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>]
94 The Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) enables applications to
95 determine the (revocation) state of an identified certificate (RFC 2560).
97 The B<ocsp> command performs many common OCSP tasks. It can be used
98 to print out requests and responses, create requests and send queries
99 to an OCSP responder and behave like a mini OCSP server itself.
103 This command operates as either a client or a server.
104 The options are described below, divided into those two modes.
106 =head2 OCSP Client Options
112 Print out a usage message.
114 =item B<-out filename>
116 specify output filename, default is standard output.
118 =item B<-issuer filename>
120 This specifies the current issuer certificate. This option can be used
121 multiple times. The certificate specified in B<filename> must be in
122 PEM format. This option B<MUST> come before any B<-cert> options.
124 =item B<-cert filename>
126 Add the certificate B<filename> to the request. The issuer certificate
127 is taken from the previous B<issuer> option, or an error occurs if no
128 issuer certificate is specified.
132 Same as the B<cert> option except the certificate with serial number
133 B<num> is added to the request. The serial number is interpreted as a
134 decimal integer unless preceded by B<0x>. Negative integers can also
135 be specified by preceding the value by a B<-> sign.
137 =item B<-signer filename>, B<-signkey filename>
139 Sign the OCSP request using the certificate specified in the B<signer>
140 option and the private key specified by the B<signkey> option. If
141 the B<signkey> option is not present then the private key is read
142 from the same file as the certificate. If neither option is specified then
143 the OCSP request is not signed.
145 =item B<-sign_other filename>
147 Additional certificates to include in the signed request.
149 =item B<-nonce>, B<-no_nonce>
151 Add an OCSP nonce extension to a request or disable OCSP nonce addition.
152 Normally if an OCSP request is input using the B<reqin> option no
153 nonce is added: using the B<nonce> option will force addition of a nonce.
154 If an OCSP request is being created (using B<cert> and B<serial> options)
155 a nonce is automatically added specifying B<no_nonce> overrides this.
157 =item B<-req_text>, B<-resp_text>, B<-text>
159 Print out the text form of the OCSP request, response or both respectively.
161 =item B<-reqout file>, B<-respout file>
163 Write out the DER encoded certificate request or response to B<file>.
165 =item B<-reqin file>, B<-respin file>
167 Read OCSP request or response file from B<file>. These option are ignored
168 if OCSP request or response creation is implied by other options (for example
169 with B<serial>, B<cert> and B<host> options).
171 =item B<-url responder_url>
173 Specify the responder URL. Both HTTP and HTTPS (SSL/TLS) URLs can be specified.
175 =item B<-host hostname:port>, B<-path pathname>
177 If the B<host> option is present then the OCSP request is sent to the host
178 B<hostname> on port B<port>. B<path> specifies the HTTP path name to use
179 or "/" by default. This is equivalent to specifying B<-url> with scheme
180 http:// and the given hostname, port, and pathname.
182 =item B<-header name=value>
184 Adds the header B<name> with the specified B<value> to the OCSP request
185 that is sent to the responder.
186 This may be repeated.
188 =item B<-timeout seconds>
190 Connection timeout to the OCSP responder in seconds
192 =item B<-CAfile file>, B<-CApath pathname>
194 File or pathname containing trusted CA certificates. These are used to verify
195 the signature on the OCSP response.
199 Do not load the trusted CA certificates from the default file location
203 Do not load the trusted CA certificates from the default directory location
205 =item B<-attime>, B<-check_ss_sig>, B<-crl_check>, B<-crl_check_all>,
206 B<-explicit_policy>, B<-extended_crl>, B<-ignore_critical>, B<-inhibit_any>,
207 B<-inhibit_map>, B<-no_alt_chains>, B<-no_check_time>, B<-partial_chain>, B<-policy>,
208 B<-policy_check>, B<-policy_print>, B<-purpose>, B<-suiteB_128>,
209 B<-suiteB_128_only>, B<-suiteB_192>, B<-trusted_first>, B<-use_deltas>,
210 B<-auth_level>, B<-verify_depth>, B<-verify_email>, B<-verify_hostname>,
211 B<-verify_ip>, B<-verify_name>, B<-x509_strict>
213 Set different certificate verification options.
214 See L<verify(1)> manual page for details.
216 =item B<-verify_other file>
218 File containing additional certificates to search when attempting to locate
219 the OCSP response signing certificate. Some responders omit the actual signer's
220 certificate from the response: this option can be used to supply the necessary
221 certificate in such cases.
