snippetbashTip

security — Administer keychains, keys, certificates, and the Security framework. More information: <https://kei

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

Viewed 0 times

keyscertificatescommandsecurityandkeychainscliadminister

macos

Problem

How to use the security command: Administer keychains, keys, certificates, and the Security framework. More information: <https://keith.github.io/xcode-man-pages/security.1.html>.

Solution

security — Administer keychains, keys, certificates, and the Security framework. More information: <https://keith.github.io/xcode-man-pages/security.1.html>.

List all available keychains:

security list-keychains

Delete a specific keychain:

security delete-keychain {{path/to/file.keychain}}

Create a keychain:

security create-keychain -p {{password}} {{path/to/file.keychain}}

Set a certificate to use with a website or [s]ervice by its [c]ommon name (fails if several certificates with the same common name exist):

security set-identity-preference -s {{URL|hostname|service}} -c "{{common_name}}" {{path/to/file.keychain}}

Add a certificate from file to a [k]eychain (if -k isn't specified, the default keychain is used):

security add-certificates -k {{file.keychain}} {{path/to/cert_file.pem}}

Add a CA certificate to the per-user Trust Settings:

security add-trusted-cert -k {{path/to/user-keychain.keychain-db}} {{path/to/ca-cert_file.pem}}

Remove a CA certificate from the per-user Trust Settings:

security remove-trusted-cert {{path/to/ca-cert_file.pem}}

Code Snippets

List all available keychains

security list-keychains

Delete a specific keychain

security delete-keychain {{path/to/file.keychain}}

Create a keychain

security create-keychain -p {{password}} {{path/to/file.keychain}}

Set a certificate to use with a website or [s]ervice by its [c]ommon name (fails if several certificates with the same common name exist)

security set-identity-preference -s {{URL|hostname|service}} -c "{{common_name}}" {{path/to/file.keychain}}

Add a certificate from file to a [k]eychain (if -k isn't specified, the default keychain is used)

security add-certificates -k {{file.keychain}} {{path/to/cert_file.pem}}

Context

tldr-pages: osx/security

Revisions (0)

No revisions yet.