5 ocsp - Online Certificate Status Protocol utility
32 [B<-attime timestamp>]
52 [B<-verify_depth num>]
53 [B<-verify_email email>]
54 [B<-verify_hostname hostname>]
56 [B<-verify_name name>]
59 [B<-validity_period n>]
62 [B<-verify_other file>]
65 [B<-no_signature_verify>]
84 The Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) enables applications to
85 determine the (revocation) state of an identified certificate (RFC 2560).
87 The B<ocsp> command performs many common OCSP tasks. It can be used
88 to print out requests and responses, create requests and send queries
89 to an OCSP responder and behave like a mini OCSP server itself.
91 =head1 OCSP CLIENT OPTIONS
95 =item B<-out filename>
97 specify output filename, default is standard output.
99 =item B<-issuer filename>
101 This specifies the current issuer certificate. This option can be used
102 multiple times. The certificate specified in B<filename> must be in
103 PEM format. This option B<MUST> come before any B<-cert> options.
105 =item B<-cert filename>
107 Add the certificate B<filename> to the request. The issuer certificate
108 is taken from the previous B<issuer> option, or an error occurs if no
109 issuer certificate is specified.
113 Same as the B<cert> option except the certificate with serial number
114 B<num> is added to the request. The serial number is interpreted as a
115 decimal integer unless preceded by B<0x>. Negative integers can also
116 be specified by preceding the value by a B<-> sign.
118 =item B<-signer filename>, B<-signkey filename>
120 Sign the OCSP request using the certificate specified in the B<signer>
121 option and the private key specified by the B<signkey> option. If
122 the B<signkey> option is not present then the private key is read
123 from the same file as the certificate. If neither option is specified then
124 the OCSP request is not signed.
126 =item B<-sign_other filename>
128 Additional certificates to include in the signed request.
130 =item B<-nonce>, B<-no_nonce>
132 Add an OCSP nonce extension to a request or disable OCSP nonce addition.
133 Normally if an OCSP request is input using the B<respin> option no
134 nonce is added: using the B<nonce> option will force addition of a nonce.
135 If an OCSP request is being created (using B<cert> and B<serial> options)
136 a nonce is automatically added specifying B<no_nonce> overrides this.
138 =item B<-req_text>, B<-resp_text>, B<-text>
140 print out the text form of the OCSP request, response or both respectively.
142 =item B<-reqout file>, B<-respout file>
144 write out the DER encoded certificate request or response to B<file>.
146 =item B<-reqin file>, B<-respin file>
148 read OCSP request or response file from B<file>. These option are ignored
149 if OCSP request or response creation is implied by other options (for example
150 with B<serial>, B<cert> and B<host> options).
152 =item B<-url responder_url>
154 specify the responder URL. Both HTTP and HTTPS (SSL/TLS) URLs can be specified.
156 =item B<-host hostname:port>, B<-path pathname>
158 if the B<host> option is present then the OCSP request is sent to the host
159 B<hostname> on port B<port>. B<path> specifies the HTTP path name to use
162 =item B<-timeout seconds>
164 connection timeout to the OCSP responder in seconds
166 =item B<-CAfile file>, B<-CApath pathname>
168 file or pathname containing trusted CA certificates. These are used to verify
169 the signature on the OCSP response.
171 =item B<-attime>, B<-check_ss_sig>, B<-crl_check>, B<-crl_check_all>,
172 B<explicit_policy>, B<-extended_crl>, B<-ignore_critical>, B<-inhibit_any>,
173 B<-inhibit_map>, B<-issuer_checks>, B<-partial_chain>, B<-policy>,
174 B<-policy_check>, B<-policy_print>, B<-purpose>, B<-suiteB_128>,
175 B<-suiteB_128_only>, B<-suiteB_192>, B<-trusted_first>, B<-use_deltas>,
176 B<-verify_depth>, B<-verify_email>, B<-verify_hostname>, B<-verify_ip>,
177 B<-verify_name>, B<-x509_strict>
179 Set different certificate verification options.
180 See L<B<verify>|verify(1)> manual page for details.
182 =item B<-verify_other file>
184 file containing additional certificates to search when attempting to locate
185 the OCSP response signing certificate. Some responders omit the actual signer's
186 certificate from the response: this option can be used to supply the necessary
187 certificate in such cases.
189 =item B<-trust_other>
191 the certificates specified by the B<-verify_other> option should be explicitly
192 trusted and no additional checks will be performed on them. This is useful
193 when the complete responder certificate chain is not available or trusting a
194 root CA is not appropriate.
196 =item B<-VAfile file>
198 file containing explicitly trusted responder certificates. Equivalent to the
199 B<-verify_other> and B<-trust_other> options.
203 don't attempt to verify the OCSP response signature or the nonce values. This
204 option will normally only be used for debugging since it disables all verification
205 of the responders certificate.
209 ignore certificates contained in the OCSP response when searching for the
210 signers certificate. With this option the signers certificate must be specified
211 with either the B<-verify_other> or B<-VAfile> options.
213 =item B<-no_signature_verify>
215 don't check the signature on the OCSP response. Since this option tolerates invalid
216 signatures on OCSP responses it will normally only be used for testing purposes.
218 =item B<-no_cert_verify>
220 don't verify the OCSP response signers certificate at all. Since this option allows
221 the OCSP response to be signed by any certificate it should only be used for
226 do not use certificates in the response as additional untrusted CA
229 =item B<-no_cert_checks>
231 don't perform any additional checks on the OCSP response signers certificate.
232 That is do not make any checks to see if the signers certificate is authorised
233 to provide the necessary status information: as a result this option should
234 only be used for testing purposes.
