6 ocsp - Online Certificate Status Protocol utility
37 [B<-attime timestamp>]
59 [B<-verify_depth num>]
60 [B<-verify_email email>]
61 [B<-verify_hostname hostname>]
63 [B<-verify_name name>]
66 [B<-validity_period n>]
69 [B<-verify_other file>]
72 [B<-no_signature_verify>]
93 The Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) enables applications to
94 determine the (revocation) state of an identified certificate (RFC 2560).
96 The B<ocsp> command performs many common OCSP tasks. It can be used
97 to print out requests and responses, create requests and send queries
98 to an OCSP responder and behave like a mini OCSP server itself.
102 This command operates as either a client or a server.
103 The options are described below, divided into those two modes.
105 =head2 OCSP Client Options
111 Print out a usage message.
113 =item B<-out filename>
115 specify output filename, default is standard output.
117 =item B<-issuer filename>
119 This specifies the current issuer certificate. This option can be used
120 multiple times. The certificate specified in B<filename> must be in
121 PEM format. This option B<MUST> come before any B<-cert> options.
123 =item B<-cert filename>
125 Add the certificate B<filename> to the request. The issuer certificate
126 is taken from the previous B<issuer> option, or an error occurs if no
127 issuer certificate is specified.
131 Same as the B<cert> option except the certificate with serial number
132 B<num> is added to the request. The serial number is interpreted as a
133 decimal integer unless preceded by B<0x>. Negative integers can also
134 be specified by preceding the value by a B<-> sign.
136 =item B<-signer filename>, B<-signkey filename>
138 Sign the OCSP request using the certificate specified in the B<signer>
139 option and the private key specified by the B<signkey> option. If
140 the B<signkey> option is not present then the private key is read
141 from the same file as the certificate. If neither option is specified then
142 the OCSP request is not signed.
144 =item B<-sign_other filename>
146 Additional certificates to include in the signed request.
148 =item B<-nonce>, B<-no_nonce>
150 Add an OCSP nonce extension to a request or disable OCSP nonce addition.
151 Normally if an OCSP request is input using the B<reqin> option no
152 nonce is added: using the B<nonce> option will force addition of a nonce.
153 If an OCSP request is being created (using B<cert> and B<serial> options)
154 a nonce is automatically added specifying B<no_nonce> overrides this.
156 =item B<-req_text>, B<-resp_text>, B<-text>
158 Print out the text form of the OCSP request, response or both respectively.
160 =item B<-reqout file>, B<-respout file>
162 Write out the DER encoded certificate request or response to B<file>.
164 =item B<-reqin file>, B<-respin file>
166 Read OCSP request or response file from B<file>. These option are ignored
167 if OCSP request or response creation is implied by other options (for example
168 with B<serial>, B<cert> and B<host> options).
170 =item B<-url responder_url>
172 Specify the responder URL. Both HTTP and HTTPS (SSL/TLS) URLs can be specified.
174 =item B<-host hostname:port>, B<-path pathname>
176 If the B<host> option is present then the OCSP request is sent to the host
177 B<hostname> on port B<port>. B<path> specifies the HTTP path name to use
178 or "/" by default. This is equivalent to specifying B<-url> with scheme
179 http:// and the given hostname, port, and pathname.
181 =item B<-header name=value>
183 Adds the header B<name> with the specified B<value> to the OCSP request
184 that is sent to the responder.
185 This may be repeated.
187 =item B<-timeout seconds>
189 Connection timeout to the OCSP responder in seconds
191 =item B<-CAfile file>, B<-CApath pathname>
193 File or pathname containing trusted CA certificates. These are used to verify
194 the signature on the OCSP response.
