openssl-ocsp.pod.in revision 1.2 1 =pod
2 {- OpenSSL::safe::output_do_not_edit_headers(); -}
3
4 =head1 NAME
5
6 openssl-ocsp - Online Certificate Status Protocol command
7
8 =head1 SYNOPSIS
9
10 =head2 OCSP Client
11
12 B<openssl> B<ocsp>
13 [B<-help>]
14 [B<-out> I<file>]
15 [B<-issuer> I<file>]
16 [B<-cert> I<file>]
17 [B<-no_certs>]
18 [B<-serial> I<n>]
19 [B<-signer> I<file>]
20 [B<-signkey> I<file>]
21 [B<-sign_other> I<file>]
22 [B<-nonce>]
23 [B<-no_nonce>]
24 [B<-req_text>]
25 [B<-resp_text>]
26 [B<-text>]
27 [B<-reqout> I<file>]
28 [B<-respout> I<file>]
29 [B<-reqin> I<file>]
30 [B<-respin> I<file>]
31 [B<-url> I<URL>]
32 [B<-host> I<host>:I<port>]
33 [B<-path>]
34 [B<-proxy> I<[http[s]://][userinfo@]host[:port][/path]>]
35 [B<-no_proxy> I<addresses>]
36 [B<-header>]
37 [B<-timeout> I<seconds>]
38 [B<-VAfile> I<file>]
39 [B<-validity_period> I<n>]
40 [B<-status_age> I<n>]
41 [B<-noverify>]
42 [B<-verify_other> I<file>]
43 [B<-trust_other>]
44 [B<-no_intern>]
45 [B<-no_signature_verify>]
46 [B<-no_cert_verify>]
47 [B<-no_chain>]
48 [B<-no_cert_checks>]
49 [B<-no_explicit>]
50 [B<-port> I<num>]
51 [B<-ignore_err>]
52
53 =head2 OCSP Server
54
55 B<openssl> B<ocsp>
56 [B<-index> I<file>]
57 [B<-CA> I<file>]
58 [B<-rsigner> I<file>]
59 [B<-rkey> I<file>]
60 [B<-passin> I<arg>]
61 [B<-rother> I<file>]
62 [B<-rsigopt> I<nm>:I<v>]
63 [B<-rmd> I<digest>]
64 [B<-badsig>]
65 [B<-resp_no_certs>]
66 [B<-nmin> I<n>]
67 [B<-ndays> I<n>]
68 [B<-resp_key_id>]
69 [B<-nrequest> I<n>]
70 [B<-multi> I<process-count>]
71 [B<-rcid> I<digest>]
72 [B<-I<digest>>]
73 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_trust_synopsis -}
74 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_v_synopsis -}
75 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_provider_synopsis -}
76
77 =head1 DESCRIPTION
78
79 The Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) enables applications to
80 determine the (revocation) state of an identified certificate (RFC 2560).
81
82 This command performs many common OCSP tasks. It can be used
83 to print out requests and responses, create requests and send queries
84 to an OCSP responder and behave like a mini OCSP server itself.
85
86 =head1 OPTIONS
87
88 This command operates as either a client or a server.
89 The options are described below, divided into those two modes.
90
91 =head2 OCSP Client Options
92
93 =over 4
94
95 =item B<-help>
96
97 Print out a usage message.
98
99 =item B<-out> I<filename>
100
101 specify output filename, default is standard output.
102
103 =item B<-issuer> I<filename>
104
105 This specifies the current issuer certificate. This option can be used
106 multiple times.
107 This option B<MUST> come before any B<-cert> options.
108
109 =item B<-cert> I<filename>
110
111 Add the certificate I<filename> to the request. The issuer certificate
112 is taken from the previous B<-issuer> option, or an error occurs if no
113 issuer certificate is specified.
114
115 =item B<-no_certs>
116
117 Don't include any certificates in signed request.
118
119 =item B<-serial> I<num>
120
121 Same as the B<-cert> option except the certificate with serial number
122 B<num> is added to the request. The serial number is interpreted as a
123 decimal integer unless preceded by C<0x>. Negative integers can also
124 be specified by preceding the value by a C<-> sign.
125
126 =item B<-signer> I<filename>, B<-signkey> I<filename>
127
128 Sign the OCSP request using the certificate specified in the B<-signer>
129 option and the private key specified by the B<-signkey> option. If
130 the B<-signkey> option is not present then the private key is read
131 from the same file as the certificate. If neither option is specified then
132 the OCSP request is not signed.