223 =item B<-trust_other>
225 The certificates specified by the B<-verify_other> option should be explicitly
226 trusted and no additional checks will be performed on them. This is useful
227 when the complete responder certificate chain is not available or trusting a
228 root CA is not appropriate.
230 =item B<-VAfile file>
232 File containing explicitly trusted responder certificates. Equivalent to the
233 B<-verify_other> and B<-trust_other> options.
237 Don't attempt to verify the OCSP response signature or the nonce
238 values. This option will normally only be used for debugging since it
239 disables all verification of the responders certificate.
243 Ignore certificates contained in the OCSP response when searching for the
244 signers certificate. With this option the signers certificate must be specified
245 with either the B<-verify_other> or B<-VAfile> options.
247 =item B<-no_signature_verify>
249 Don't check the signature on the OCSP response. Since this option
250 tolerates invalid signatures on OCSP responses it will normally only be
251 used for testing purposes.
253 =item B<-no_cert_verify>
255 Don't verify the OCSP response signers certificate at all. Since this
256 option allows the OCSP response to be signed by any certificate it should
257 only be used for testing purposes.
261 Do not use certificates in the response as additional untrusted CA
264 =item B<-no_explicit>
266 Do not explicitly trust the root CA if it is set to be trusted for OCSP signing.
268 =item B<-no_cert_checks>
270 Don't perform any additional checks on the OCSP response signers certificate.
271 That is do not make any checks to see if the signers certificate is authorised
272 to provide the necessary status information: as a result this option should
273 only be used for testing purposes.
275 =item B<-validity_period nsec>, B<-status_age age>
277 These options specify the range of times, in seconds, which will be tolerated
278 in an OCSP response. Each certificate status response includes a B<notBefore>
279 time and an optional B<notAfter> time. The current time should fall between
280 these two values, but the interval between the two times may be only a few
281 seconds. In practice the OCSP responder and clients clocks may not be precisely
282 synchronised and so such a check may fail. To avoid this the
283 B<-validity_period> option can be used to specify an acceptable error range in
284 seconds, the default value is 5 minutes.
286 If the B<notAfter> time is omitted from a response then this means that new
287 status information is immediately available. In this case the age of the
288 B<notBefore> field is checked to see it is not older than B<age> seconds old.
289 By default this additional check is not performed.
293 This option sets digest algorithm to use for certificate identification in the
294 OCSP request. Any digest supported by the OpenSSL B<dgst> command can be used.
295 The default is SHA-1. This option may be used multiple times to specify the
296 digest used by subsequent certificate identifiers.
300 =head2 OCSP Server Options
304 =item B<-index indexfile>
306 The B<indexfile> parameter is the name of a text index file in B<ca>
307 format containing certificate revocation information.
309 If the B<index> option is specified the B<ocsp> utility is in responder
310 mode, otherwise it is in client mode. The request(s) the responder
311 processes can be either specified on the command line (using B<issuer>
312 and B<serial> options), supplied in a file (using the B<reqin> option)
313 or via external OCSP clients (if B<port> or B<url> is specified).
315 If the B<index> option is present then the B<CA> and B<rsigner> options
316 must also be present.
320 CA certificate corresponding to the revocation information in B<indexfile>.
322 =item B<-rsigner file>
324 The certificate to sign OCSP responses with.
326 =item B<-rother file>
328 Additional certificates to include in the OCSP response.
330 =item B<-resp_no_certs>
332 Don't include any certificates in the OCSP response.
334 =item B<-resp_key_id>
336 Identify the signer certificate using the key ID, default is to use the
341 The private key to sign OCSP responses with: if not present the file
342 specified in the B<rsigner> option is used.