198 Do not load the trusted CA certificates from the default file location
202 Do not load the trusted CA certificates from the default directory location
204 =item B<-attime>, B<-check_ss_sig>, B<-crl_check>, B<-crl_check_all>,
205 B<-explicit_policy>, B<-extended_crl>, B<-ignore_critical>, B<-inhibit_any>,
206 B<-inhibit_map>, B<-no_alt_chains>, B<-no_check_time>, B<-partial_chain>, B<-policy>,
207 B<-policy_check>, B<-policy_print>, B<-purpose>, B<-suiteB_128>,
208 B<-suiteB_128_only>, B<-suiteB_192>, B<-trusted_first>, B<-use_deltas>,
209 B<-auth_level>, B<-verify_depth>, B<-verify_email>, B<-verify_hostname>,
210 B<-verify_ip>, B<-verify_name>, B<-x509_strict>
212 Set different certificate verification options.
213 See L<verify(1)> manual page for details.
215 =item B<-verify_other file>
217 File containing additional certificates to search when attempting to locate
218 the OCSP response signing certificate. Some responders omit the actual signer's
219 certificate from the response: this option can be used to supply the necessary
220 certificate in such cases.
222 =item B<-trust_other>
224 The certificates specified by the B<-verify_other> option should be explicitly
225 trusted and no additional checks will be performed on them. This is useful
226 when the complete responder certificate chain is not available or trusting a
227 root CA is not appropriate.
229 =item B<-VAfile file>
231 File containing explicitly trusted responder certificates. Equivalent to the
232 B<-verify_other> and B<-trust_other> options.
236 Don't attempt to verify the OCSP response signature or the nonce
237 values. This option will normally only be used for debugging since it
238 disables all verification of the responders certificate.
242 Ignore certificates contained in the OCSP response when searching for the
243 signers certificate. With this option the signers certificate must be specified
244 with either the B<-verify_other> or B<-VAfile> options.
246 =item B<-no_signature_verify>
248 Don't check the signature on the OCSP response. Since this option
249 tolerates invalid signatures on OCSP responses it will normally only be
250 used for testing purposes.
252 =item B<-no_cert_verify>
254 Don't verify the OCSP response signers certificate at all. Since this
255 option allows the OCSP response to be signed by any certificate it should
256 only be used for testing purposes.
260 Do not use certificates in the response as additional untrusted CA
263 =item B<-no_explicit>
265 Do not explicitly trust the root CA if it is set to be trusted for OCSP signing.
267 =item B<-no_cert_checks>
269 Don't perform any additional checks on the OCSP response signers certificate.
270 That is do not make any checks to see if the signers certificate is authorised
271 to provide the necessary status information: as a result this option should
272 only be used for testing purposes.
274 =item B<-validity_period nsec>, B<-status_age age>
276 These options specify the range of times, in seconds, which will be tolerated
277 in an OCSP response. Each certificate status response includes a B<notBefore>
278 time and an optional B<notAfter> time. The current time should fall between
279 these two values, but the interval between the two times may be only a few
280 seconds. In practice the OCSP responder and clients clocks may not be precisely
281 synchronised and so such a check may fail. To avoid this the
282 B<-validity_period> option can be used to specify an acceptable error range in
283 seconds, the default value is 5 minutes.
285 If the B<notAfter> time is omitted from a response then this means that new
286 status information is immediately available. In this case the age of the
287 B<notBefore> field is checked to see it is not older than B<age> seconds old.
288 By default this additional check is not performed.
292 This option sets digest algorithm to use for certificate identification in the
293 OCSP request. Any digest supported by the OpenSSL B<dgst> command can be used.
294 The default is SHA-1. This option may be used multiple times to specify the
295 digest used by subsequent certificate identifiers.
299 =head2 OCSP Server Options
303 =item B<-index indexfile>
305 The B<indexfile> parameter is the name of a text index file in B<ca>
306 format containing certificate revocation information.
308 If the B<index> option is specified the B<ocsp> utility is in responder
309 mode, otherwise it is in client mode. The request(s) the responder
310 processes can be either specified on the command line (using B<issuer>
311 and B<serial> options), supplied in a file (using the B<reqin> option)
312 or via external OCSP clients (if B<port> or B<url> is specified).
314 If the B<index> option is present then the B<CA> and B<rsigner> options
315 must also be present.
319 CA certificate corresponding to the revocation information in B<indexfile>.
321 =item B<-rsigner file>
323 The certificate to sign OCSP responses with.
325 =item B<-rother file>
327 Additional certificates to include in the OCSP response.
329 =item B<-resp_no_certs>
331 Don't include any certificates in the OCSP response.
333 =item B<-resp_key_id>
335 Identify the signer certificate using the key ID, default is to use the
340 The private key to sign OCSP responses with: if not present the file
341 specified in the B<rsigner> option is used.