236 =item B<-validity_period nsec>, B<-status_age age>
238 these options specify the range of times, in seconds, which will be tolerated
239 in an OCSP response. Each certificate status response includes a B<notBefore> time and
240 an optional B<notAfter> time. The current time should fall between these two values, but
241 the interval between the two times may be only a few seconds. In practice the OCSP
242 responder and clients clocks may not be precisely synchronised and so such a check
243 may fail. To avoid this the B<-validity_period> option can be used to specify an
244 acceptable error range in seconds, the default value is 5 minutes.
246 If the B<notAfter> time is omitted from a response then this means that new status
247 information is immediately available. In this case the age of the B<notBefore> field
248 is checked to see it is not older than B<age> seconds old. By default this additional
249 check is not performed.
251 =item B<-md5|-sha1|-sha256|-ripemod160|...>
253 this option sets digest algorithm to use for certificate identification
254 in the OCSP request. By default SHA-1 is used.
258 =head1 OCSP SERVER OPTIONS
262 =item B<-index indexfile>
264 B<indexfile> is a text index file in B<ca> format containing certificate revocation
267 If the B<index> option is specified the B<ocsp> utility is in responder mode, otherwise
268 it is in client mode. The request(s) the responder processes can be either specified on
269 the command line (using B<issuer> and B<serial> options), supplied in a file (using the
270 B<respin> option) or via external OCSP clients (if B<port> or B<url> is specified).
272 If the B<index> option is present then the B<CA> and B<rsigner> options must also be
277 CA certificate corresponding to the revocation information in B<indexfile>.
279 =item B<-rsigner file>
281 The certificate to sign OCSP responses with.
283 =item B<-rother file>
285 Additional certificates to include in the OCSP response.
287 =item B<-resp_no_certs>
289 Don't include any certificates in the OCSP response.
291 =item B<-resp_key_id>
293 Identify the signer certificate using the key ID, default is to use the subject name.
297 The private key to sign OCSP responses with: if not present the file specified in the
298 B<rsigner> option is used.
300 =item B<-port portnum>
302 Port to listen for OCSP requests on. The port may also be specified using the B<url>
305 =item B<-nrequest number>
307 The OCSP server will exit after receiving B<number> requests, default unlimited.
309 =item B<-nmin minutes>, B<-ndays days>
311 Number of minutes or days when fresh revocation information is available: used in the
312 B<nextUpdate> field. If neither option is present then the B<nextUpdate> field is
313 omitted meaning fresh revocation information is immediately available.
317 =head1 OCSP Response verification.
319 OCSP Response follows the rules specified in RFC2560.
321 Initially the OCSP responder certificate is located and the signature on
322 the OCSP request checked using the responder certificate's public key.
324 Then a normal certificate verify is performed on the OCSP responder certificate
325 building up a certificate chain in the process. The locations of the trusted
326 certificates used to build the chain can be specified by the B<CAfile>
327 and B<CApath> options or they will be looked for in the standard OpenSSL
328 certificates directory.
330 If the initial verify fails then the OCSP verify process halts with an
333 Otherwise the issuing CA certificate in the request is compared to the OCSP
334 responder certificate: if there is a match then the OCSP verify succeeds.
336 Otherwise the OCSP responder certificate's CA is checked against the issuing
337 CA certificate in the request. If there is a match and the OCSPSigning
338 extended key usage is present in the OCSP responder certificate then the
339 OCSP verify succeeds.
341 Otherwise the root CA of the OCSP responders CA is checked to see if it
342 is trusted for OCSP signing. If it is the OCSP verify succeeds.
344 If none of these checks is successful then the OCSP verify fails.
346 What this effectively means if that if the OCSP responder certificate is
347 authorised directly by the CA it is issuing revocation information about
348 (and it is correctly configured) then verification will succeed.
350 If the OCSP responder is a "global responder" which can give details about
351 multiple CAs and has its own separate certificate chain then its root
352 CA can be trusted for OCSP signing. For example:
354 openssl x509 -in ocspCA.pem -addtrust OCSPSigning -out trustedCA.pem
356 Alternatively the responder certificate itself can be explicitly trusted
357 with the B<-VAfile> option.
361 As noted, most of the verify options are for testing or debugging purposes.
362 Normally only the B<-CApath>, B<-CAfile> and (if the responder is a 'global
363 VA') B<-VAfile> options need to be used.
365 The OCSP server is only useful for test and demonstration purposes: it is
366 not really usable as a full OCSP responder. It contains only a very
367 simple HTTP request handling and can only handle the POST form of OCSP
368 queries. It also handles requests serially meaning it cannot respond to
369 new requests until it has processed the current one. The text index file
370 format of revocation is also inefficient for large quantities of revocation
373 It is possible to run the B<ocsp> application in responder mode via a CGI
374 script using the B<respin> and B<respout> options.
378 Create an OCSP request and write it to a file:
380 openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem -reqout req.der
382 Send a query to an OCSP responder with URL http://ocsp.myhost.com/ save the
383 response to a file and print it out in text form
385 openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem \
386 -url http://ocsp.myhost.com/ -resp_text -respout resp.der
388 Read in an OCSP response and print out text form:
390 openssl ocsp -respin resp.der -text
392 OCSP server on port 8888 using a standard B<ca> configuration, and a separate
393 responder certificate. All requests and responses are printed to a file.
395 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
398 As above but exit after processing one request:
400 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
403 Query status information using internally generated request:
405 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
406 -issuer demoCA/cacert.pem -serial 1
408 Query status information using request read from a file, write response to a
411 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
412 -reqin req.der -respout resp.der