Skip to content

Commit

Permalink
Improve docs: add Upgrade-Notes; add online support refs
Browse files Browse the repository at this point in the history
Upgrade-Notes includes v2 to v3 upgrade changes that users should be
aware of.

The updated top-level README helps point users to online support
locations.

Signed-off-by: Josh Cepek <[email protected]>
  • Loading branch information
QueuingKoala committed Dec 23, 2013
1 parent fcc4547 commit 49d7c10
Show file tree
Hide file tree
Showing 2 changed files with 73 additions and 10 deletions.
31 changes: 21 additions & 10 deletions README
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -1,13 +1,3 @@
STRUCTURE:

The easy-rsa master branch is currently tracking development for the 3.x release
cycle. The prior 2.x and 1.x versions are available as release branches for
tracking and possible back-porting of relevant fixes. Branch layout is:

release/1.x
release/2.x
master <- 3.x, at present

DOWNLOADS:

If you are looking for release downloads, please see the releases section on
Expand All @@ -20,4 +10,25 @@ the more detailed docs under the doc/ directory. The .md files are in Markdown
format and can be converted to html files as desired for release packages, or
read as-is in plaintext.

GETTING HELP USING EASY-RSA:

Currently, Easy-RSA development co-exists with OpenVPN even though they are
separate projects. The following resources are good places as of this writing to
seek help using Easy-RSA:

The openvpn-users mailing list is a good place to post usage or help questions:
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/openvpn-users

You can also try IRC at Freenode/#openvpn

BRANCH STRUCTURE:

The easy-rsa master branch is currently tracking development for the 3.x release
cycle. The prior 2.x and 1.x versions are available as release branches for
tracking and possible back-porting of relevant fixes. Branch layout is:

master <- 3.x, at present
release/2.x
release/1.x

LICENSING info for 3.x is in the COPYING file
52 changes: 52 additions & 0 deletions doc/EasyRSA-Upgrade-Notes.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
Upgrading to Easy-RSA 3 from earlier versions
=========

People upgrading to Easy-RSA 3 from a 2.x version should note some important
changes start with version 3. For a better overview of version 3 in general, see
the Readme in the doc/ directory.

List of important changes
----

* nsCertType extensions are no longer included by default. Use of such
"Netscape" attributes have been deprecated upstream and their use is
discouraged. Configure `EASYRSA_NS_SUPPORT` in vars if you want to enable
this legacy behavior.

Notably, this is important for OpenVPN deployments relying on the
`--ns-cert-type` directive. Either have OpenVPN use the preferred
`--remote-cert-tls` option, or enable legacy NS extensions.

* The default request Subject (or DN, Distinguished Name) includes just the
commonName. This is more suitable for VPNs and environments that don't wish
to include info about the Country/State/City/Org/OU in certs. Configure
`EASYRSA_DN` in vars if you want to enable the legacy behavior.

* The 3.0 release lacks PKCS#11 (smartcard/token) support. This is anticipated
to be supported in a future point-release to target each platform's need.

Some new concepts
----

Easy-RSA 3 has some new concepts compared to the prior v2 series.

### Request-Import-Sign workflow

v3 is now designed to support keypairs generated on the target system where
they will be used, thus improving security as no keys need to be transferred
between hosts. The old workflow of generating everything in a single PKI is
still supported as well.

The recommended workflow when using Easy-RSA as a CA is to import requests,
sign them, and return the issued & CA certs. Each requesting system can use
Easy-RSA without a CA to generate keypairs & requests.

### "Org"-style DN flexibility

When using Easy-RSA in the "org" DN mode, it is no longer required to match
some of the field values. This improves flexibility, and enables easier remote
generation as the requester doesn't need to know the CA's values in advance.

Previously in v2, the Country, State, and Org values all had to match or a
request couldn't be signed. If you want the old behavior your can change the
OpenSSL config to require it or simply look over the DN at signing time.

0 comments on commit 49d7c10

Please sign in to comment.