2 {- OpenSSL::safe::output_do_not_edit_headers(); -}
6 openssl-ocsp - Online Certificate Status Protocol utility
20 [B<-sign_other> I<file>]
32 [B<-host> I<host>:I<port>]
34 [B<-timeout> I<seconds>]
37 [B<-validity_period> I<n>]
40 [B<-verify_other> I<file>]
43 [B<-no_signature_verify>]
60 [B<-rsigopt> I<nm>:I<v>]
68 [B<-multi> I<process-count>]
71 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_trust_synopsis -}
72 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_v_synopsis -}
74 =for openssl ifdef multi
78 The Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) enables applications to
79 determine the (revocation) state of an identified certificate (RFC 2560).
81 This command performs many common OCSP tasks. It can be used
82 to print out requests and responses, create requests and send queries
83 to an OCSP responder and behave like a mini OCSP server itself.
87 This command operates as either a client or a server.
88 The options are described below, divided into those two modes.
90 =head2 OCSP Client Options
96 Print out a usage message.
98 =item B<-out> I<filename>
100 specify output filename, default is standard output.
102 =item B<-issuer> I<filename>
104 This specifies the current issuer certificate. This option can be used
105 multiple times. The certificate specified in I<filename> must be in
106 PEM format. This option B<MUST> come before any B<-cert> options.
108 =item B<-cert> I<filename>
110 Add the certificate I<filename> to the request. The issuer certificate
111 is taken from the previous B<-issuer> option, or an error occurs if no
112 issuer certificate is specified.
114 =item B<-serial> I<num>
116 Same as the B<-cert> option except the certificate with serial number
117 B<num> is added to the request. The serial number is interpreted as a
118 decimal integer unless preceded by C<0x>. Negative integers can also
119 be specified by preceding the value by a C<-> sign.
121 =item B<-signer> I<filename>, B<-signkey> I<filename>
123 Sign the OCSP request using the certificate specified in the B<-signer>
124 option and the private key specified by the B<-signkey> option. If
125 the B<-signkey> option is not present then the private key is read
126 from the same file as the certificate. If neither option is specified then
127 the OCSP request is not signed.
129 =item B<-sign_other> I<filename>
131 Additional certificates to include in the signed request.
133 =item B<-nonce>, B<-no_nonce>
135 Add an OCSP nonce extension to a request or disable OCSP nonce addition.
136 Normally if an OCSP request is input using the B<-reqin> option no
137 nonce is added: using the B<-nonce> option will force addition of a nonce.
138 If an OCSP request is being created (using B<-cert> and B<-serial> options)
139 a nonce is automatically added specifying B<-no_nonce> overrides this.
141 =item B<-req_text>, B<-resp_text>, B<-text>
143 Print out the text form of the OCSP request, response or both respectively.
145 =item B<-reqout> I<file>, B<-respout> I<file>
147 Write out the DER encoded certificate request or response to I<file>.
149 =item B<-reqin> I<file>, B<-respin> I<file>
151 Read OCSP request or response file from I<file>. These option are ignored
152 if OCSP request or response creation is implied by other options (for example
153 with B<-serial>, B<-cert> and B<-host> options).
155 =item B<-url> I<responder_url>
157 Specify the responder URL. Both HTTP and HTTPS (SSL/TLS) URLs can be specified.
159 =item B<-host> I<hostname>:I<port>, B<-path> I<pathname>
161 If the B<-host> option is present then the OCSP request is sent to the host
162 I<hostname> on port I<port>. The B<-path> option specifies the HTTP pathname
163 to use or "/" by default. This is equivalent to specifying B<-url> with scheme
164 http:// and the given hostname, port, and pathname.
166 =item B<-header> I<name>=I<value>
168 Adds the header I<name> with the specified I<value> to the OCSP request
169 that is sent to the responder.
170 This may be repeated.
172 =item B<-timeout> I<seconds>
174 Connection timeout to the OCSP responder in seconds.
175 On POSIX systems, when running as an OCSP responder, this option also limits
176 the time that the responder is willing to wait for the client request.
177 This time is measured from the time the responder accepts the connection until
178 the complete request is received.
180 =item B<-verify_other> I<file>
182 File containing additional certificates to search when attempting to locate
183 the OCSP response signing certificate. Some responders omit the actual signer's
184 certificate from the response: this option can be used to supply the necessary
185 certificate in such cases.
