename>Knnnn.+aaa+
iiiii.private</
filename> contains the private
The <
filename>.key</
filename> file contains a DNS KEY record that
can be inserted into a zone file (directly or with a $INCLUDE
The <
filename>.private</
filename> file contains algorithm specific
fields. For obvious security reasons, this file does not have
Both <
filename>.key</
filename> and <
filename>.private</
filename>
files are generated for symmetric encryption algorithm such as
HMAC-MD5, even though the public and private key are equivalent.
To generate a 768-bit DSA key for the domain
<
userinput>
example.com</
userinput>, the following command would be
<
userinput>dnssec-keygen -a DSA -b 768 -n ZONE
example.com</
userinput>
The command would print a string of the form:
In this example, <
command>dnssec-keygen</
command> creates
<
refentrytitle>dnssec-makekeyset</
refentrytitle>
<
refentrytitle>dnssec-signkey</
refentrytitle>
<
refentrytitle>dnssec-signzone</
refentrytitle>
<
citetitle>BIND 9 Administrator Reference Manual</
citetitle>,
<
citetitle>RFC 2535</
citetitle>,
<
citetitle>RFC 2845</
citetitle>,
<
citetitle>RFC 2539</
citetitle>.
<
corpauthor>Internet Software Consortium</
corpauthor>