5 ocsp - Online Certificate Status Protocol utility
36 [B<-attime timestamp>]
58 [B<-verify_depth num>]
59 [B<-verify_email email>]
60 [B<-verify_hostname hostname>]
62 [B<-verify_name name>]
65 [B<-validity_period n>]
68 [B<-verify_other file>]
71 [B<-no_signature_verify>]
91 The Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) enables applications to
92 determine the (revocation) state of an identified certificate (RFC 2560).
94 The B<ocsp> command performs many common OCSP tasks. It can be used
95 to print out requests and responses, create requests and send queries
96 to an OCSP responder and behave like a mini OCSP server itself.
98 =head1 COMMAND OPTIONS
100 This command operates as either a client or a server.
101 The options are described below, divided into those two modes.
103 =head2 OCSP Client Options
109 Print out a usage message.
111 =item B<-out filename>
113 specify output filename, default is standard output.
115 =item B<-issuer filename>
117 This specifies the current issuer certificate. This option can be used
118 multiple times. The certificate specified in B<filename> must be in
119 PEM format. This option B<MUST> come before any B<-cert> options.
121 =item B<-cert filename>
123 Add the certificate B<filename> to the request. The issuer certificate
124 is taken from the previous B<issuer> option, or an error occurs if no
125 issuer certificate is specified.
129 Same as the B<cert> option except the certificate with serial number
130 B<num> is added to the request. The serial number is interpreted as a
131 decimal integer unless preceded by B<0x>. Negative integers can also
132 be specified by preceding the value by a B<-> sign.
134 =item B<-signer filename>, B<-signkey filename>
136 Sign the OCSP request using the certificate specified in the B<signer>
137 option and the private key specified by the B<signkey> option. If
138 the B<signkey> option is not present then the private key is read
139 from the same file as the certificate. If neither option is specified then
140 the OCSP request is not signed.
142 =item B<-sign_other filename>
144 Additional certificates to include in the signed request.
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 file>, B<-respout file>
160 write out the DER encoded certificate request or response to B<file>.
162 =item B<-reqin file>, B<-respin file>
164 read OCSP request or response file from B<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 responder_url>
170 specify the responder URL. Both HTTP and HTTPS (SSL/TLS) URLs can be specified.
172 =item B<-host hostname:port>, B<-path pathname>
174 if the B<host> option is present then the OCSP request is sent to the host
175 B<hostname> on port B<port>. B<path> specifies the HTTP path name to use
176 or "/" by default. This is equivalent to specifying B<-url> with scheme
177 http:// and the given hostname, port, and pathname.
179 =item B<-header name=value>
181 Adds the header B<name> with the specified B<value> to the OCSP request
182 that is sent to the responder.
183 This may be repeated.
185 =item B<-timeout seconds>
187 connection timeout to the OCSP responder in seconds
189 =item B<-CAfile file>, B<-CApath pathname>
191 file or pathname containing trusted CA certificates. These are used to verify
192 the signature on the OCSP response.
196 Do not load the trusted CA certificates from the default file location
200 Do not load the trusted CA certificates from the default directory location
202 =item B<-attime>, B<-check_ss_sig>, B<-crl_check>, B<-crl_check_all>,
203 B<-explicit_policy>, B<-extended_crl>, B<-ignore_critical>, B<-inhibit_any>,
204 B<-inhibit_map>, B<-no_alt_chains>, B<-no_check_time>, B<-partial_chain>, B<-policy>,
205 B<-policy_check>, B<-policy_print>, B<-purpose>, B<-suiteB_128>,
206 B<-suiteB_128_only>, B<-suiteB_192>, B<-trusted_first>, B<-use_deltas>,
207 B<-auth_level>, B<-verify_depth>, B<-verify_email>, B<-verify_hostname>,
208 B<-verify_ip>, B<-verify_name>, B<-x509_strict>
210 Set different certificate verification options.
211 See L<verify(1)> manual page for details.
213 =item B<-verify_other file>
215 file containing additional certificates to search when attempting to locate
216 the OCSP response signing certificate. Some responders omit the actual signer's
217 certificate from the response: this option can be used to supply the necessary
218 certificate in such cases.
