5 ocsp - Online Certificate Status Protocol utility
32 [B<-attime timestamp>]
53 [B<-verify_depth num>]
54 [B<-verify_email email>]
55 [B<-verify_hostname hostname>]
57 [B<-verify_name name>]
60 [B<-validity_period n>]
63 [B<-verify_other file>]
66 [B<-no_signature_verify>]
86 The Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) enables applications to
87 determine the (revocation) state of an identified certificate (RFC 2560).
89 The B<ocsp> command performs many common OCSP tasks. It can be used
90 to print out requests and responses, create requests and send queries
91 to an OCSP responder and behave like a mini OCSP server itself.
93 =head1 OCSP CLIENT OPTIONS
97 =item B<-out filename>
99 specify output filename, default is standard output.
101 =item B<-issuer filename>
103 This specifies the current issuer certificate. This option can be used
104 multiple times. The certificate specified in B<filename> must be in
105 PEM format. This option B<MUST> come before any B<-cert> options.
107 =item B<-cert filename>
109 Add the certificate B<filename> to the request. The issuer certificate
110 is taken from the previous B<issuer> option, or an error occurs if no
111 issuer certificate is specified.
115 Same as the B<cert> option except the certificate with serial number
116 B<num> is added to the request. The serial number is interpreted as a
117 decimal integer unless preceded by B<0x>. Negative integers can also
118 be specified by preceding the value by a B<-> sign.
120 =item B<-signer filename>, B<-signkey filename>
122 Sign the OCSP request using the certificate specified in the B<signer>
123 option and the private key specified by the B<signkey> option. If
124 the B<signkey> option is not present then the private key is read
125 from the same file as the certificate. If neither option is specified then
126 the OCSP request is not signed.
128 =item B<-sign_other filename>
130 Additional certificates to include in the signed request.
132 =item B<-nonce>, B<-no_nonce>
134 Add an OCSP nonce extension to a request or disable OCSP nonce addition.
135 Normally if an OCSP request is input using the B<respin> option no
136 nonce is added: using the B<nonce> option will force addition of a nonce.
137 If an OCSP request is being created (using B<cert> and B<serial> options)
138 a nonce is automatically added specifying B<no_nonce> overrides this.
140 =item B<-req_text>, B<-resp_text>, B<-text>
142 print out the text form of the OCSP request, response or both respectively.
144 =item B<-reqout file>, B<-respout file>
146 write out the DER encoded certificate request or response to B<file>.
148 =item B<-reqin file>, B<-respin file>
150 read OCSP request or response file from B<file>. These option are ignored
151 if OCSP request or response creation is implied by other options (for example
152 with B<serial>, B<cert> and B<host> options).
154 =item B<-url responder_url>
156 specify the responder URL. Both HTTP and HTTPS (SSL/TLS) URLs can be specified.
158 =item B<-host hostname:port>, B<-path pathname>
160 if the B<host> option is present then the OCSP request is sent to the host
161 B<hostname> on port B<port>. B<path> specifies the HTTP path name to use
164 =item B<-timeout seconds>
166 connection timeout to the OCSP responder in seconds
168 =item B<-CAfile file>, B<-CApath pathname>
170 file or pathname containing trusted CA certificates. These are used to verify
171 the signature on the OCSP response.
173 =item B<-attime>, B<-check_ss_sig>, B<-crl_check>, B<-crl_check_all>,
174 B<explicit_policy>, B<-extended_crl>, B<-ignore_critical>, B<-inhibit_any>,
175 B<-inhibit_map>, B<-issuer_checks>, B<-partial_chain>, B<-policy>,
176 B<-policy_check>, B<-policy_print>, B<-purpose>, B<-suiteB_128>,
177 B<-suiteB_128_only>, B<-suiteB_192>, B<-trusted_first>, B<-no_alt_chains>,
178 B<-use_deltas>, B<-verify_depth>, B<-verify_email>, B<-verify_hostname>,
179 B<-verify_ip>, B<-verify_name>, B<-x509_strict>
181 Set different certificate verification options.
182 See L<B<verify>|verify(1)> manual page for details.
184 =item B<-verify_other file>
186 file containing additional certificates to search when attempting to locate
187 the OCSP response signing certificate. Some responders omit the actual signer's
188 certificate from the response: this option can be used to supply the necessary
189 certificate in such cases.
191 =item B<-trust_other>
193 the certificates specified by the B<-verify_other> option should be explicitly
194 trusted and no additional checks will be performed on them. This is useful
195 when the complete responder certificate chain is not available or trusting a
196 root CA is not appropriate.
198 =item B<-VAfile file>
200 file containing explicitly trusted responder certificates. Equivalent to the
201 B<-verify_other> and B<-trust_other> options.
205 don't attempt to verify the OCSP response signature or the nonce values. This
206 option will normally only be used for debugging since it disables all verification
207 of the responders certificate.
211 ignore certificates contained in the OCSP response when searching for the
212 signers certificate. With this option the signers certificate must be specified
213 with either the B<-verify_other> or B<-VAfile> options.
215 =item B<-no_signature_verify>
217 don't check the signature on the OCSP response. Since this option tolerates invalid
218 signatures on OCSP responses it will normally only be used for testing purposes.
220 =item B<-no_cert_verify>
222 don't verify the OCSP response signers certificate at all. Since this option allows
223 the OCSP response to be signed by any certificate it should only be used for
228 do not use certificates in the response as additional untrusted CA
231 =item B<-no_explicit>
233 do not explicitly trust the root CA if it is set to be trusted for OCSP signing.
235 =item B<-no_cert_checks>
237 don't perform any additional checks on the OCSP response signers certificate.
238 That is do not make any checks to see if the signers certificate is authorised
239 to provide the necessary status information: as a result this option should
240 only be used for testing purposes.