343 =item B<-port portnum>
345 Port to listen for OCSP requests on. The port may also be specified
346 using the B<url> option.
350 Ignore malformed requests or responses: When acting as an OCSP client, retry if
351 a malformed response is received. When acting as an OCSP responder, continue
352 running instead of terminating upon receiving a malformed request.
354 =item B<-nrequest number>
356 The OCSP server will exit after receiving B<number> requests, default unlimited.
358 =item B<-nmin minutes>, B<-ndays days>
360 Number of minutes or days when fresh revocation information is available:
361 used in the B<nextUpdate> field. If neither option is present then the
362 B<nextUpdate> field is omitted meaning fresh revocation information is
363 immediately available.
367 =head1 OCSP Response verification.
369 OCSP Response follows the rules specified in RFC2560.
371 Initially the OCSP responder certificate is located and the signature on
372 the OCSP request checked using the responder certificate's public key.
374 Then a normal certificate verify is performed on the OCSP responder certificate
375 building up a certificate chain in the process. The locations of the trusted
376 certificates used to build the chain can be specified by the B<CAfile>
377 and B<CApath> options or they will be looked for in the standard OpenSSL
378 certificates directory.
380 If the initial verify fails then the OCSP verify process halts with an
383 Otherwise the issuing CA certificate in the request is compared to the OCSP
384 responder certificate: if there is a match then the OCSP verify succeeds.
386 Otherwise the OCSP responder certificate's CA is checked against the issuing
387 CA certificate in the request. If there is a match and the OCSPSigning
388 extended key usage is present in the OCSP responder certificate then the
389 OCSP verify succeeds.
391 Otherwise, if B<-no_explicit> is B<not> set the root CA of the OCSP responders
392 CA is checked to see if it is trusted for OCSP signing. If it is the OCSP
395 If none of these checks is successful then the OCSP verify fails.
397 What this effectively means if that if the OCSP responder certificate is
398 authorised directly by the CA it is issuing revocation information about
399 (and it is correctly configured) then verification will succeed.
401 If the OCSP responder is a "global responder" which can give details about
402 multiple CAs and has its own separate certificate chain then its root
403 CA can be trusted for OCSP signing. For example:
405 openssl x509 -in ocspCA.pem -addtrust OCSPSigning -out trustedCA.pem
407 Alternatively the responder certificate itself can be explicitly trusted
408 with the B<-VAfile> option.
412 As noted, most of the verify options are for testing or debugging purposes.
413 Normally only the B<-CApath>, B<-CAfile> and (if the responder is a 'global
414 VA') B<-VAfile> options need to be used.
416 The OCSP server is only useful for test and demonstration purposes: it is
417 not really usable as a full OCSP responder. It contains only a very
418 simple HTTP request handling and can only handle the POST form of OCSP
419 queries. It also handles requests serially meaning it cannot respond to
420 new requests until it has processed the current one. The text index file
421 format of revocation is also inefficient for large quantities of revocation
424 It is possible to run the B<ocsp> application in responder mode via a CGI
425 script using the B<reqin> and B<respout> options.
429 Create an OCSP request and write it to a file:
431 openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem -reqout req.der
433 Send a query to an OCSP responder with URL http://ocsp.myhost.com/ save the
434 response to a file, print it out in text form, and verify the response:
436 openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem \
437 -url http://ocsp.myhost.com/ -resp_text -respout resp.der
439 Read in an OCSP response and print out text form:
441 openssl ocsp -respin resp.der -text -noverify
443 OCSP server on port 8888 using a standard B<ca> configuration, and a separate
444 responder certificate. All requests and responses are printed to a file.
446 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
449 As above but exit after processing one request:
451 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
454 Query status information using an internally generated request:
456 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
457 -issuer demoCA/cacert.pem -serial 1
459 Query status information using request read from a file, and write the response
462 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
463 -reqin req.der -respout resp.der
467 The -no_alt_chains options was first added to OpenSSL 1.1.0.
471 Copyright 2001-2017 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
473 Licensed under the OpenSSL license (the "License"). You may not use
474 this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy
475 in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
476 L<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.