5 ocsp - Online Certificate Status Protocol utility
35 [B<-attime timestamp>]
56 [B<-verify_depth num>]
57 [B<-verify_email email>]
58 [B<-verify_hostname hostname>]
60 [B<-verify_name name>]
63 [B<-validity_period n>]
66 [B<-verify_other file>]
69 [B<-no_signature_verify>]
89 The Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) enables applications to
90 determine the (revocation) state of an identified certificate (RFC 2560).
92 The B<ocsp> command performs many common OCSP tasks. It can be used
93 to print out requests and responses, create requests and send queries
94 to an OCSP responder and behave like a mini OCSP server itself.
96 =head1 OCSP CLIENT OPTIONS
100 =item B<-out filename>
102 specify output filename, default is standard output.
104 =item B<-issuer filename>
106 This specifies the current issuer certificate. This option can be used
107 multiple times. The certificate specified in B<filename> must be in
108 PEM format. This option B<MUST> come before any B<-cert> options.
110 =item B<-cert filename>
112 Add the certificate B<filename> to the request. The issuer certificate
113 is taken from the previous B<issuer> option, or an error occurs if no
114 issuer certificate is specified.
118 Same as the B<cert> option except the certificate with serial number
119 B<num> is added to the request. The serial number is interpreted as a
120 decimal integer unless preceded by B<0x>. Negative integers can also
121 be specified by preceding the value by a B<-> sign.
123 =item B<-signer filename>, B<-signkey filename>
125 Sign the OCSP request using the certificate specified in the B<signer>
126 option and the private key specified by the B<signkey> option. If
127 the B<signkey> option is not present then the private key is read
128 from the same file as the certificate. If neither option is specified then
129 the OCSP request is not signed.
131 =item B<-sign_other filename>
133 Additional certificates to include in the signed request.
135 =item B<-nonce>, B<-no_nonce>
137 Add an OCSP nonce extension to a request or disable OCSP nonce addition.
138 Normally if an OCSP request is input using the B<respin> option no
139 nonce is added: using the B<nonce> option will force addition of a nonce.
140 If an OCSP request is being created (using B<cert> and B<serial> options)
141 a nonce is automatically added specifying B<no_nonce> overrides this.
143 =item B<-req_text>, B<-resp_text>, B<-text>
145 print out the text form of the OCSP request, response or both respectively.
147 =item B<-reqout file>, B<-respout file>
149 write out the DER encoded certificate request or response to B<file>.
151 =item B<-reqin file>, B<-respin file>
153 read OCSP request or response file from B<file>. These option are ignored
154 if OCSP request or response creation is implied by other options (for example
155 with B<serial>, B<cert> and B<host> options).
157 =item B<-url responder_url>
159 specify the responder URL. Both HTTP and HTTPS (SSL/TLS) URLs can be specified.
161 =item B<-host hostname:port>, B<-path pathname>
163 if the B<host> option is present then the OCSP request is sent to the host
164 B<hostname> on port B<port>. B<path> specifies the HTTP path name to use
167 =item B<-header name=value>
169 Adds the header B<name> with the specified B<value> to the OCSP request
170 that is sent to the responder.
171 This may be repeated.
173 =item B<-timeout seconds>
175 connection timeout to the OCSP responder in seconds
177 =item B<-CAfile file>, B<-CApath pathname>
179 file or pathname containing trusted CA certificates. These are used to verify
180 the signature on the OCSP response.
