2 {- OpenSSL::safe::output_do_not_edit_headers(); -}
6 openssl-ocsp - Online Certificate Status Protocol command
21 [B<-sign_other> I<file>]
32 [B<-host> I<host>:I<port>]
33 [B<-path> I<pathname>]
34 [B<-proxy> I<[http[s]://][userinfo@]host[:port][/path]>]
35 [B<-no_proxy> I<addresses>]
37 [B<-timeout> I<seconds>]
39 [B<-validity_period> I<n>]
42 [B<-verify_other> I<file>]
45 [B<-no_signature_verify>]
62 [B<-rsigopt> I<nm>:I<v>]
70 [B<-multi> I<process-count>]
73 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_trust_synopsis -}
74 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_v_synopsis -}
75 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_provider_synopsis -}
79 The Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) enables applications to
80 determine the (revocation) state of an identified certificate (RFC 2560).
82 This command performs many common OCSP tasks. It can be used
83 to print out requests and responses, create requests and send queries
84 to an OCSP responder and behave like a mini OCSP server itself.
88 This command operates as either a client or a server.
89 The options are described below, divided into those two modes.
91 =head2 OCSP Client Options
97 Print out a usage message.
99 =item B<-out> I<filename>
101 specify output filename, default is standard output.
103 =item B<-issuer> I<filename>
105 This specifies the current issuer certificate.
106 The input can be in PEM, DER, or PKCS#12 format.
108 This option can be used multiple times.
109 This option B<MUST> come before any B<-cert> options.
111 =item B<-cert> I<filename>
113 Add the certificate I<filename> to the request.
114 The input can be in PEM, DER, or PKCS#12 format.
116 This option can be used multiple times.
117 The issuer certificate is taken from the previous B<-issuer> option,
118 or an error occurs if no issuer certificate is specified.
122 Don't include any certificates in signed request.
124 =item B<-serial> I<num>
126 Same as the B<-cert> option except the certificate with serial number
127 B<num> is added to the request. The serial number is interpreted as a
128 decimal integer unless preceded by C<0x>. Negative integers can also
129 be specified by preceding the value by a C<-> sign.
131 =item B<-signer> I<filename>, B<-signkey> I<filename>
133 Sign the OCSP request using the certificate specified in the B<-signer>
134 option and the private key specified by the B<-signkey> option.
135 The input can be in PEM, DER, or PKCS#12 format.
137 If the B<-signkey> option is not present then the private key is read
138 from the same file as the certificate. If neither option is specified then
139 the OCSP request is not signed.
141 =item B<-sign_other> I<filename>
143 Additional certificates to include in the signed request.
144 The input can be in PEM, DER, or PKCS#12 format.
146 =item B<-nonce>, B<-no_nonce>
148 Add an OCSP nonce extension to a request or disable OCSP nonce addition.
149 Normally if an OCSP request is input using the B<-reqin> option no
150 nonce is added: using the B<-nonce> option will force addition of a nonce.
151 If an OCSP request is being created (using B<-cert> and B<-serial> options)
152 a nonce is automatically added specifying B<-no_nonce> overrides this.
154 =item B<-req_text>, B<-resp_text>, B<-text>
156 Print out the text form of the OCSP request, response or both respectively.
158 =item B<-reqout> I<file>, B<-respout> I<file>
160 Write out the DER encoded certificate request or response to I<file>.
162 =item B<-reqin> I<file>, B<-respin> I<file>
164 Read OCSP request or response file from I<file>. These option are ignored
165 if OCSP request or response creation is implied by other options (for example
166 with B<-serial>, B<-cert> and B<-host> options).
