5 ocsp - Online Certificate Status Protocol utility
36 [B<-attime timestamp>]
57 [B<-verify_depth num>]
58 [B<-verify_email email>]
59 [B<-verify_hostname hostname>]
61 [B<-verify_name name>]
64 [B<-validity_period n>]
67 [B<-verify_other file>]
70 [B<-no_signature_verify>]
90 The Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) enables applications to
91 determine the (revocation) state of an identified certificate (RFC 2560).
93 The B<ocsp> command performs many common OCSP tasks. It can be used
94 to print out requests and responses, create requests and send queries
95 to an OCSP responder and behave like a mini OCSP server itself.
97 =head1 OCSP CLIENT OPTIONS
103 Print out a usage message.
105 =item B<-out filename>
107 specify output filename, default is standard output.
109 =item B<-issuer filename>
111 This specifies the current issuer certificate. This option can be used
112 multiple times. The certificate specified in B<filename> must be in
113 PEM format. This option B<MUST> come before any B<-cert> options.
115 =item B<-cert filename>
117 Add the certificate B<filename> to the request. The issuer certificate
118 is taken from the previous B<issuer> option, or an error occurs if no
119 issuer certificate is specified.
123 Same as the B<cert> option except the certificate with serial number
124 B<num> is added to the request. The serial number is interpreted as a
125 decimal integer unless preceded by B<0x>. Negative integers can also
126 be specified by preceding the value by a B<-> sign.
128 =item B<-signer filename>, B<-signkey filename>
130 Sign the OCSP request using the certificate specified in the B<signer>
131 option and the private key specified by the B<signkey> option. If
132 the B<signkey> option is not present then the private key is read
133 from the same file as the certificate. If neither option is specified then
134 the OCSP request is not signed.
136 =item B<-sign_other filename>
138 Additional certificates to include in the signed request.
140 =item B<-nonce>, B<-no_nonce>
142 Add an OCSP nonce extension to a request or disable OCSP nonce addition.
143 Normally if an OCSP request is input using the B<reqin> option no
144 nonce is added: using the B<nonce> option will force addition of a nonce.
145 If an OCSP request is being created (using B<cert> and B<serial> options)
146 a nonce is automatically added specifying B<no_nonce> overrides this.
148 =item B<-req_text>, B<-resp_text>, B<-text>
150 print out the text form of the OCSP request, response or both respectively.
152 =item B<-reqout file>, B<-respout file>
154 write out the DER encoded certificate request or response to B<file>.
156 =item B<-reqin file>, B<-respin file>
158 read OCSP request or response file from B<file>. These option are ignored
159 if OCSP request or response creation is implied by other options (for example
160 with B<serial>, B<cert> and B<host> options).
162 =item B<-url responder_url>
164 specify the responder URL. Both HTTP and HTTPS (SSL/TLS) URLs can be specified.
166 =item B<-host hostname:port>, B<-path pathname>
168 if the B<host> option is present then the OCSP request is sent to the host
169 B<hostname> on port B<port>. B<path> specifies the HTTP path name to use
170 or "/" by default. This is equivalent to specifying B<-url> with scheme
171 http:// and the given hostname, port, and pathname.
173 =item B<-header name=value>
175 Adds the header B<name> with the specified B<value> to the OCSP request
176 that is sent to the responder.
177 This may be repeated.
179 =item B<-timeout seconds>
181 connection timeout to the OCSP responder in seconds
183 =item B<-CAfile file>, B<-CApath pathname>
185 file or pathname containing trusted CA certificates. These are used to verify
186 the signature on the OCSP response.