220 =item B<-trust_other>
222 the certificates specified by the B<-verify_other> option should be explicitly
223 trusted and no additional checks will be performed on them. This is useful
224 when the complete responder certificate chain is not available or trusting a
225 root CA is not appropriate.
227 =item B<-VAfile file>
229 file containing explicitly trusted responder certificates. Equivalent to the
230 B<-verify_other> and B<-trust_other> options.
234 don't attempt to verify the OCSP response signature or the nonce values. This
235 option will normally only be used for debugging since it disables all verification
236 of the responders certificate.
240 ignore certificates contained in the OCSP response when searching for the
241 signers certificate. With this option the signers certificate must be specified
242 with either the B<-verify_other> or B<-VAfile> options.
244 =item B<-no_signature_verify>
246 don't check the signature on the OCSP response. Since this option tolerates invalid
247 signatures on OCSP responses it will normally only be used for testing purposes.
249 =item B<-no_cert_verify>
251 don't verify the OCSP response signers certificate at all. Since this option allows
252 the OCSP response to be signed by any certificate it should only be used for
257 do not use certificates in the response as additional untrusted CA
260 =item B<-no_explicit>
262 do not explicitly trust the root CA if it is set to be trusted for OCSP signing.
264 =item B<-no_cert_checks>
266 don't perform any additional checks on the OCSP response signers certificate.
267 That is do not make any checks to see if the signers certificate is authorised
268 to provide the necessary status information: as a result this option should
269 only be used for testing purposes.
271 =item B<-validity_period nsec>, B<-status_age age>
273 these options specify the range of times, in seconds, which will be tolerated
274 in an OCSP response. Each certificate status response includes a B<notBefore>
275 time and an optional B<notAfter> time. The current time should fall between
276 these two values, but the interval between the two times may be only a few
277 seconds. In practice the OCSP responder and clients clocks may not be precisely
278 synchronised and so such a check may fail. To avoid this the
279 B<-validity_period> option can be used to specify an acceptable error range in
280 seconds, the default value is 5 minutes.
282 If the B<notAfter> time is omitted from a response then this means that new
283 status information is immediately available. In this case the age of the
284 B<notBefore> field is checked to see it is not older than B<age> seconds old.
285 By default this additional check is not performed.
289 this option sets digest algorithm to use for certificate identification in the
290 OCSP request. Any digest supported by the OpenSSL B<dgst> command can be used.
291 The default is SHA-1. This option may be used multiple times to specify the
292 digest used by subsequent certificate identifiers.
296 =head2 OCSP Server Options
300 =item B<-index indexfile>
302 B<indexfile> is a text index file in B<ca> format containing certificate revocation
305 If the B<index> option is specified the B<ocsp> utility is in responder mode, otherwise
306 it is in client mode. The request(s) the responder processes can be either specified on
307 the command line (using B<issuer> and B<serial> options), supplied in a file (using the
308 B<reqin> option) or via external OCSP clients (if B<port> or B<url> is specified).
310 If the B<index> option is present then the B<CA> and B<rsigner> options must also be
315 CA certificate corresponding to the revocation information in B<indexfile>.
317 =item B<-rsigner file>
319 The certificate to sign OCSP responses with.
321 =item B<-rother file>
323 Additional certificates to include in the OCSP response.
325 =item B<-resp_no_certs>
327 Don't include any certificates in the OCSP response.
329 =item B<-resp_key_id>
331 Identify the signer certificate using the key ID, default is to use the subject name.
335 The private key to sign OCSP responses with: if not present the file specified in the
336 B<rsigner> option is used.
338 =item B<-port portnum>
340 Port to listen for OCSP requests on. The port may also be specified using the B<url>
343 =item B<-nrequest number>
345 The OCSP server will exit after receiving B<number> requests, default unlimited.
347 =item B<-nmin minutes>, B<-ndays days>
349 Number of minutes or days when fresh revocation information is available: used in the
350 B<nextUpdate> field. If neither option is present then the B<nextUpdate> field
351 is omitted meaning fresh revocation information is immediately available.
