p11-kit - Man Page

p11-kit list-modules

p11-kit list-tokens ...

p11-kit list-objects ...

p11-kit import-object ...

p11-kit export-object ...

p11-kit delete-object ...

p11-kit generate-keypair ...

p11-kit list-profiles ...

p11-kit add-profile ...

p11-kit delete-profile ...

p11-kit list-mechanisms ...

p11-kit print-config

p11-kit extract ...

p11-kit server ...

p11-kit is a command line tool that can be used to perform operations on PKCS#11 modules configured on the system.

See the various sub commands below. The following global options can be used:

-v,  --verbose

Run in verbose mode with debug output.

-q,  --quiet

Run in quiet mode without warning or failure messages.

List system configured PKCS#11 modules.

$ p11-kit list-modules

The modules, information about them and the tokens present in the PKCS#11 modules will be displayed.

List all tokens available in system configured PKCS#11 modules.

$ p11-kit list-tokens pkcs11:token

This retrieves all tokens and displays some of their common attributes.

This subcommand takes the following options:

--only-uris

Print only the matching token URIs.

--provider=<module_path>

Load only the given PKCS#11 module instead of enumerating modules installed on the system. If module_path is a relative path, the module is loaded from the default module path. This path can be determined by running:

$ pkg-config p11-kit-1 --variable p11_module_path
/usr/lib64/pkcs11

List objects matching given PKCS#11 URI.

$ p11-kit list-objects pkcs11:object_on_token

This retrieves all objects that match given PKCS#11 URI and displays some of their common attributes. Storage objects also have their PKCS#11 URI displayed.

This subcommand takes the following options:

--login

Authenticate to the token before enumerating objects. The PIN value is read from either the pin-value attribute in the URI or from the terminal.

--provider=<module_path>

Load only the given PKCS#11 module instead of enumerating modules installed on the system. If module_path is a relative path, the module is loaded from the default module path. This path can be determined by running:

$ pkg-config p11-kit-1 --variable p11_module_path
/usr/lib64/pkcs11

Import object into PKCS#11 token.

$ p11-kit import-object --file=file.pem [--label=label] [--id=object_id] pkcs11:token

Takes either an X.509 certificate or a public key in the form of a PEM file and imports it into the first token matched by given PKCS#11 URI.

The following options are required:

--file=<file.pem>

File containing either an X.509 certificate or a public key in PEM format.

This subcommand also accepts the following options:

--label=<label>

Assigns label to the imported object.

--id=<object_id>

Assigns ID to the imported object. The ID should be specified in hexadecimal format without '0x' prefix.

--login

Authenticate to the token before enumerating objects. The PIN value is read from either the pin-value attribute in the URI or from the terminal.

--provider=<module_path>

Load only the given PKCS#11 module instead of enumerating modules installed on the system. If module_path is a relative path, the module is loaded from the default module path. This path can be determined by running:

$ pkg-config p11-kit-1 --variable p11_module_path
/usr/lib64/pkcs11

Export object matching PKCS#11 URI.

$ p11-kit export-object pkcs11:object_on_token

Displays PEM formatted contents of the first object matched by given PKCS#11 URI. The matched object has to either be an X.509 certificate or a public key.

This subcommand takes the following options:

--login

Authenticate to the token before enumerating objects. The PIN value is read from either the pin-value attribute in the URI or from the terminal.

--provider=<module_path>

Load only the given PKCS#11 module instead of enumerating modules installed on the system. If module_path is a relative path, the module is loaded from the default module path. This path can be determined by running:

$ pkg-config p11-kit-1 --variable p11_module_path
/usr/lib64/pkcs11

Delete object matching PKCS#11 URI.

$ p11-kit delete-object pkcs11:object_on_token

Destroys the first object matched by given PKCS#11 URI.

This subcommand takes the following options:

--login

Authenticate to the token before enumerating objects. The PIN value is read from either the pin-value attribute in the URI or from the terminal.

--provider=<module_path>

Load only the given PKCS#11 module instead of enumerating modules installed on the system. If module_path is a relative path, the module is loaded from the default module path. This path can be determined by running:

$ pkg-config p11-kit-1 --variable p11_module_path
/usr/lib64/pkcs11

Generate key-pair on a PKCS#11 token.

$ p11-kit generate-keypair --type=algorithm {--bits=n|--curve=name} [--label=label] [--id=object_id] pkcs11:token

Generate private-public key-pair of given type on the first token matched by given PKCS#11 URI. This command should be used together with --type option and one of --bits or --curve options.

The following options are required:

--type=<algorithm>

Specify the type of keys to generate. Supported values are rsa, ecdsa and eddsa.

--bits=<n>

Specify the number of bits for the key-pair generation. Cannot be used together with --curve option.