184 Do not load the trusted CA certificates from the default file location
188 Do not load the trusted CA certificates from the default directory location
190 =item B<-attime>, B<-check_ss_sig>, B<-crl_check>, B<-crl_check_all>,
191 B<explicit_policy>, B<-extended_crl>, B<-ignore_critical>, B<-inhibit_any>,
192 B<-inhibit_map>, B<-issuer_checks>, B<-partial_chain>, B<-policy>,
193 B<-policy_check>, B<-policy_print>, B<-purpose>, B<-suiteB_128>,
194 B<-suiteB_128_only>, B<-suiteB_192>, B<-trusted_first>, B<-no_alt_chains>,
195 B<-use_deltas>, B<-verify_depth>, B<-verify_email>, B<-verify_hostname>,
196 B<-verify_ip>, B<-verify_name>, B<-x509_strict>
198 Set different certificate verification options.
199 See L<B<verify>|verify(1)> manual page for details.
201 =item B<-verify_other file>
203 file containing additional certificates to search when attempting to locate
204 the OCSP response signing certificate. Some responders omit the actual signer's
205 certificate from the response: this option can be used to supply the necessary
206 certificate in such cases.
208 =item B<-trust_other>
210 the certificates specified by the B<-verify_other> option should be explicitly
211 trusted and no additional checks will be performed on them. This is useful
212 when the complete responder certificate chain is not available or trusting a
213 root CA is not appropriate.
215 =item B<-VAfile file>
217 file containing explicitly trusted responder certificates. Equivalent to the
218 B<-verify_other> and B<-trust_other> options.
222 don't attempt to verify the OCSP response signature or the nonce values. This
223 option will normally only be used for debugging since it disables all verification
224 of the responders certificate.
228 ignore certificates contained in the OCSP response when searching for the
229 signers certificate. With this option the signers certificate must be specified
230 with either the B<-verify_other> or B<-VAfile> options.
232 =item B<-no_signature_verify>
234 don't check the signature on the OCSP response. Since this option tolerates invalid
235 signatures on OCSP responses it will normally only be used for testing purposes.
237 =item B<-no_cert_verify>
239 don't verify the OCSP response signers certificate at all. Since this option allows
240 the OCSP response to be signed by any certificate it should only be used for
245 do not use certificates in the response as additional untrusted CA
248 =item B<-no_explicit>
250 do not explicitly trust the root CA if it is set to be trusted for OCSP signing.
252 =item B<-no_cert_checks>
254 don't perform any additional checks on the OCSP response signers certificate.
255 That is do not make any checks to see if the signers certificate is authorised
256 to provide the necessary status information: as a result this option should
257 only be used for testing purposes.
259 =item B<-validity_period nsec>, B<-status_age age>
261 these options specify the range of times, in seconds, which will be tolerated
262 in an OCSP response. Each certificate status response includes a B<notBefore> time and
263 an optional B<notAfter> time. The current time should fall between these two values, but
264 the interval between the two times may be only a few seconds. In practice the OCSP
265 responder and clients clocks may not be precisely synchronised and so such a check
266 may fail. To avoid this the B<-validity_period> option can be used to specify an
267 acceptable error range in seconds, the default value is 5 minutes.
269 If the B<notAfter> time is omitted from a response then this means that new status
270 information is immediately available. In this case the age of the B<notBefore> field
271 is checked to see it is not older than B<age> seconds old. By default this additional
272 check is not performed.
276 this option sets digest algorithm to use for certificate identification
278 Any digest supported by the OpenSSL B<dgst> command can be used.
279 The default is SHA-1.
283 =head1 OCSP SERVER OPTIONS
287 =item B<-index indexfile>
289 B<indexfile> is a text index file in B<ca> format containing certificate revocation
292 If the B<index> option is specified the B<ocsp> utility is in responder mode, otherwise
293 it is in client mode. The request(s) the responder processes can be either specified on
294 the command line (using B<issuer> and B<serial> options), supplied in a file (using the
