OPENSSL-PKCS7(1ossl)

🌸 openssl-pkcs7 (1ossl) — PKCS#7 command 🌸

okay so bestie, welcome to the openssl-pkcs7(1ossl) manual page 💖. This one is the PKCS#7 command, and it’s here to process PKCS#7 files for you. No cap.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

       openssl pkcs7 [-help] [-inform DER|PEM] [-outform DER|PEM] [-in
       filename] [-out filename] [-print] [-print_certs] [-quiet] [-text]
       [-noout] [-engine id] [-provider name] [-provider-path path] [-provparam
       [name:]key=value] [-propquery propq]

🌼 DESCRIPTION 🌼

This command processes PKCS#7 files. Real talk: it only understands PKCS#7 v 1.5 as specified in IETF RFC 2315. It cannot currently parse CMS as described in IETF RFC 2630 — that’s the whole vibe check, okay?

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -help — prints out a usage message. iconic helpful behavior.
• -inform DER|PEM, -outform DER|PEM — the input and formats; the default is PEM. See openssl-format-options(1) for details. The data is a PKCS#7 Version 1.5 structure.
• -in filename — specifies the input filename to read from, or standard input if this option is not specified.
• -out filename — specifies the output filename to write to, or standard output by default.
• -print — print out the full PKCS7 object.
• -print_certs — prints out any certificates or CRLs contained in the file. They are preceded by their subject and issuer names in one line format.
• -quiet — when used with -print_certs, prints out just the PEM-encoded certificates without any other output.
• -text — prints out certificate details in full rather than just subject and issuer names.
• -noout — don’t output the encoded version of the PKCS#7 structure (or certificates if -print_certs is set).
• -engine id — see "Engine Options" in openssl(1). This option is deprecated. 🚨
• -provider name — see "Provider Options" in openssl(1), provider(7), and property(7).
• -provider-path path — see "Provider Options" in openssl(1), provider(7), and property(7).
• -provparam [name:]key=value — see "Provider Options" in openssl(1), provider(7), and property(7).
• -propquery propq — see "Provider Options" in openssl(1), provider(7), and property(7).

🔥 EXAMPLES 🔥

Convert a PKCS#7 file from PEM to DER:

openssl pkcs7 -in file.pem -outform DER -out file.der

Output all certificates in a file:

openssl pkcs7 -in file.pem -print_certs -out certs.pem

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

openssl(1), openssl-crl2pkcs7(1)

👑 HISTORY 👑

The -engine option was deprecated in OpenSSL 3.0.

💖 COPYRIGHT 💖

Copyright 2000-2022 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.

Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at <https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.

mwah 💋 that’s the whole page, bestie. This was OpenSSL 3.5.0, dated 2026-09-25, from OPENSSL-PKCS7(1ossl). Go off and process those PKCS#7 files, periodt 👑✨