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>]
85 The Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) enables applications to
86 determine the (revocation) state of an identified certificate (RFC 2560).
88 The B<ocsp> command performs many common OCSP tasks. It can be used
89 to print out requests and responses, create requests and send queries
90 to an OCSP responder and behave like a mini OCSP server itself.
92 =head1 OCSP CLIENT OPTIONS
96 =item B<-out filename>
98 specify output filename, default is standard output.
100 =item B<-issuer filename>
102 This specifies the current issuer certificate. This option can be used
103 multiple times. The certificate specified in B<filename> must be in
104 PEM format. This option B<MUST> come before any B<-cert> options.
106 =item B<-cert filename>
108 Add the certificate B<filename> to the request. The issuer certificate
109 is taken from the previous B<issuer> option, or an error occurs if no
110 issuer certificate is specified.
114 Same as the B<cert> option except the certificate with serial number
115 B<num> is added to the request. The serial number is interpreted as a
116 decimal integer unless preceded by B<0x>. Negative integers can also
117 be specified by preceding the value by a B<-> sign.
119 =item B<-signer filename>, B<-signkey filename>
121 Sign the OCSP request using the certificate specified in the B<signer>
122 option and the private key specified by the B<signkey> option. If
123 the B<signkey> option is not present then the private key is read
124 from the same file as the certificate. If neither option is specified then
125 the OCSP request is not signed.
127 =item B<-sign_other filename>
129 Additional certificates to include in the signed request.
131 =item B<-nonce>, B<-no_nonce>
133 Add an OCSP nonce extension to a request or disable OCSP nonce addition.
134 Normally if an OCSP request is input using the B<respin> option no
135 nonce is added: using the B<nonce> option will force addition of a nonce.
136 If an OCSP request is being created (using B<cert> and B<serial> options)
137 a nonce is automatically added specifying B<no_nonce> overrides this.
139 =item B<-req_text>, B<-resp_text>, B<-text>
141 print out the text form of the OCSP request, response or both respectively.
143 =item B<-reqout file>, B<-respout file>
145 write out the DER encoded certificate request or response to B<file>.
147 =item B<-reqin file>, B<-respin file>
149 read OCSP request or response file from B<file>. These option are ignored
150 if OCSP request or response creation is implied by other options (for example
151 with B<serial>, B<cert> and B<host> options).
153 =item B<-url responder_url>
155 specify the responder URL. Both HTTP and HTTPS (SSL/TLS) URLs can be specified.
157 =item B<-host hostname:port>, B<-path pathname>
159 if the B<host> option is present then the OCSP request is sent to the host
160 B<hostname> on port B<port>. B<path> specifies the HTTP path name to use
163 =item B<-timeout seconds>
165 connection timeout to the OCSP responder in seconds
167 =item B<-CAfile file>, B<-CApath pathname>
169 file or pathname containing trusted CA certificates. These are used to verify
170 the signature on the OCSP response.
172 =item B<-attime>, B<-check_ss_sig>, B<-crl_check>, B<-crl_check_all>,
173 B<explicit_policy>, B<-extended_crl>, B<-ignore_critical>, B<-inhibit_any>,
174 B<-inhibit_map>, B<-issuer_checks>, B<-partial_chain>, B<-policy>,
175 B<-policy_check>, B<-policy_print>, B<-purpose>, B<-suiteB_128>,
176 B<-suiteB_128_only>, B<-suiteB_192>, B<-trusted_first>, B<-use_deltas>,
177 B<-verify_depth>, B<-verify_email>, B<-verify_hostname>, B<-verify_ip>,
178 B<-verify_name>, B<-x509_strict>
180 Set different certificate verification options.
181 See L<B<verify>|verify(1)> manual page for details.
183 =item B<-verify_other file>
185 file containing additional certificates to search when attempting to locate
186 the OCSP response signing certificate. Some responders omit the actual signer's
187 certificate from the response: this option can be used to supply the necessary
188 certificate in such cases.
190 =item B<-trust_other>
192 the certificates specified by the B<-verify_other> option should be explicitly
193 trusted and no additional checks will be performed on them. This is useful
194 when the complete responder certificate chain is not available or trusting a
195 root CA is not appropriate.
197 =item B<-VAfile file>
199 file containing explicitly trusted responder certificates. Equivalent to the
200 B<-verify_other> and B<-trust_other> options.
204 don't attempt to verify the OCSP response signature or the nonce values. This
205 option will normally only be used for debugging since it disables all verification
206 of the responders certificate.
210 ignore certificates contained in the OCSP response when searching for the
211 signers certificate. With this option the signers certificate must be specified
212 with either the B<-verify_other> or B<-VAfile> options.
214 =item B<-no_signature_verify>
216 don't check the signature on the OCSP response. Since this option tolerates invalid
217 signatures on OCSP responses it will normally only be used for testing purposes.
219 =item B<-no_cert_verify>
221 don't verify the OCSP response signers certificate at all. Since this option allows
222 the OCSP response to be signed by any certificate it should only be used for
227 do not use certificates in the response as additional untrusted CA
230 =item B<-no_explicit>
232 do not explicitly trust the root CA if it is set to be trusted for OCSP signing.
234 =item B<-no_cert_checks>
236 don't perform any additional checks on the OCSP response signers certificate.
237 That is do not make any checks to see if the signers certificate is authorised
238 to provide the necessary status information: as a result this option should
239 only be used for testing purposes.
