step ca rekey

step ca rekey -- rekey a certificate

step ca rekey command rekeys the given certificate (with a request to the certificate authority) and writes the new certificate and private key to disk - either overwriting crt-file and key-file positional arguments or using new files when the --out-cert=file and --out-key=file flags are used.

With the --daemon flag the command will periodically update the given certificate. By default, it will rekey the certificate before 2/3 of the validity period of the certificate has elapsed. A random jitter is used to avoid multiple instances running at the same time. The amount of time between rekey and certificate expiration can be configured using the --expires-in flag, or a fixed period can be set with the --rekey-period flag.

The --daemon flag can be combined with --pid, --signal, or --exec to provide certificate reloads on your services.

crt-file The certificate in PEM format that we want to rekey.

key-file They key file of the certificate.

--out-cert=file The file where the new certificate will be saved to. Defaults to overwriting the crt-file positional argument.

--out-key=file The file to store the new private key. Defaults to overwriting the key-file positional argument.

--private-key=file The file containing the private key for rekey-ing the certificate. By default, a new random key pair will be generated.

--expires-in=duration The amount of time remaining before certificate expiration, at which point a rekey should be attempted. The certificate rekey will not be performed if the time to expiration is greater than the --expires-in value. A random jitter (duration/20) will be added to avoid multiple services hitting the rekey endpoint at the same time. The duration is a sequence of decimal numbers, each with optional fraction and a unit suffix, such as "300ms", "-1.5h" or "2h45m". Valid time units are "ns", "us" (or "µs"), "ms", "s", "m", "h".

--pid=value The process id to signal after the certificate has been rekeyed. By default the the SIGHUP (1) signal will be used, but this can be configured with the --signal flag.

--pid-file=file The file from which to read the process id that will be signaled after the certificate has been rekeyed. By default the SIGHUP (1) signal will be used, but this can be configured with the --signal flag.

--signal=number The signal number to send to the selected PID, so it can reload the configuration and load the new certificate. Default value is SIGHUP (1)

--exec=command The command to run after the certificate has been rekeyed.

--daemon Run the rekey command as a daemon, rekeying and overwriting the certificate periodically. By default the daemon will rekey a certificate before 2/3 of the time to expiration has elapsed. The period can be configured using the --rekey-period or --expires-in flags.

--rekey-period=duration The period with which to schedule rekeying of the certificate in daemon mode. Requires the --daemon flag. The duration is a sequence of decimal numbers, each with optional fraction and a unit suffix, such as "300ms", "1.5h", or "2h45m". Valid time units are "ns", "us" (or "µs"), "ms", "s", "m", "h".

--kty=kty The kty to build the certificate upon. If unset, default is EC.

kty is a case-sensitive string and must be one of:

--crv=curve, --curve=curve The elliptic curve to use for EC and OKP key types. Corresponds to the "crv" JWK parameter. Valid curves are defined in JWA [RFC7518]. If unset, default is P-256 for EC keys and Ed25519 for OKP keys.

curve is a case-sensitive string and must be one of:

--size=size The size (in bits) of the key for RSA and oct key types. RSA keys require a minimum key size of 2048 bits. If unset, default is 2048 bits for RSA keys and 128 bits for oct keys.

-f, --force Force the overwrite of files without asking.

--offline Creates a certificate without contacting the certificate authority. Offline mode uses the configuration, certificates, and keys created with step ca init, but can accept a different configuration file using --ca-config flag.

--password-file=file The path to the file containing the password to encrypt or decrypt the private key.

--root=file The path to the PEM file used as the root certificate authority.

--ca-url=URI URI of the targeted Step Certificate Authority.

--ca-config=file The certificate authority configuration file. Defaults to $(step path)/config/ca.json

Rekey a certificate:

Rekey a certificate without overwriting the existing certificate and key:

Rekey a certificate forcing the overwrite of the previous certificate and key (overwrites the existing files without prompting):

Rekey a certificate providing the --ca-url and --root flags:

Rekey a certificate only if it expires within the given time frame:

Rekey the certificate before 2/3 of the validity has passed:

Rekey the certificate before 8 hours and 30m of the expiration time:

Rekey the certificate every 16h:

Rekey the certificate and reload nginx:

Rekey the certificate and convert it to DER:

Rekey a certificate using the offline mode, requires the configuration files, certificates, and keys created with step ca init:

Rekey the certificate and write it to specified files:

Rekey the certificate using a given private key: