5 ocsp - Online Certificate Status Protocol utility
33 [B<-attime timestamp>]
54 [B<-verify_depth num>]
55 [B<-verify_email email>]
56 [B<-verify_hostname hostname>]
58 [B<-verify_name name>]
61 [B<-validity_period n>]
64 [B<-verify_other file>]
67 [B<-no_signature_verify>]
87 The Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) enables applications to
88 determine the (revocation) state of an identified certificate (RFC 2560).
90 The B<ocsp> command performs many common OCSP tasks. It can be used
91 to print out requests and responses, create requests and send queries
92 to an OCSP responder and behave like a mini OCSP server itself.
94 =head1 OCSP CLIENT OPTIONS
98 =item B<-out filename>
100 specify output filename, default is standard output.
102 =item B<-issuer filename>
104 This specifies the current issuer certificate. This option can be used
105 multiple times. The certificate specified in B<filename> must be in
106 PEM format. This option B<MUST> come before any B<-cert> options.
108 =item B<-cert filename>
110 Add the certificate B<filename> to the request. The issuer certificate
111 is taken from the previous B<issuer> option, or an error occurs if no
112 issuer certificate is specified.
116 Same as the B<cert> option except the certificate with serial number
117 B<num> is added to the request. The serial number is interpreted as a
118 decimal integer unless preceded by B<0x>. Negative integers can also
119 be specified by preceding the value by a B<-> sign.
121 =item B<-signer filename>, B<-signkey filename>
123 Sign the OCSP request using the certificate specified in the B<signer>
124 option and the private key specified by the B<signkey> option. If
125 the B<signkey> option is not present then the private key is read
126 from the same file as the certificate. If neither option is specified then
127 the OCSP request is not signed.
129 =item B<-sign_other filename>
131 Additional certificates to include in the signed request.
133 =item B<-nonce>, B<-no_nonce>
135 Add an OCSP nonce extension to a request or disable OCSP nonce addition.
136 Normally if an OCSP request is input using the B<respin> option no
137 nonce is added: using the B<nonce> option will force addition of a nonce.
138 If an OCSP request is being created (using B<cert> and B<serial> options)
139 a nonce is automatically added specifying B<no_nonce> overrides this.
141 =item B<-req_text>, B<-resp_text>, B<-text>
143 print out the text form of the OCSP request, response or both respectively.
145 =item B<-reqout file>, B<-respout file>
147 write out the DER encoded certificate request or response to B<file>.
149 =item B<-reqin file>, B<-respin file>
151 read OCSP request or response file from B<file>. These option are ignored
152 if OCSP request or response creation is implied by other options (for example
153 with B<serial>, B<cert> and B<host> options).
155 =item B<-url responder_url>
157 specify the responder URL. Both HTTP and HTTPS (SSL/TLS) URLs can be specified.
159 =item B<-host hostname:port>, B<-path pathname>
161 if the B<host> option is present then the OCSP request is sent to the host
162 B<hostname> on port B<port>. B<path> specifies the HTTP path name to use
165 =item B<-header name=value>
167 Adds the header B<name> with the specified B<value> to the OCSP request
168 that is sent to the responder.
169 This may be repeated.
171 =item B<-timeout seconds>
173 connection timeout to the OCSP responder in seconds
175 =item B<-CAfile file>, B<-CApath pathname>
177 file or pathname containing trusted CA certificates. These are used to verify
178 the signature on the OCSP response.
180 =item B<-attime>, B<-check_ss_sig>, B<-crl_check>, B<-crl_check_all>,
181 B<explicit_policy>, B<-extended_crl>, B<-ignore_critical>, B<-inhibit_any>,
182 B<-inhibit_map>, B<-issuer_checks>, B<-partial_chain>, B<-policy>,
183 B<-policy_check>, B<-policy_print>, B<-purpose>, B<-suiteB_128>,
184 B<-suiteB_128_only>, B<-suiteB_192>, B<-trusted_first>, B<-no_alt_chains>,
185 B<-use_deltas>, B<-verify_depth>, B<-verify_email>, B<-verify_hostname>,
186 B<-verify_ip>, B<-verify_name>, B<-x509_strict>
188 Set different certificate verification options.
189 See L<B<verify>|verify(1)> manual page for details.
191 =item B<-verify_other file>
193 file containing additional certificates to search when attempting to locate
194 the OCSP response signing certificate. Some responders omit the actual signer's
195 certificate from the response: this option can be used to supply the necessary
196 certificate in such cases.
198 =item B<-trust_other>
200 the certificates specified by the B<-verify_other> option should be explicitly
201 trusted and no additional checks will be performed on them. This is useful
202 when the complete responder certificate chain is not available or trusting a
203 root CA is not appropriate.
205 =item B<-VAfile file>
207 file containing explicitly trusted responder certificates. Equivalent to the
208 B<-verify_other> and B<-trust_other> options.
212 don't attempt to verify the OCSP response signature or the nonce values. This
213 option will normally only be used for debugging since it disables all verification
214 of the responders certificate.
218 ignore certificates contained in the OCSP response when searching for the
219 signers certificate. With this option the signers certificate must be specified
220 with either the B<-verify_other> or B<-VAfile> options.
222 =item B<-no_signature_verify>
224 don't check the signature on the OCSP response. Since this option tolerates invalid
225 signatures on OCSP responses it will normally only be used for testing purposes.
227 =item B<-no_cert_verify>
229 don't verify the OCSP response signers certificate at all. Since this option allows
230 the OCSP response to be signed by any certificate it should only be used for
235 do not use certificates in the response as additional untrusted CA
238 =item B<-no_explicit>
240 do not explicitly trust the root CA if it is set to be trusted for OCSP signing.
242 =item B<-no_cert_checks>
244 don't perform any additional checks on the OCSP response signers certificate.
245 That is do not make any checks to see if the signers certificate is authorised
246 to provide the necessary status information: as a result this option should
247 only be used for testing purposes.
249 =item B<-validity_period nsec>, B<-status_age age>
251 these options specify the range of times, in seconds, which will be tolerated
252 in an OCSP response. Each certificate status response includes a B<notBefore> time and
253 an optional B<notAfter> time. The current time should fall between these two values, but
254 the interval between the two times may be only a few seconds. In practice the OCSP
255 responder and clients clocks may not be precisely synchronised and so such a check
256 may fail. To avoid this the B<-validity_period> option can be used to specify an
257 acceptable error range in seconds, the default value is 5 minutes.
259 If the B<notAfter> time is omitted from a response then this means that new status
260 information is immediately available. In this case the age of the B<notBefore> field
261 is checked to see it is not older than B<age> seconds old. By default this additional
262 check is not performed.
264 =item B<-md5|-sha1|-sha256|-ripemod160|...>
266 this option sets digest algorithm to use for certificate identification
267 in the OCSP request. By default SHA-1 is used.
271 =head1 OCSP SERVER OPTIONS
275 =item B<-index indexfile>
277 B<indexfile> is a text index file in B<ca> format containing certificate revocation
280 If the B<index> option is specified the B<ocsp> utility is in responder mode, otherwise
281 it is in client mode. The request(s) the responder processes can be either specified on
282 the command line (using B<issuer> and B<serial> options), supplied in a file (using the
283 B<respin> option) or via external OCSP clients (if B<port> or B<url> is specified).
285 If the B<index> option is present then the B<CA> and B<rsigner> options must also be
290 CA certificate corresponding to the revocation information in B<indexfile>.
292 =item B<-rsigner file>
294 The certificate to sign OCSP responses with.
296 =item B<-rother file>
298 Additional certificates to include in the OCSP response.
300 =item B<-resp_no_certs>
302 Don't include any certificates in the OCSP response.
304 =item B<-resp_key_id>
306 Identify the signer certificate using the key ID, default is to use the subject name.
310 The private key to sign OCSP responses with: if not present the file specified in the
311 B<rsigner> option is used.
313 =item B<-port portnum>
315 Port to listen for OCSP requests on. The port may also be specified using the B<url>
318 =item B<-nrequest number>
320 The OCSP server will exit after receiving B<number> requests, default unlimited.
322 =item B<-nmin minutes>, B<-ndays days>
324 Number of minutes or days when fresh revocation information is available: used in the
325 B<nextUpdate> field. If neither option is present then the B<nextUpdate> field is
326 omitted meaning fresh revocation information is immediately available.
330 =head1 OCSP Response verification.
332 OCSP Response follows the rules specified in RFC2560.
334 Initially the OCSP responder certificate is located and the signature on
335 the OCSP request checked using the responder certificate's public key.
337 Then a normal certificate verify is performed on the OCSP responder certificate
338 building up a certificate chain in the process. The locations of the trusted
339 certificates used to build the chain can be specified by the B<CAfile>
340 and B<CApath> options or they will be looked for in the standard OpenSSL
341 certificates directory.
343 If the initial verify fails then the OCSP verify process halts with an
346 Otherwise the issuing CA certificate in the request is compared to the OCSP
347 responder certificate: if there is a match then the OCSP verify succeeds.
349 Otherwise the OCSP responder certificate's CA is checked against the issuing
350 CA certificate in the request. If there is a match and the OCSPSigning
351 extended key usage is present in the OCSP responder certificate then the
352 OCSP verify succeeds.
354 Otherwise, if B<-no_explicit> is B<not> set the root CA of the OCSP responders
355 CA is checked to see if it is trusted for OCSP signing. If it is the OCSP
358 If none of these checks is successful then the OCSP verify fails.
360 What this effectively means if that if the OCSP responder certificate is
361 authorised directly by the CA it is issuing revocation information about
362 (and it is correctly configured) then verification will succeed.
364 If the OCSP responder is a "global responder" which can give details about
365 multiple CAs and has its own separate certificate chain then its root
366 CA can be trusted for OCSP signing. For example:
368 openssl x509 -in ocspCA.pem -addtrust OCSPSigning -out trustedCA.pem
370 Alternatively the responder certificate itself can be explicitly trusted
371 with the B<-VAfile> option.
375 As noted, most of the verify options are for testing or debugging purposes.
376 Normally only the B<-CApath>, B<-CAfile> and (if the responder is a 'global
377 VA') B<-VAfile> options need to be used.
379 The OCSP server is only useful for test and demonstration purposes: it is
380 not really usable as a full OCSP responder. It contains only a very
381 simple HTTP request handling and can only handle the POST form of OCSP
382 queries. It also handles requests serially meaning it cannot respond to
383 new requests until it has processed the current one. The text index file
384 format of revocation is also inefficient for large quantities of revocation
387 It is possible to run the B<ocsp> application in responder mode via a CGI
388 script using the B<respin> and B<respout> options.
392 Create an OCSP request and write it to a file:
394 openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem -reqout req.der
396 Send a query to an OCSP responder with URL http://ocsp.myhost.com/ save the
397 response to a file and print it out in text form
399 openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem \
400 -url http://ocsp.myhost.com/ -resp_text -respout resp.der
402 Read in an OCSP response and print out text form:
404 openssl ocsp -respin resp.der -text
406 OCSP server on port 8888 using a standard B<ca> configuration, and a separate
407 responder certificate. All requests and responses are printed to a file.
409 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
412 As above but exit after processing one request:
414 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
417 Query status information using internally generated request:
419 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
420 -issuer demoCA/cacert.pem -serial 1
422 Query status information using request read from a file, write response to a
425 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
426 -reqin req.der -respout resp.der
430 The -no_alt_chains options was first added to OpenSSL 1.1.0.