133
134 =item B<-sign_other> I<filename>
135
136 Additional certificates to include in the signed request.
137 The input can be in PEM, DER, or PKCS#12 format.
138
139 =item B<-nonce>, B<-no_nonce>
140
141 Add an OCSP nonce extension to a request or disable OCSP nonce addition.
142 Normally if an OCSP request is input using the B<-reqin> option no
143 nonce is added: using the B<-nonce> option will force addition of a nonce.
144 If an OCSP request is being created (using B<-cert> and B<-serial> options)
145 a nonce is automatically added specifying B<-no_nonce> overrides this.
146
147 =item B<-req_text>, B<-resp_text>, B<-text>
148
149 Print out the text form of the OCSP request, response or both respectively.
150
151 =item B<-reqout> I<file>, B<-respout> I<file>
152
153 Write out the DER encoded certificate request or response to I<file>.
154
155 =item B<-reqin> I<file>, B<-respin> I<file>
156
157 Read OCSP request or response file from I<file>. These option are ignored
158 if OCSP request or response creation is implied by other options (for example
159 with B<-serial>, B<-cert> and B<-host> options).
160
161 =item B<-url> I<responder_url>
162
163 Specify the responder URL. Both HTTP and HTTPS (SSL/TLS) URLs can be specified.
164 The optional userinfo and fragment components are ignored.
165 Any given query component is handled as part of the path component.
166
167 =item B<-host> I<hostname>:I<port>, B<-path> I<pathname>
168
169 If the B<-host> option is present then the OCSP request is sent to the host
170 I<hostname> on port I<port>. The B<-path> option specifies the HTTP pathname
171 to use or "/" by default. This is equivalent to specifying B<-url> with scheme
172 http:// and the given hostname, port, and pathname.
173
174 =item B<-proxy> I<[http[s]://][userinfo@]host[:port][/path]>
175
176 The HTTP(S) proxy server to use for reaching the OCSP server unless B<-no_proxy>
177 applies, see below.
178 The proxy port defaults to 80 or 443 if the scheme is C<https>; apart from that
179 the optional C<http://> or C<https://> prefix is ignored,
180 as well as any userinfo and path components.
181 Defaults to the environment variable C<http_proxy> if set, else C<HTTP_PROXY>
182 in case no TLS is used, otherwise C<https_proxy> if set, else C<HTTPS_PROXY>.
183
184 =item B<-no_proxy> I<addresses>
185
186 List of IP addresses and/or DNS names of servers
187 not to use an HTTP(S) proxy for, separated by commas and/or whitespace
188 (where in the latter case the whole argument must be enclosed in "...").
189 Default is from the environment variable C<no_proxy> if set, else C<NO_PROXY>.
190
191 =item B<-header> I<name>=I<value>
192
193 Adds the header I<name> with the specified I<value> to the OCSP request
194 that is sent to the responder.
195 This may be repeated.
196
197 =item B<-timeout> I<seconds>
198
199 Connection timeout to the OCSP responder in seconds.
200 On POSIX systems, when running as an OCSP responder, this option also limits
201 the time that the responder is willing to wait for the client request.
202 This time is measured from the time the responder accepts the connection until
203 the complete request is received.
204
205 =item B<-verify_other> I<file>
206
207 File or URI containing additional certificates to search
208 when attempting to locate
209 the OCSP response signing certificate. Some responders omit the actual signer's
210 certificate from the response: this option can be used to supply the necessary
211 certificate in such cases.
212 The input can be in PEM, DER, or PKCS#12 format.
213
214 =item B<-trust_other>
215
216 The certificates specified by the B<-verify_other> option should be explicitly
217 trusted and no additional checks will be performed on them. This is useful
218 when the complete responder certificate chain is not available or trusting a
219 root CA is not appropriate.
220
221 =item B<-VAfile> I<file>
222
223 File or URI containing explicitly trusted responder certificates.
224 Equivalent to the B<-verify_other> and B<-trust_other> options.
225 The input can be in PEM, DER, or PKCS#12 format.
226
227 =item B<-noverify>
228
229 Don't attempt to verify the OCSP response signature or the nonce
230 values. This option will normally only be used for debugging since it
231 disables all verification of the responders certificate.
232
233 =item B<-no_intern>
234
235 Ignore certificates contained in the OCSP response when searching for the
236 signers certificate. With this option the signers certificate must be specified
237 with either the B<-verify_other> or B<-VAfile> options.
238
239 =item B<-no_signature_verify>
240
241 Don't check the signature on the OCSP response. Since this option
242 tolerates invalid signatures on OCSP responses it will normally only be
243 used for testing purposes.
244
245 =item B<-no_cert_verify>
246
247 Don't verify the OCSP response signers certificate at all. Since this
248 option allows the OCSP response to be signed by any certificate it should
249 only be used for testing purposes.