--curve=<name>

Specify an elliptic curve for the key-pair generation. Supported values are secp256r1, secp384r1, secp521r1, ed25519 and ed448. Cannot be used together with --bits option.

This subcommand also accepts the following options:

--label=<label>

Assigns label to the generated key-pair objects.

--id=<object_id>

Assigns ID to the generated key-pair objects. The ID should be specified in hexadecimal format without '0x' prefix.

--login

Authenticate to the token before enumerating objects. The PIN value is read from either the pin-value attribute in the URI or from the terminal.

--provider=<module_path>

Load only the given PKCS#11 module instead of enumerating modules installed on the system. If module_path is a relative path, the module is loaded from the default module path. This path can be determined by running:

$ pkg-config p11-kit-1 --variable p11_module_path
/usr/lib64/pkcs11

List PKCS#11 profiles supported by the token.

$ p11-kit list-profiles pkcs11:token

Displays profile IDs of the first token matched by given PKCS#11 URI in human-readable form.

This subcommand takes the following options:

--login

Authenticate to the token before enumerating objects. The PIN value is read from either the pin-value attribute in the URI or from the terminal.

--provider=<module_path>

Load only the given PKCS#11 module instead of enumerating modules installed on the system. If module_path is a relative path, the module is loaded from the default module path. This path can be determined by running:

$ pkg-config p11-kit-1 --variable p11_module_path
/usr/lib64/pkcs11

Add PKCS#11 profile to a token.

$ p11-kit add-profile --profile=profile pkcs11:token

Creates new profile object with given profile ID on the first token matched by given PKCS#11 URI. This command fails if the profile ID already exists on the token.

The following options are required:

--profile=<profile>

Profile ID to add. Value can either be numerical or textual.

This subcommand also accepts the following options:

--login

Authenticate to the token before enumerating objects. The PIN value is read from either the pin-value attribute in the URI or from the terminal.

--provider=<module_path>

Load only the given PKCS#11 module instead of enumerating modules installed on the system. If module_path is a relative path, the module is loaded from the default module path. This path can be determined by running:

$ pkg-config p11-kit-1 --variable p11_module_path
/usr/lib64/pkcs11

Delete PKCS#11 profile from a token.

$ p11-kit delete-profile --profile=profile pkcs11:token

Destroys all profile objects with given profile ID from the first token matched by given PKCS#11 URI.

The following options are required:

--profile=<profile>

Profile ID to delete. Value can either be numerical or textual.

This subcommand also accepts the following options:

--login

Authenticate to the token before enumerating objects. The PIN value is read from either the pin-value attribute in the URI or from the terminal.

--provider=<module_path>

Load only the given PKCS#11 module instead of enumerating modules installed on the system. If module_path is a relative path, the module is loaded from the default module path. This path can be determined by running:

$ pkg-config p11-kit-1 --variable p11_module_path
/usr/lib64/pkcs11

List PKCS#11 mechanisms supported by the token.

$ p11-kit list-mechanisms pkcs11:token

This lists all available mechanimsms for a PKCS#11 token

Print merged configuration.

$ p11-kit print-config

P11-kit provides 3 levels of configuration: system wide, per-module, and per-user. At run-time all 3 levels are merged into a single configuration. This command displays the merged configuration.

Extract certificates from configured PKCS#11 modules.

This operation has been moved to a separate command trust extract. See

for more information

Run a server process that exposes PKCS#11 module remotely.

$ p11-kit server pkcs11:token1 pkcs11:token2 ...
$ p11-kit server --provider /path/to/pkcs11-module.so pkcs11:token1 pkcs11:token2 ...

This launches a server that exposes the given PKCS#11 tokens on a local socket. The tokens must belong to the same module. To access the socket, use p11-kit-client.so module. The server address and PID are printed as a shell-script snippet which sets the appropriate environment variable: P11_KIT_SERVER_ADDRESS and P11_KIT_SERVER_PID.

Extract standard trust information files.

This operation has been moved to a separate command trust extract-compat. See trust(1) for more information

Run a PKCS#11 module remotely.

$ p11-kit remote /path/to/pkcs11-module.so
$ p11-kit remote pkcs11:token1 pkcs11:token2 ...

This is not meant to be run directly from a terminal. But rather in a remote option in a pkcs11.conf(5) file.

This exposes the given PKCS#11 module or tokens over standard input and output. Those two forms, whether to expose a module or tokens, are mutually exclusive and if the second form is used, the tokens must belong to the same module.

Please send bug reports to either the distribution bug tracker or the upstream bug tracker at https://github.com/p11-glue/p11-kit/issues/.

pkcs11.conf(5)

Further details available in the p11-kit online documentation at https://p11-glue.github.io/p11-glue/p11-kit/manual/.

libp11-kit-engine.so(1), p11-kit-remote@.service(5), p11-kit-remote.socket(5), pkcs11.conf(5), trust(1).