168 =item B<-url> I<responder_url>
170 Specify the responder host and optionally port and path via a URL.
171 Both HTTP and HTTPS (SSL/TLS) URLs can be specified.
172 The optional userinfo and fragment components are ignored.
173 Any given query component is handled as part of the path component.
174 For details, see the B<-host> and B<-path> options described next.
176 =item B<-host> I<host>:I<port>, B<-path> I<pathname>
178 If the B<-host> option is present then the OCSP request is sent to the host
179 I<host> on port I<port>.
180 The I<host> may be a domain name or an IP (v4 or v6) address,
181 such as C<127.0.0.1> or C<[::]> for localhost.
182 The B<-path> option specifies the HTTP pathname to use or "/" by default.
183 This is equivalent to specifying B<-url> with scheme
184 http:// and the given I<host>, I<port>, and optional I<pathname>.
186 =item B<-proxy> I<[http[s]://][userinfo@]host[:port][/path]>
188 The HTTP(S) proxy server to use for reaching the OCSP server unless B<-no_proxy>
190 The proxy port defaults to 80 or 443 if the scheme is C<https>; apart from that
191 the optional C<http://> or C<https://> prefix is ignored,
192 as well as any userinfo and path components.
193 Defaults to the environment variable C<http_proxy> if set, else C<HTTP_PROXY>
194 in case no TLS is used, otherwise C<https_proxy> if set, else C<HTTPS_PROXY>.
196 =item B<-no_proxy> I<addresses>
198 List of IP addresses and/or DNS names of servers
199 not to use an HTTP(S) proxy for, separated by commas and/or whitespace
200 (where in the latter case the whole argument must be enclosed in "...").
201 Default is from the environment variable C<no_proxy> if set, else C<NO_PROXY>.
203 =item B<-header> I<name>=I<value>
205 Adds the header I<name> with the specified I<value> to the OCSP request
206 that is sent to the responder.
207 This may be repeated.
209 =item B<-timeout> I<seconds>
211 Connection timeout to the OCSP responder in seconds.
212 On POSIX systems, when running as an OCSP responder, this option also limits
213 the time that the responder is willing to wait for the client request.
214 This time is measured from the time the responder accepts the connection until
215 the complete request is received.
217 =item B<-verify_other> I<file>
219 File or URI containing additional certificates to search
220 when attempting to locate
221 the OCSP response signing certificate. Some responders omit the actual signer's
222 certificate from the response: this option can be used to supply the necessary
223 certificate in such cases.
224 The input can be in PEM, DER, or PKCS#12 format.
226 =item B<-trust_other>
228 The certificates specified by the B<-verify_other> option should be explicitly
229 trusted and no additional checks will be performed on them. This is useful
230 when the complete responder certificate chain is not available or trusting a
231 root CA is not appropriate.
233 =item B<-VAfile> I<file>
235 File or URI containing explicitly trusted responder certificates.
236 Equivalent to the B<-verify_other> and B<-trust_other> options.
237 The input can be in PEM, DER, or PKCS#12 format.
241 Don't attempt to verify the OCSP response signature or the nonce
242 values. This option will normally only be used for debugging since it
243 disables all verification of the responders certificate.
247 Ignore certificates contained in the OCSP response when searching for the
248 signers certificate. With this option the signers certificate must be specified
249 with either the B<-verify_other> or B<-VAfile> options.
251 =item B<-no_signature_verify>
253 Don't check the signature on the OCSP response. Since this option
254 tolerates invalid signatures on OCSP responses it will normally only be
255 used for testing purposes.
257 =item B<-no_cert_verify>
259 Don't verify the OCSP response signers certificate at all. Since this
260 option allows the OCSP response to be signed by any certificate it should
261 only be used for testing purposes.
265 Do not use certificates in the response as additional untrusted CA
268 =item B<-no_explicit>
270 Do not explicitly trust the root CA if it is set to be trusted for OCSP signing.
272 =item B<-no_cert_checks>
274 Don't perform any additional checks on the OCSP response signers certificate.
275 That is do not make any checks to see if the signers certificate is authorised
276 to provide the necessary status information: as a result this option should
277 only be used for testing purposes.
