Questions about signing an intermediate CA

[Michael Leone <turgon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

So we are mostly a MS Windows shop. But I use a Linux openssl as my root CA. What I am planning on doing, is creating a Windows intermediate CA, and using that to sign all my internal requests. But before I do that, I have a couple of questions.

I have the steps to install the certificate services in AD, and create an intermediate CA request. What I'm wondering is, do I sign that cert differently than any normal cert? I don't see why I would. I mean, the request should specify that it wants to be a CA, and so I should just be able to 

openssl ca -in <file> -out <file>

and maybe the -extfile, to specify SANs.

Am I correct in thinking that? I see many, many openssl examples, but they're all for creating an intermediate  CA using openssl, which I'm not doing. And the rest of the examples seem to be how to sign using the resulting intermediate CA cert itself, which again, is not what I will be doing .

Any pointers appreciated. Thanks!

--

Mike. Leone, <mailto:turgon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

PGP Fingerprint: 0AA8 DC47 CB63 AE3F C739 6BF9 9AB4 1EF6 5AA5 BCDF
Photo Gallery: <http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeleonephotos>

This space reserved for future witticisms ...