295 B<respin> option) or via external OCSP clients (if B<port> or B<url> is specified).
297 If the B<index> option is present then the B<CA> and B<rsigner> options must also be
302 CA certificate corresponding to the revocation information in B<indexfile>.
304 =item B<-rsigner file>
306 The certificate to sign OCSP responses with.
308 =item B<-rother file>
310 Additional certificates to include in the OCSP response.
312 =item B<-resp_no_certs>
314 Don't include any certificates in the OCSP response.
316 =item B<-resp_key_id>
318 Identify the signer certificate using the key ID, default is to use the subject name.
322 The private key to sign OCSP responses with: if not present the file specified in the
323 B<rsigner> option is used.
325 =item B<-port portnum>
327 Port to listen for OCSP requests on. The port may also be specified using the B<url>
330 =item B<-nrequest number>
332 The OCSP server will exit after receiving B<number> requests, default unlimited.
334 =item B<-nmin minutes>, B<-ndays days>
336 Number of minutes or days when fresh revocation information is available: used in the
337 B<nextUpdate> field. If neither option is present then the B<nextUpdate> field is
338 omitted meaning fresh revocation information is immediately available.
342 =head1 OCSP Response verification.
344 OCSP Response follows the rules specified in RFC2560.
346 Initially the OCSP responder certificate is located and the signature on
347 the OCSP request checked using the responder certificate's public key.
349 Then a normal certificate verify is performed on the OCSP responder certificate
350 building up a certificate chain in the process. The locations of the trusted
351 certificates used to build the chain can be specified by the B<CAfile>
352 and B<CApath> options or they will be looked for in the standard OpenSSL
353 certificates directory.
355 If the initial verify fails then the OCSP verify process halts with an
358 Otherwise the issuing CA certificate in the request is compared to the OCSP
359 responder certificate: if there is a match then the OCSP verify succeeds.
361 Otherwise the OCSP responder certificate's CA is checked against the issuing
362 CA certificate in the request. If there is a match and the OCSPSigning
363 extended key usage is present in the OCSP responder certificate then the
364 OCSP verify succeeds.
366 Otherwise, if B<-no_explicit> is B<not> set the root CA of the OCSP responders
367 CA is checked to see if it is trusted for OCSP signing. If it is the OCSP
370 If none of these checks is successful then the OCSP verify fails.
372 What this effectively means if that if the OCSP responder certificate is
373 authorised directly by the CA it is issuing revocation information about
374 (and it is correctly configured) then verification will succeed.
376 If the OCSP responder is a "global responder" which can give details about
377 multiple CAs and has its own separate certificate chain then its root
378 CA can be trusted for OCSP signing. For example:
380 openssl x509 -in ocspCA.pem -addtrust OCSPSigning -out trustedCA.pem
382 Alternatively the responder certificate itself can be explicitly trusted
383 with the B<-VAfile> option.
387 As noted, most of the verify options are for testing or debugging purposes.
388 Normally only the B<-CApath>, B<-CAfile> and (if the responder is a 'global
389 VA') B<-VAfile> options need to be used.
391 The OCSP server is only useful for test and demonstration purposes: it is
392 not really usable as a full OCSP responder. It contains only a very
393 simple HTTP request handling and can only handle the POST form of OCSP
394 queries. It also handles requests serially meaning it cannot respond to
395 new requests until it has processed the current one. The text index file
396 format of revocation is also inefficient for large quantities of revocation
399 It is possible to run the B<ocsp> application in responder mode via a CGI
400 script using the B<respin> and B<respout> options.
404 Create an OCSP request and write it to a file:
406 openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem -reqout req.der
408 Send a query to an OCSP responder with URL http://ocsp.myhost.com/ save the
409 response to a file and print it out in text form
411 openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem \
412 -url http://ocsp.myhost.com/ -resp_text -respout resp.der
414 Read in an OCSP response and print out text form:
416 openssl ocsp -respin resp.der -text
418 OCSP server on port 8888 using a standard B<ca> configuration, and a separate
419 responder certificate. All requests and responses are printed to a file.
421 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
424 As above but exit after processing one request:
426 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
429 Query status information using internally generated request:
431 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
432 -issuer demoCA/cacert.pem -serial 1
434 Query status information using request read from a file, write response to a
437 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
438 -reqin req.der -respout resp.der
442 The -no_alt_chains options was first added to OpenSSL 1.1.0.