279 =item B<-validity_period> I<nsec>, B<-status_age> I<age>
281 These options specify the range of times, in seconds, which will be tolerated
282 in an OCSP response. Each certificate status response includes a B<notBefore>
283 time and an optional B<notAfter> time. The current time should fall between
284 these two values, but the interval between the two times may be only a few
285 seconds. In practice the OCSP responder and clients clocks may not be precisely
286 synchronised and so such a check may fail. To avoid this the
287 B<-validity_period> option can be used to specify an acceptable error range in
288 seconds, the default value is 5 minutes.
290 If the B<notAfter> time is omitted from a response then this means that new
291 status information is immediately available. In this case the age of the
292 B<notBefore> field is checked to see it is not older than I<age> seconds old.
293 By default this additional check is not performed.
295 =item B<-rcid> I<digest>
297 This option sets the digest algorithm to use for certificate identification
298 in the OCSP response. Any digest supported by the L<openssl-dgst(1)> command can
299 be used. The default is the same digest algorithm used in the request.
303 This option sets digest algorithm to use for certificate identification in the
304 OCSP request. Any digest supported by the OpenSSL B<dgst> command can be used.
305 The default is SHA-1. This option may be used multiple times to specify the
306 digest used by subsequent certificate identifiers.
308 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_trust_item -}
310 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_v_item -}
312 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_provider_item -}
316 =head2 OCSP Server Options
320 =item B<-index> I<indexfile>
322 The I<indexfile> parameter is the name of a text index file in B<ca>
323 format containing certificate revocation information.
325 If the B<-index> option is specified then this command switches to
326 responder mode, otherwise it is in client mode. The request(s) the responder
327 processes can be either specified on the command line (using B<-issuer>
328 and B<-serial> options), supplied in a file (using the B<-reqin> option)
329 or via external OCSP clients (if B<-port> or B<-url> is specified).
331 If the B<-index> option is present then the B<-CA> and B<-rsigner> options
332 must also be present.
336 CA certificates corresponding to the revocation information in the index
337 file given with B<-index>.
338 The input can be in PEM, DER, or PKCS#12 format.
340 =item B<-rsigner> I<file>
342 The certificate to sign OCSP responses with.
343 The input can be in PEM, DER, or PKCS#12 format.
345 =item B<-rkey> I<file>
347 The private key to sign OCSP responses with: if not present the file
348 specified in the B<-rsigner> option is used.
350 =item B<-passin> I<arg>
352 The private key password source. For more information about the format of I<arg>
353 see L<openssl-passphrase-options(1)>.
355 =item B<-rother> I<file>
357 Additional certificates to include in the OCSP response.
358 The input can be in PEM, DER, or PKCS#12 format.
360 =item B<-rsigopt> I<nm>:I<v>
362 Pass options to the signature algorithm when signing OCSP responses.
363 Names and values of these options are algorithm-specific.
365 =item B<-rmd> I<digest>
367 The digest to use when signing the response.
371 Corrupt the response signature before writing it; this can be useful
374 =item B<-resp_no_certs>
376 Don't include any certificates in the OCSP response.
378 =item B<-resp_key_id>
380 Identify the signer certificate using the key ID, default is to use the
383 =item B<-port> I<portnum>
385 Port to listen for OCSP requests on. Both IPv4 and IPv6 are possible.
386 The port may also be specified using the B<-url> option.
387 A C<0> argument indicates that any available port shall be chosen automatically.
391 Ignore malformed requests or responses: When acting as an OCSP client, retry if
392 a malformed response is received. When acting as an OCSP responder, continue
393 running instead of terminating upon receiving a malformed request.
395 =item B<-nrequest> I<number>
397 The OCSP server will exit after receiving I<number> requests, default unlimited.
399 =item B<-multi> I<process-count>
401 Run the specified number of OCSP responder child processes, with the parent
402 process respawning child processes as needed.