187 =item B<-trust_other>
189 The certificates specified by the B<-verify_other> option should be explicitly
190 trusted and no additional checks will be performed on them. This is useful
191 when the complete responder certificate chain is not available or trusting a
192 root CA is not appropriate.
194 =item B<-VAfile> I<file>
196 File containing explicitly trusted responder certificates. Equivalent to the
197 B<-verify_other> and B<-trust_other> options.
201 Don't attempt to verify the OCSP response signature or the nonce
202 values. This option will normally only be used for debugging since it
203 disables all verification of the responders certificate.
207 Ignore certificates contained in the OCSP response when searching for the
208 signers certificate. With this option the signers certificate must be specified
209 with either the B<-verify_other> or B<-VAfile> options.
211 =item B<-no_signature_verify>
213 Don't check the signature on the OCSP response. Since this option
214 tolerates invalid signatures on OCSP responses it will normally only be
215 used for testing purposes.
217 =item B<-no_cert_verify>
219 Don't verify the OCSP response signers certificate at all. Since this
220 option allows the OCSP response to be signed by any certificate it should
221 only be used for testing purposes.
225 Do not use certificates in the response as additional untrusted CA
228 =item B<-no_explicit>
230 Do not explicitly trust the root CA if it is set to be trusted for OCSP signing.
232 =item B<-no_cert_checks>
234 Don't perform any additional checks on the OCSP response signers certificate.
235 That is do not make any checks to see if the signers certificate is authorised
236 to provide the necessary status information: as a result this option should
237 only be used for testing purposes.
239 =item B<-validity_period> I<nsec>, B<-status_age> I<age>
241 These options specify the range of times, in seconds, which will be tolerated
242 in an OCSP response. Each certificate status response includes a B<notBefore>
243 time and an optional B<notAfter> time. The current time should fall between
244 these two values, but the interval between the two times may be only a few
245 seconds. In practice the OCSP responder and clients clocks may not be precisely
246 synchronised and so such a check may fail. To avoid this the
247 B<-validity_period> option can be used to specify an acceptable error range in
248 seconds, the default value is 5 minutes.
250 If the B<notAfter> time is omitted from a response then this means that new
251 status information is immediately available. In this case the age of the
252 B<notBefore> field is checked to see it is not older than I<age> seconds old.
253 By default this additional check is not performed.
255 =item B<-rcid> I<digest>
257 This option sets the digest algorithm to use for certificate identification
258 in the OCSP response. Any digest supported by the L<openssl-dgst(1)> command can
259 be used. The default is the same digest algorithm used in the request.
263 This option sets digest algorithm to use for certificate identification in the
264 OCSP request. Any digest supported by the OpenSSL B<dgst> command can be used.
265 The default is SHA-1. This option may be used multiple times to specify the
266 digest used by subsequent certificate identifiers.
268 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_trust_item -}
270 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_v_item -}
274 =head2 OCSP Server Options
278 =item B<-index> I<indexfile>
280 The I<indexfile> parameter is the name of a text index file in B<ca>
281 format containing certificate revocation information.
283 If the B<-index> option is specified then this command switches to
284 responder mode, otherwise it is in client mode. The request(s) the responder
285 processes can be either specified on the command line (using B<-issuer>
286 and B<-serial> options), supplied in a file (using the B<-reqin> option)
287 or via external OCSP clients (if B<-port> or B<-url> is specified).
289 If the B<-index> option is present then the B<-CA> and B<-rsigner> options
290 must also be present.
294 CA certificate corresponding to the revocation information in the index
295 file given with B<-index>.
297 =item B<-rsigner> I<file>
299 The certificate to sign OCSP responses with.
301 =item B<-rkey> I<file>
303 The private key to sign OCSP responses with: if not present the file
304 specified in the B<-rsigner> option is used.
306 =item B<-passin> I<arg>
308 The private key password source. For more information about the format of I<arg>
309 see L<openssl(1)/Pass Phrase Options>.
311 =item B<-rother> I<file>
313 Additional certificates to include in the OCSP response.
315 =item B<-rsigopt> I<nm>:I<v>
317 Pass options to the signature algorithm when signing OCSP responses.
318 Names and values of these options are algorithm-specific.
320 =item B<-rmd> I<digest>
322 The digest to use when signing the response.
326 Corrupt the response signature before writing it; this can be useful
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
338 =item B<-port> I<portnum>
340 Port to listen for OCSP requests on. The port may also be specified
341 using the B<url> option.