250
251 =item B<-no_chain>
252
253 Do not use certificates in the response as additional untrusted CA
254 certificates.
255
256 =item B<-no_explicit>
257
258 Do not explicitly trust the root CA if it is set to be trusted for OCSP signing.
259
260 =item B<-no_cert_checks>
261
262 Don't perform any additional checks on the OCSP response signers certificate.
263 That is do not make any checks to see if the signers certificate is authorised
264 to provide the necessary status information: as a result this option should
265 only be used for testing purposes.
266
267 =item B<-validity_period> I<nsec>, B<-status_age> I<age>
268
269 These options specify the range of times, in seconds, which will be tolerated
270 in an OCSP response. Each certificate status response includes a B<notBefore>
271 time and an optional B<notAfter> time. The current time should fall between
272 these two values, but the interval between the two times may be only a few
273 seconds. In practice the OCSP responder and clients clocks may not be precisely
274 synchronised and so such a check may fail. To avoid this the
275 B<-validity_period> option can be used to specify an acceptable error range in
276 seconds, the default value is 5 minutes.
277
278 If the B<notAfter> time is omitted from a response then this means that new
279 status information is immediately available. In this case the age of the
280 B<notBefore> field is checked to see it is not older than I<age> seconds old.
281 By default this additional check is not performed.
282
283 =item B<-rcid> I<digest>
284
285 This option sets the digest algorithm to use for certificate identification
286 in the OCSP response. Any digest supported by the L<openssl-dgst(1)> command can
287 be used. The default is the same digest algorithm used in the request.
288
289 =item B<-I<digest>>
290
291 This option sets digest algorithm to use for certificate identification in the
292 OCSP request. Any digest supported by the OpenSSL B<dgst> command can be used.
293 The default is SHA-1. This option may be used multiple times to specify the
294 digest used by subsequent certificate identifiers.
295
296 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_trust_item -}
297
298 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_v_item -}
299
300 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_provider_item -}
301
302 =back
303
304 =head2 OCSP Server Options
305
306 =over 4
307
308 =item B<-index> I<indexfile>
309
310 The I<indexfile> parameter is the name of a text index file in B<ca>
311 format containing certificate revocation information.
312
313 If the B<-index> option is specified then this command switches to
314 responder mode, otherwise it is in client mode. The request(s) the responder
315 processes can be either specified on the command line (using B<-issuer>
316 and B<-serial> options), supplied in a file (using the B<-reqin> option)
317 or via external OCSP clients (if B<-port> or B<-url> is specified).
318
319 If the B<-index> option is present then the B<-CA> and B<-rsigner> options
320 must also be present.
321
322 =item B<-CA> I<file>
323
324 CA certificate corresponding to the revocation information in the index
325 file given with B<-index>.
326 The input can be in PEM, DER, or PKCS#12 format.
327
328 =item B<-rsigner> I<file>
329
330 The certificate to sign OCSP responses with.
331
332 =item B<-rkey> I<file>
333
334 The private key to sign OCSP responses with: if not present the file
335 specified in the B<-rsigner> option is used.
336
337 =item B<-passin> I<arg>
338
339 The private key password source. For more information about the format of I<arg>
340 see L<openssl-passphrase-options(1)>.
341
342 =item B<-rother> I<file>
343
344 Additional certificates to include in the OCSP response.
345 The input can be in PEM, DER, or PKCS#12 format.
346
347 =item B<-rsigopt> I<nm>:I<v>
348
349 Pass options to the signature algorithm when signing OCSP responses.
350 Names and values of these options are algorithm-specific.
351
352 =item B<-rmd> I<digest>
353
354 The digest to use when signing the response.
355
356 =item B<-badsig>
357
358 Corrupt the response signature before writing it; this can be useful
359 for testing.
360
361 =item B<-resp_no_certs>
362
363 Don't include any certificates in the OCSP response.
364
365 =item B<-resp_key_id>
366
367 Identify the signer certificate using the key ID, default is to use the
368 subject name.
369
370 =item B<-port> I<portnum>
371
372 Port to listen for OCSP requests on. The port may also be specified
373 using the B<url> option.
374 A C<0> argument indicates that any available port shall be chosen automatically.
375
376 =item B<-ignore_err>
377
378 Ignore malformed requests or responses: When acting as an OCSP client, retry if
379 a malformed response is received. When acting as an OCSP responder, continue
380 running instead of terminating upon receiving a malformed request.