403 Child processes will detect changes in the CA index file and automatically
405 When running as a responder B<-timeout> option is recommended to limit the time
406 each child is willing to wait for the client's OCSP response.
407 This option is available on POSIX systems (that support the fork() and other
408 required unix system-calls).
410 =item B<-nmin> I<minutes>, B<-ndays> I<days>
412 Number of minutes or days when fresh revocation information is available:
413 used in the B<nextUpdate> field. If neither option is present then the
414 B<nextUpdate> field is omitted meaning fresh revocation information is
415 immediately available.
419 =head1 OCSP RESPONSE VERIFICATION
421 OCSP Response follows the rules specified in RFC2560.
423 Initially the OCSP responder certificate is located and the signature on
424 the OCSP request checked using the responder certificate's public key.
426 Then a normal certificate verify is performed on the OCSP responder certificate
427 building up a certificate chain in the process. The locations of the trusted
428 certificates used to build the chain can be specified by the B<-CAfile>,
429 B<-CApath> or B<-CAstore> options or they will be looked for in the
430 standard OpenSSL certificates directory.
432 If the initial verify fails then the OCSP verify process halts with an
435 Otherwise the issuing CA certificate in the request is compared to the OCSP
436 responder certificate: if there is a match then the OCSP verify succeeds.
438 Otherwise the OCSP responder certificate's CA is checked against the issuing
439 CA certificate in the request. If there is a match and the OCSPSigning
440 extended key usage is present in the OCSP responder certificate then the
441 OCSP verify succeeds.
443 Otherwise, if B<-no_explicit> is B<not> set the root CA of the OCSP responders
444 CA is checked to see if it is trusted for OCSP signing. If it is the OCSP
447 If none of these checks is successful then the OCSP verify fails.
449 What this effectively means if that if the OCSP responder certificate is
450 authorised directly by the CA it is issuing revocation information about
451 (and it is correctly configured) then verification will succeed.
453 If the OCSP responder is a "global responder" which can give details about
454 multiple CAs and has its own separate certificate chain then its root
455 CA can be trusted for OCSP signing. For example:
457 openssl x509 -in ocspCA.pem -addtrust OCSPSigning -out trustedCA.pem
459 Alternatively the responder certificate itself can be explicitly trusted
460 with the B<-VAfile> option.
464 As noted, most of the verify options are for testing or debugging purposes.
465 Normally only the B<-CApath>, B<-CAfile>, B<-CAstore> and (if the responder
466 is a 'global VA') B<-VAfile> options need to be used.
468 The OCSP server is only useful for test and demonstration purposes: it is
469 not really usable as a full OCSP responder. It contains only a very
470 simple HTTP request handling and can only handle the POST form of OCSP
471 queries. It also handles requests serially meaning it cannot respond to
472 new requests until it has processed the current one. The text index file
473 format of revocation is also inefficient for large quantities of revocation
476 It is possible to run this command in responder mode via a CGI
477 script using the B<-reqin> and B<-respout> options.
481 Create an OCSP request and write it to a file:
483 openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem -reqout req.der
485 Send a query to an OCSP responder with URL http://ocsp.myhost.com/ save the
486 response to a file, print it out in text form, and verify the response:
488 openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem \
489 -url http://ocsp.myhost.com/ -resp_text -respout resp.der
491 Read in an OCSP response and print out text form:
493 openssl ocsp -respin resp.der -text -noverify
495 OCSP server on port 8888 using a standard B<ca> configuration, and a separate
496 responder certificate. All requests and responses are printed to a file.
498 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
501 As above but exit after processing one request:
503 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
506 Query status information using an internally generated request:
508 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
509 -issuer demoCA/cacert.pem -serial 1
511 Query status information using request read from a file, and write the response
514 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
515 -reqin req.der -respout resp.der
519 The -no_alt_chains option was added in OpenSSL 1.1.0.
523 Copyright 2001-2022 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
525 Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use
526 this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy
527 in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
528 L<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.