345 Ignore malformed requests or responses: When acting as an OCSP client, retry if
346 a malformed response is received. When acting as an OCSP responder, continue
347 running instead of terminating upon receiving a malformed request.
349 =item B<-nrequest> I<number>
351 The OCSP server will exit after receiving I<number> requests, default unlimited.
353 =item B<-multi> I<process-count>
355 Run the specified number of OCSP responder child processes, with the parent
356 process respawning child processes as needed.
357 Child processes will detect changes in the CA index file and automatically
359 When running as a responder B<-timeout> option is recommended to limit the time
360 each child is willing to wait for the client's OCSP response.
361 This option is available on POSIX systems (that support the fork() and other
362 required unix system-calls).
365 =item B<-nmin> I<minutes>, B<-ndays> I<days>
367 Number of minutes or days when fresh revocation information is available:
368 used in the B<nextUpdate> field. If neither option is present then the
369 B<nextUpdate> field is omitted meaning fresh revocation information is
370 immediately available.
374 =head1 OCSP RESPONSE VERIFICATION
376 OCSP Response follows the rules specified in RFC2560.
378 Initially the OCSP responder certificate is located and the signature on
379 the OCSP request checked using the responder certificate's public key.
381 Then a normal certificate verify is performed on the OCSP responder certificate
382 building up a certificate chain in the process. The locations of the trusted
383 certificates used to build the chain can be specified by the B<-CAfile>,
384 B<-CApath> or B<-CAstore> options or they will be looked for in the
385 standard OpenSSL certificates directory.
387 If the initial verify fails then the OCSP verify process halts with an
390 Otherwise the issuing CA certificate in the request is compared to the OCSP
391 responder certificate: if there is a match then the OCSP verify succeeds.
393 Otherwise the OCSP responder certificate's CA is checked against the issuing
394 CA certificate in the request. If there is a match and the OCSPSigning
395 extended key usage is present in the OCSP responder certificate then the
396 OCSP verify succeeds.
398 Otherwise, if B<-no_explicit> is B<not> set the root CA of the OCSP responders
399 CA is checked to see if it is trusted for OCSP signing. If it is the OCSP
402 If none of these checks is successful then the OCSP verify fails.
404 What this effectively means if that if the OCSP responder certificate is
405 authorised directly by the CA it is issuing revocation information about
406 (and it is correctly configured) then verification will succeed.
408 If the OCSP responder is a "global responder" which can give details about
409 multiple CAs and has its own separate certificate chain then its root
410 CA can be trusted for OCSP signing. For example:
412 openssl x509 -in ocspCA.pem -addtrust OCSPSigning -out trustedCA.pem
414 Alternatively the responder certificate itself can be explicitly trusted
415 with the B<-VAfile> option.
419 As noted, most of the verify options are for testing or debugging purposes.
420 Normally only the B<-CApath>, B<-CAfile>, B<-CAstore> and (if the responder
421 is a 'global VA') B<-VAfile> options need to be used.
423 The OCSP server is only useful for test and demonstration purposes: it is
424 not really usable as a full OCSP responder. It contains only a very
425 simple HTTP request handling and can only handle the POST form of OCSP
426 queries. It also handles requests serially meaning it cannot respond to
427 new requests until it has processed the current one. The text index file
428 format of revocation is also inefficient for large quantities of revocation
431 It is possible to run this command in responder mode via a CGI
432 script using the B<-reqin> and B<-respout> options.
436 Create an OCSP request and write it to a file:
438 openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem -reqout req.der
440 Send a query to an OCSP responder with URL http://ocsp.myhost.com/ save the
441 response to a file, print it out in text form, and verify the response:
443 openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem \
444 -url http://ocsp.myhost.com/ -resp_text -respout resp.der
446 Read in an OCSP response and print out text form:
448 openssl ocsp -respin resp.der -text -noverify
450 OCSP server on port 8888 using a standard B<ca> configuration, and a separate
451 responder certificate. All requests and responses are printed to a file.
453 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
456 As above but exit after processing one request:
458 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
461 Query status information using an internally generated request:
463 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
464 -issuer demoCA/cacert.pem -serial 1
466 Query status information using request read from a file, and write the response
469 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
470 -reqin req.der -respout resp.der
474 The -no_alt_chains option was added in OpenSSL 1.1.0.
478 Copyright 2001-2019 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
480 Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use
481 this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy
482 in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
483 L<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.