241 =item B<-validity_period nsec>, B<-status_age age>
243 these options specify the range of times, in seconds, which will be tolerated
244 in an OCSP response. Each certificate status response includes a B<notBefore> time and
245 an optional B<notAfter> time. The current time should fall between these two values, but
246 the interval between the two times may be only a few seconds. In practice the OCSP
247 responder and clients clocks may not be precisely synchronised and so such a check
248 may fail. To avoid this the B<-validity_period> option can be used to specify an
249 acceptable error range in seconds, the default value is 5 minutes.
251 If the B<notAfter> time is omitted from a response then this means that new status
252 information is immediately available. In this case the age of the B<notBefore> field
253 is checked to see it is not older than B<age> seconds old. By default this additional
254 check is not performed.
256 =item B<-md5|-sha1|-sha256|-ripemod160|...>
258 this option sets digest algorithm to use for certificate identification
259 in the OCSP request. By default SHA-1 is used.
263 =head1 OCSP SERVER OPTIONS
267 =item B<-index indexfile>
269 B<indexfile> is a text index file in B<ca> format containing certificate revocation
272 If the B<index> option is specified the B<ocsp> utility is in responder mode, otherwise
273 it is in client mode. The request(s) the responder processes can be either specified on
274 the command line (using B<issuer> and B<serial> options), supplied in a file (using the
275 B<respin> option) or via external OCSP clients (if B<port> or B<url> is specified).
277 If the B<index> option is present then the B<CA> and B<rsigner> options must also be
282 CA certificate corresponding to the revocation information in B<indexfile>.
284 =item B<-rsigner file>
286 The certificate to sign OCSP responses with.
288 =item B<-rother file>
290 Additional certificates to include in the OCSP response.
292 =item B<-resp_no_certs>
294 Don't include any certificates in the OCSP response.
296 =item B<-resp_key_id>
298 Identify the signer certificate using the key ID, default is to use the subject name.
302 The private key to sign OCSP responses with: if not present the file specified in the
303 B<rsigner> option is used.
305 =item B<-port portnum>
307 Port to listen for OCSP requests on. The port may also be specified using the B<url>
310 =item B<-nrequest number>
312 The OCSP server will exit after receiving B<number> requests, default unlimited.
314 =item B<-nmin minutes>, B<-ndays days>
316 Number of minutes or days when fresh revocation information is available: used in the
317 B<nextUpdate> field. If neither option is present then the B<nextUpdate> field is
318 omitted meaning fresh revocation information is immediately available.
322 =head1 OCSP Response verification.
324 OCSP Response follows the rules specified in RFC2560.
326 Initially the OCSP responder certificate is located and the signature on
327 the OCSP request checked using the responder certificate's public key.
329 Then a normal certificate verify is performed on the OCSP responder certificate
330 building up a certificate chain in the process. The locations of the trusted
331 certificates used to build the chain can be specified by the B<CAfile>
332 and B<CApath> options or they will be looked for in the standard OpenSSL
333 certificates directory.
335 If the initial verify fails then the OCSP verify process halts with an
338 Otherwise the issuing CA certificate in the request is compared to the OCSP
339 responder certificate: if there is a match then the OCSP verify succeeds.
341 Otherwise the OCSP responder certificate's CA is checked against the issuing
342 CA certificate in the request. If there is a match and the OCSPSigning
343 extended key usage is present in the OCSP responder certificate then the
344 OCSP verify succeeds.
346 Otherwise, if B<-no_explicit> is B<not> set the root CA of the OCSP responders
347 CA is checked to see if it is trusted for OCSP signing. If it is the OCSP
350 If none of these checks is successful then the OCSP verify fails.
352 What this effectively means if that if the OCSP responder certificate is
353 authorised directly by the CA it is issuing revocation information about
354 (and it is correctly configured) then verification will succeed.
356 If the OCSP responder is a "global responder" which can give details about
357 multiple CAs and has its own separate certificate chain then its root
358 CA can be trusted for OCSP signing. For example:
360 openssl x509 -in ocspCA.pem -addtrust OCSPSigning -out trustedCA.pem
362 Alternatively the responder certificate itself can be explicitly trusted
363 with the B<-VAfile> option.
367 As noted, most of the verify options are for testing or debugging purposes.
368 Normally only the B<-CApath>, B<-CAfile> and (if the responder is a 'global
369 VA') B<-VAfile> options need to be used.
371 The OCSP server is only useful for test and demonstration purposes: it is
372 not really usable as a full OCSP responder. It contains only a very
373 simple HTTP request handling and can only handle the POST form of OCSP
374 queries. It also handles requests serially meaning it cannot respond to
375 new requests until it has processed the current one. The text index file
376 format of revocation is also inefficient for large quantities of revocation
379 It is possible to run the B<ocsp> application in responder mode via a CGI
380 script using the B<respin> and B<respout> options.
384 Create an OCSP request and write it to a file:
386 openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem -reqout req.der
388 Send a query to an OCSP responder with URL http://ocsp.myhost.com/ save the
389 response to a file and print it out in text form
391 openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem \
392 -url http://ocsp.myhost.com/ -resp_text -respout resp.der
394 Read in an OCSP response and print out text form:
396 openssl ocsp -respin resp.der -text
398 OCSP server on port 8888 using a standard B<ca> configuration, and a separate
399 responder certificate. All requests and responses are printed to a file.
401 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
404 As above but exit after processing one request:
406 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
409 Query status information using internally generated request:
411 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
412 -issuer demoCA/cacert.pem -serial 1
414 Query status information using request read from a file, write response to a
417 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
418 -reqin req.der -respout resp.der