344 =item B<-rsigopt nm:v>
346 Pass options to the signature algorithm when signing OCSP responses.
347 Names and values of these options are algorithm-specific.
349 =item B<-port portnum>
351 Port to listen for OCSP requests on. The port may also be specified
352 using the B<url> option.
356 Ignore malformed requests or responses: When acting as an OCSP client, retry if
357 a malformed response is received. When acting as an OCSP responder, continue
358 running instead of terminating upon receiving a malformed request.
360 =item B<-nrequest number>
362 The OCSP server will exit after receiving B<number> requests, default unlimited.
364 =item B<-nmin minutes>, B<-ndays days>
366 Number of minutes or days when fresh revocation information is available:
367 used in the B<nextUpdate> field. If neither option is present then the
368 B<nextUpdate> field is omitted meaning fresh revocation information is
369 immediately available.
373 =head1 OCSP Response verification.
375 OCSP Response follows the rules specified in RFC2560.
377 Initially the OCSP responder certificate is located and the signature on
378 the OCSP request checked using the responder certificate's public key.
380 Then a normal certificate verify is performed on the OCSP responder certificate
381 building up a certificate chain in the process. The locations of the trusted
382 certificates used to build the chain can be specified by the B<CAfile>
383 and B<CApath> options or they will be looked for in the standard OpenSSL
384 certificates directory.
386 If the initial verify fails then the OCSP verify process halts with an
389 Otherwise the issuing CA certificate in the request is compared to the OCSP
390 responder certificate: if there is a match then the OCSP verify succeeds.
392 Otherwise the OCSP responder certificate's CA is checked against the issuing
393 CA certificate in the request. If there is a match and the OCSPSigning
394 extended key usage is present in the OCSP responder certificate then the
395 OCSP verify succeeds.
397 Otherwise, if B<-no_explicit> is B<not> set the root CA of the OCSP responders
398 CA is checked to see if it is trusted for OCSP signing. If it is the OCSP
401 If none of these checks is successful then the OCSP verify fails.
403 What this effectively means if that if the OCSP responder certificate is
404 authorised directly by the CA it is issuing revocation information about
405 (and it is correctly configured) then verification will succeed.
407 If the OCSP responder is a "global responder" which can give details about
408 multiple CAs and has its own separate certificate chain then its root
409 CA can be trusted for OCSP signing. For example:
411 openssl x509 -in ocspCA.pem -addtrust OCSPSigning -out trustedCA.pem
413 Alternatively the responder certificate itself can be explicitly trusted
414 with the B<-VAfile> option.
418 As noted, most of the verify options are for testing or debugging purposes.
419 Normally only the B<-CApath>, B<-CAfile> and (if the responder is a 'global
420 VA') B<-VAfile> options need to be used.
422 The OCSP server is only useful for test and demonstration purposes: it is
423 not really usable as a full OCSP responder. It contains only a very
424 simple HTTP request handling and can only handle the POST form of OCSP
425 queries. It also handles requests serially meaning it cannot respond to
426 new requests until it has processed the current one. The text index file
427 format of revocation is also inefficient for large quantities of revocation
430 It is possible to run the B<ocsp> application in responder mode via a CGI
431 script using the B<reqin> and B<respout> options.
435 Create an OCSP request and write it to a file:
437 openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem -reqout req.der
439 Send a query to an OCSP responder with URL http://ocsp.myhost.com/ save the
440 response to a file, print it out in text form, and verify the response:
442 openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem \
443 -url http://ocsp.myhost.com/ -resp_text -respout resp.der
445 Read in an OCSP response and print out text form:
447 openssl ocsp -respin resp.der -text -noverify
449 OCSP server on port 8888 using a standard B<ca> configuration, and a separate
450 responder certificate. All requests and responses are printed to a file.
452 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
455 As above but exit after processing one request:
457 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
460 Query status information using an internally generated request:
462 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
463 -issuer demoCA/cacert.pem -serial 1
465 Query status information using request read from a file, and write the response
468 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
469 -reqin req.der -respout resp.der
473 The -no_alt_chains options was first added to OpenSSL 1.1.0.
477 Copyright 2001-2017 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
479 Licensed under the OpenSSL license (the "License"). You may not use
480 this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy
481 in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
482 L<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.