242 =item B<-validity_period nsec>, B<-status_age age>
244 these options specify the range of times, in seconds, which will be tolerated
245 in an OCSP response. Each certificate status response includes a B<notBefore> time and
246 an optional B<notAfter> time. The current time should fall between these two values, but
247 the interval between the two times may be only a few seconds. In practice the OCSP
248 responder and clients clocks may not be precisely synchronised and so such a check
249 may fail. To avoid this the B<-validity_period> option can be used to specify an
250 acceptable error range in seconds, the default value is 5 minutes.
252 If the B<notAfter> time is omitted from a response then this means that new status
253 information is immediately available. In this case the age of the B<notBefore> field
254 is checked to see it is not older than B<age> seconds old. By default this additional
255 check is not performed.
257 =item B<-md5|-sha1|-sha256|-ripemod160|...>
259 this option sets digest algorithm to use for certificate identification
260 in the OCSP request. By default SHA-1 is used.
264 =head1 OCSP SERVER OPTIONS
268 =item B<-index indexfile>
270 B<indexfile> is a text index file in B<ca> format containing certificate revocation
273 If the B<index> option is specified the B<ocsp> utility is in responder mode, otherwise
274 it is in client mode. The request(s) the responder processes can be either specified on
275 the command line (using B<issuer> and B<serial> options), supplied in a file (using the
276 B<respin> option) or via external OCSP clients (if B<port> or B<url> is specified).
278 If the B<index> option is present then the B<CA> and B<rsigner> options must also be
283 CA certificate corresponding to the revocation information in B<indexfile>.
285 =item B<-rsigner file>
287 The certificate to sign OCSP responses with.
289 =item B<-rother file>
291 Additional certificates to include in the OCSP response.
293 =item B<-resp_no_certs>
295 Don't include any certificates in the OCSP response.
297 =item B<-resp_key_id>
299 Identify the signer certificate using the key ID, default is to use the subject name.
303 The private key to sign OCSP responses with: if not present the file specified in the
304 B<rsigner> option is used.
306 =item B<-port portnum>
308 Port to listen for OCSP requests on. The port may also be specified using the B<url>
311 =item B<-nrequest number>
313 The OCSP server will exit after receiving B<number> requests, default unlimited.
315 =item B<-nmin minutes>, B<-ndays days>
317 Number of minutes or days when fresh revocation information is available: used in the
318 B<nextUpdate> field. If neither option is present then the B<nextUpdate> field is
319 omitted meaning fresh revocation information is immediately available.
323 =head1 OCSP Response verification.
325 OCSP Response follows the rules specified in RFC2560.
327 Initially the OCSP responder certificate is located and the signature on
328 the OCSP request checked using the responder certificate's public key.
330 Then a normal certificate verify is performed on the OCSP responder certificate
331 building up a certificate chain in the process. The locations of the trusted
332 certificates used to build the chain can be specified by the B<CAfile>
333 and B<CApath> options or they will be looked for in the standard OpenSSL
334 certificates directory.
336 If the initial verify fails then the OCSP verify process halts with an
339 Otherwise the issuing CA certificate in the request is compared to the OCSP
340 responder certificate: if there is a match then the OCSP verify succeeds.
342 Otherwise the OCSP responder certificate's CA is checked against the issuing
343 CA certificate in the request. If there is a match and the OCSPSigning
344 extended key usage is present in the OCSP responder certificate then the
345 OCSP verify succeeds.
347 Otherwise, if B<-no_explicit> is B<not> set the root CA of the OCSP responders
348 CA is checked to see if it is trusted for OCSP signing. If it is the OCSP
351 If none of these checks is successful then the OCSP verify fails.
353 What this effectively means if that if the OCSP responder certificate is
354 authorised directly by the CA it is issuing revocation information about
355 (and it is correctly configured) then verification will succeed.
357 If the OCSP responder is a "global responder" which can give details about
358 multiple CAs and has its own separate certificate chain then its root
359 CA can be trusted for OCSP signing. For example:
361 openssl x509 -in ocspCA.pem -addtrust OCSPSigning -out trustedCA.pem
363 Alternatively the responder certificate itself can be explicitly trusted
364 with the B<-VAfile> option.
368 As noted, most of the verify options are for testing or debugging purposes.
369 Normally only the B<-CApath>, B<-CAfile> and (if the responder is a 'global
370 VA') B<-VAfile> options need to be used.
372 The OCSP server is only useful for test and demonstration purposes: it is
373 not really usable as a full OCSP responder. It contains only a very
374 simple HTTP request handling and can only handle the POST form of OCSP
375 queries. It also handles requests serially meaning it cannot respond to
376 new requests until it has processed the current one. The text index file
377 format of revocation is also inefficient for large quantities of revocation
380 It is possible to run the B<ocsp> application in responder mode via a CGI
381 script using the B<respin> and B<respout> options.
385 Create an OCSP request and write it to a file:
387 openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem -reqout req.der
389 Send a query to an OCSP responder with URL http://ocsp.myhost.com/ save the
390 response to a file and print it out in text form
392 openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem \
393 -url http://ocsp.myhost.com/ -resp_text -respout resp.der
395 Read in an OCSP response and print out text form:
397 openssl ocsp -respin resp.der -text
399 OCSP server on port 8888 using a standard B<ca> configuration, and a separate
400 responder certificate. All requests and responses are printed to a file.
402 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
405 As above but exit after processing one request:
407 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
410 Query status information using internally generated request:
412 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
413 -issuer demoCA/cacert.pem -serial 1
415 Query status information using request read from a file, write response to a
418 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
419 -reqin req.der -respout resp.der
423 The -no_alt_chains options was first added to OpenSSL 1.1.0.