190 Do not load the trusted CA certificates from the default file location
194 Do not load the trusted CA certificates from the default directory location
196 =item B<-attime>, B<-check_ss_sig>, B<-crl_check>, B<-crl_check_all>,
197 B<-explicit_policy>, B<-extended_crl>, B<-ignore_critical>, B<-inhibit_any>,
198 B<-inhibit_map>, B<-no_alt_chains>, B<-partial_chain>, B<-policy>,
199 B<-policy_check>, B<-policy_print>, B<-purpose>, B<-suiteB_128>,
200 B<-suiteB_128_only>, B<-suiteB_192>, B<-trusted_first>, B<-use_deltas>,
201 B<-auth_level>, B<-verify_depth>, B<-verify_email>, B<-verify_hostname>,
202 B<-verify_ip>, B<-verify_name>, B<-x509_strict>
204 Set different certificate verification options.
205 See L<verify(1)> manual page for details.
207 =item B<-verify_other file>
209 file containing additional certificates to search when attempting to locate
210 the OCSP response signing certificate. Some responders omit the actual signer's
211 certificate from the response: this option can be used to supply the necessary
212 certificate in such cases.
214 =item B<-trust_other>
216 the certificates specified by the B<-verify_other> option should be explicitly
217 trusted and no additional checks will be performed on them. This is useful
218 when the complete responder certificate chain is not available or trusting a
219 root CA is not appropriate.
221 =item B<-VAfile file>
223 file containing explicitly trusted responder certificates. Equivalent to the
224 B<-verify_other> and B<-trust_other> options.
228 don't attempt to verify the OCSP response signature or the nonce values. This
229 option will normally only be used for debugging since it disables all verification
230 of the responders certificate.
234 ignore certificates contained in the OCSP response when searching for the
235 signers certificate. With this option the signers certificate must be specified
236 with either the B<-verify_other> or B<-VAfile> options.
238 =item B<-no_signature_verify>
240 don't check the signature on the OCSP response. Since this option tolerates invalid
241 signatures on OCSP responses it will normally only be used for testing purposes.
243 =item B<-no_cert_verify>
245 don't verify the OCSP response signers certificate at all. Since this option allows
246 the OCSP response to be signed by any certificate it should only be used for
251 do not use certificates in the response as additional untrusted CA
254 =item B<-no_explicit>
256 do not explicitly trust the root CA if it is set to be trusted for OCSP signing.
258 =item B<-no_cert_checks>
260 don't perform any additional checks on the OCSP response signers certificate.
261 That is do not make any checks to see if the signers certificate is authorised
262 to provide the necessary status information: as a result this option should
263 only be used for testing purposes.
265 =item B<-validity_period nsec>, B<-status_age age>
267 these options specify the range of times, in seconds, which will be tolerated
268 in an OCSP response. Each certificate status response includes a B<notBefore> time and
269 an optional B<notAfter> time. The current time should fall between these two values, but
270 the interval between the two times may be only a few seconds. In practice the OCSP
271 responder and clients clocks may not be precisely synchronised and so such a check
272 may fail. To avoid this the B<-validity_period> option can be used to specify an
273 acceptable error range in seconds, the default value is 5 minutes.
275 If the B<notAfter> time is omitted from a response then this means that new status
276 information is immediately available. In this case the age of the B<notBefore> field
277 is checked to see it is not older than B<age> seconds old. By default this additional
278 check is not performed.
282 this option sets digest algorithm to use for certificate identification
284 Any digest supported by the OpenSSL B<dgst> command can be used.
285 The default is SHA-1.
289 =head1 OCSP SERVER OPTIONS
293 =item B<-index indexfile>
295 B<indexfile> is a text index file in B<ca> format containing certificate revocation
298 If the B<index> option is specified the B<ocsp> utility is in responder mode, otherwise
299 it is in client mode. The request(s) the responder processes can be either specified on
300 the command line (using B<issuer> and B<serial> options), supplied in a file (using the