381
382 =item B<-nrequest> I<number>
383
384 The OCSP server will exit after receiving I<number> requests, default unlimited.
385
386 =item B<-multi> I<process-count>
387
388 Run the specified number of OCSP responder child processes, with the parent
389 process respawning child processes as needed.
390 Child processes will detect changes in the CA index file and automatically
391 reload it.
392 When running as a responder B<-timeout> option is recommended to limit the time
393 each child is willing to wait for the client's OCSP response.
394 This option is available on POSIX systems (that support the fork() and other
395 required unix system-calls).
396
397 =item B<-nmin> I<minutes>, B<-ndays> I<days>
398
399 Number of minutes or days when fresh revocation information is available:
400 used in the B<nextUpdate> field. If neither option is present then the
401 B<nextUpdate> field is omitted meaning fresh revocation information is
402 immediately available.
403
404 =back
405
406 =head1 OCSP RESPONSE VERIFICATION
407
408 OCSP Response follows the rules specified in RFC2560.
409
410 Initially the OCSP responder certificate is located and the signature on
411 the OCSP request checked using the responder certificate's public key.
412
413 Then a normal certificate verify is performed on the OCSP responder certificate
414 building up a certificate chain in the process. The locations of the trusted
415 certificates used to build the chain can be specified by the B<-CAfile>,
416 B<-CApath> or B<-CAstore> options or they will be looked for in the
417 standard OpenSSL certificates directory.
418
419 If the initial verify fails then the OCSP verify process halts with an
420 error.
421
422 Otherwise the issuing CA certificate in the request is compared to the OCSP
423 responder certificate: if there is a match then the OCSP verify succeeds.
424
425 Otherwise the OCSP responder certificate's CA is checked against the issuing
426 CA certificate in the request. If there is a match and the OCSPSigning
427 extended key usage is present in the OCSP responder certificate then the
428 OCSP verify succeeds.
429
430 Otherwise, if B<-no_explicit> is B<not> set the root CA of the OCSP responders
431 CA is checked to see if it is trusted for OCSP signing. If it is the OCSP
432 verify succeeds.
433
434 If none of these checks is successful then the OCSP verify fails.
435
436 What this effectively means if that if the OCSP responder certificate is
437 authorised directly by the CA it is issuing revocation information about
438 (and it is correctly configured) then verification will succeed.
439
440 If the OCSP responder is a "global responder" which can give details about
441 multiple CAs and has its own separate certificate chain then its root
442 CA can be trusted for OCSP signing. For example:
443
444 openssl x509 -in ocspCA.pem -addtrust OCSPSigning -out trustedCA.pem
445
446 Alternatively the responder certificate itself can be explicitly trusted
447 with the B<-VAfile> option.
448
449 =head1 NOTES
450
451 As noted, most of the verify options are for testing or debugging purposes.
452 Normally only the B<-CApath>, B<-CAfile>, B<-CAstore> and (if the responder
453 is a 'global VA') B<-VAfile> options need to be used.
454
455 The OCSP server is only useful for test and demonstration purposes: it is
456 not really usable as a full OCSP responder. It contains only a very
457 simple HTTP request handling and can only handle the POST form of OCSP
458 queries. It also handles requests serially meaning it cannot respond to
459 new requests until it has processed the current one. The text index file
460 format of revocation is also inefficient for large quantities of revocation
461 data.
462
463 It is possible to run this command in responder mode via a CGI
464 script using the B<-reqin> and B<-respout> options.
465
466 =head1 EXAMPLES
467
468 Create an OCSP request and write it to a file:
469
470 openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem -reqout req.der
471
472 Send a query to an OCSP responder with URL http://ocsp.myhost.com/ save the
473 response to a file, print it out in text form, and verify the response:
474
475 openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem \
476 -url http://ocsp.myhost.com/ -resp_text -respout resp.der
477
478 Read in an OCSP response and print out text form:
479
480 openssl ocsp -respin resp.der -text -noverify
481
482 OCSP server on port 8888 using a standard B<ca> configuration, and a separate
483 responder certificate. All requests and responses are printed to a file.
484
485 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
486 -text -out log.txt
487
488 As above but exit after processing one request:
489
490 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
491 -nrequest 1
492
493 Query status information using an internally generated request:
494
495 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
496 -issuer demoCA/cacert.pem -serial 1
497
498 Query status information using request read from a file, and write the response
499 to a second file.
500
501 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
502 -reqin req.der -respout resp.der
503
504 =head1 HISTORY
505
506 The -no_alt_chains option was added in OpenSSL 1.1.0.
507
508 =head1 COPYRIGHT
509
510 Copyright 2001-2021 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
511
512 Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use
513 this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy
514 in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
515 L<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.
516
517 =cut
518