355 =head1 OCSP Response verification.
357 OCSP Response follows the rules specified in RFC2560.
359 Initially the OCSP responder certificate is located and the signature on
360 the OCSP request checked using the responder certificate's public key.
362 Then a normal certificate verify is performed on the OCSP responder certificate
363 building up a certificate chain in the process. The locations of the trusted
364 certificates used to build the chain can be specified by the B<CAfile>
365 and B<CApath> options or they will be looked for in the standard OpenSSL
366 certificates directory.
368 If the initial verify fails then the OCSP verify process halts with an
371 Otherwise the issuing CA certificate in the request is compared to the OCSP
372 responder certificate: if there is a match then the OCSP verify succeeds.
374 Otherwise the OCSP responder certificate's CA is checked against the issuing
375 CA certificate in the request. If there is a match and the OCSPSigning
376 extended key usage is present in the OCSP responder certificate then the
377 OCSP verify succeeds.
379 Otherwise, if B<-no_explicit> is B<not> set the root CA of the OCSP responders
380 CA is checked to see if it is trusted for OCSP signing. If it is the OCSP
383 If none of these checks is successful then the OCSP verify fails.
385 What this effectively means if that if the OCSP responder certificate is
386 authorised directly by the CA it is issuing revocation information about
387 (and it is correctly configured) then verification will succeed.
389 If the OCSP responder is a "global responder" which can give details about
390 multiple CAs and has its own separate certificate chain then its root
391 CA can be trusted for OCSP signing. For example:
393 openssl x509 -in ocspCA.pem -addtrust OCSPSigning -out trustedCA.pem
395 Alternatively the responder certificate itself can be explicitly trusted
396 with the B<-VAfile> option.
400 As noted, most of the verify options are for testing or debugging purposes.
401 Normally only the B<-CApath>, B<-CAfile> and (if the responder is a 'global
402 VA') B<-VAfile> options need to be used.
404 The OCSP server is only useful for test and demonstration purposes: it is
405 not really usable as a full OCSP responder. It contains only a very
406 simple HTTP request handling and can only handle the POST form of OCSP
407 queries. It also handles requests serially meaning it cannot respond to
408 new requests until it has processed the current one. The text index file
409 format of revocation is also inefficient for large quantities of revocation
412 It is possible to run the B<ocsp> application in responder mode via a CGI
413 script using the B<reqin> and B<respout> options.
417 Create an OCSP request and write it to a file:
419 openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem -reqout req.der
421 Send a query to an OCSP responder with URL http://ocsp.myhost.com/ save the
422 response to a file, print it out in text form, and verify the response:
424 openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem \
425 -url http://ocsp.myhost.com/ -resp_text -respout resp.der
427 Read in an OCSP response and print out text form:
429 openssl ocsp -respin resp.der -text -noverify
431 OCSP server on port 8888 using a standard B<ca> configuration, and a separate
432 responder certificate. All requests and responses are printed to a file.
434 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
437 As above but exit after processing one request:
439 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
442 Query status information using an internally generated request:
444 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
445 -issuer demoCA/cacert.pem -serial 1
447 Query status information using request read from a file, and write the response
450 openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
451 -reqin req.der -respout resp.der
455 The -no_alt_chains options was first added to OpenSSL 1.1.0.
459 Copyright 2001-2016 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
461 Licensed under the OpenSSL license (the "License"). You may not use
462 this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy
463 in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
464 L<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.