301 B<reqin> option) or via external OCSP clients (if B<port> or B<url> is specified).
303 If the B<index> option is present then the B<CA> and B<rsigner> options must also be
308 CA certificate corresponding to the revocation information in B<indexfile>.
310 =item B<-rsigner file>
312 The certificate to sign OCSP responses with.
314 =item B<-rother file>
316 Additional certificates to include in the OCSP response.
318 =item B<-resp_no_certs>
320 Don't include any certificates in the OCSP response.
322 =item B<-resp_key_id>
324 Identify the signer certificate using the key ID, default is to use the subject name.
328 The private key to sign OCSP responses with: if not present the file specified in the
329 B<rsigner> option is used.
331 =item B<-port portnum>
333 Port to listen for OCSP requests on. The port may also be specified using the B<url>
336 =item B<-nrequest number>
338 The OCSP server will exit after receiving B<number> requests, default unlimited.
340 =item B<-nmin minutes>, B<-ndays days>
342 Number of minutes or days when fresh revocation information is available: used in the
343 B<nextUpdate> field. If neither option is present then the B<nextUpdate> field is
344 omitted meaning fresh revocation information is immediately available.
348 =head1 OCSP Response verification.
350 OCSP Response follows the rules specified in RFC2560.
352 Initially the OCSP responder certificate is located and the signature on
353 the OCSP request checked using the responder certificate's public key.
355 Then a normal certificate verify is performed on the OCSP responder certificate
356 building up a certificate chain in the process. The locations of the trusted
357 certificates used to build the chain can be specified by the B<CAfile>
358 and B<CApath> options or they will be looked for in the standard OpenSSL
359 certificates directory.
361 If the initial verify fails then the OCSP verify process halts with an
364 Otherwise the issuing CA certificate in the request is compared to the OCSP
365 responder certificate: if there is a match then the OCSP verify succeeds.
367 Otherwise the OCSP responder certificate's CA is checked against the issuing
368 CA certificate in the request. If there is a match and the OCSPSigning
369 extended key usage is present in the OCSP responder certificate then the
370 OCSP verify succeeds.
372 Otherwise, if B<-no_explicit> is B<not> set the root CA of the OCSP responders
373 CA is checked to see if it is trusted for OCSP signing. If it is the OCSP
376 If none of these checks is successful then the OCSP verify fails.
378 What this effectively means if that if the OCSP responder certificate is
379 authorised directly by the CA it is issuing revocation information about
380 (and it is correctly configured) then verification will succeed.
382 If the OCSP responder is a "global responder" which can give details about
383 multiple CAs and has its own separate certificate chain then its root
384 CA can be trusted for OCSP signing. For example:
386 openssl x509 -in ocspCA.pem -addtrust OCSPSigning -out trustedCA.pem
388 Alternatively the responder certificate itself can be explicitly trusted
389 with the B<-VAfile> option.
393 As noted, most of the verify options are for testing or debugging purposes.
394 Normally only the B<-CApath>, B<-CAfile> and (if the responder is a 'global
395 VA') B<-VAfile> options need to be used.
397 The OCSP server is only useful for test and demonstration purposes: it is
398 not really usable as a full OCSP responder. It contains only a very
399 simple HTTP request handling and can only handle the POST form of OCSP
400 queries. It also handles requests serially meaning it cannot respond to
401 new requests until it has processed the current one. The text index file
402 format of revocation is also inefficient for large quantities of revocation
405 It is possible to run the B<ocsp> application in responder mode via a CGI
406 script using the B<reqin> and B<respout> options.
410 Create an OCSP request and write it to a file:
412 openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem -reqout req.der
414 Send a query to an OCSP responder with URL http://ocsp.myhost.com/ save the
415 response to a file, print it out in text form, and verify the response:
417 openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem \
418 -url http://ocsp.myhost.com/ -resp_text -respout resp.der
420 Read in an OCSP response and print out text form:
422 openssl ocsp -respin resp.der -text -noverify
424 OCSP server on port 8888 using a standard B<ca> configuration, and a separate
425 responder certificate. All requests and responses are printed to a file.
427 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
430 As above but exit after processing one request:
432 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
435 Query status information using an internally generated request:
437 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
438 -issuer demoCA/cacert.pem -serial 1
440 Query status information using request read from a file, and write the response
443 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
444 -reqin req.der -respout resp.der
448 The -no_alt_chains options was first added to OpenSSL 1.1.0.