1VERIFY(1)                           OpenSSL                          VERIFY(1)
2
3
4

NAME

6       openssl-verify, verify - Utility to verify certificates
7

SYNOPSIS

9       openssl verify [-help] [-CAfile file] [-CApath directory] [-no-CAfile]
10       [-no-CApath] [-allow_proxy_certs] [-attime timestamp] [-check_ss_sig]
11       [-CRLfile file] [-crl_download] [-crl_check] [-crl_check_all] [-engine
12       id] [-explicit_policy] [-extended_crl] [-ignore_critical]
13       [-inhibit_any] [-inhibit_map] [-nameopt option] [-no_check_time]
14       [-partial_chain] [-policy arg] [-policy_check] [-policy_print]
15       [-purpose purpose] [-suiteB_128] [-suiteB_128_only] [-suiteB_192]
16       [-trusted_first] [-no_alt_chains] [-untrusted file] [-trusted file]
17       [-use_deltas] [-verbose] [-auth_level level] [-verify_depth num]
18       [-verify_email email] [-verify_hostname hostname] [-verify_ip ip]
19       [-verify_name name] [-x509_strict] [-show_chain] [-] [certificates]
20

DESCRIPTION

22       The verify command verifies certificate chains.
23

OPTIONS

25       -help
26           Print out a usage message.
27
28       -CAfile file
29           A file of trusted certificates.  The file should contain one or
30           more certificates in PEM format.
31
32       -CApath directory
33           A directory of trusted certificates. The certificates should have
34           names of the form: hash.0 or have symbolic links to them of this
35           form ("hash" is the hashed certificate subject name: see the -hash
36           option of the x509 utility). Under Unix the c_rehash script will
37           automatically create symbolic links to a directory of certificates.
38
39       -no-CAfile
40           Do not load the trusted CA certificates from the default file
41           location.
42
43       -no-CApath
44           Do not load the trusted CA certificates from the default directory
45           location.
46
47       -allow_proxy_certs
48           Allow the verification of proxy certificates.
49
50       -attime timestamp
51           Perform validation checks using time specified by timestamp and not
52           current system time. timestamp is the number of seconds since
53           01.01.1970 (UNIX time).
54
55       -check_ss_sig
56           Verify the signature of the last certificate in a chain if the
57           certificate is supposedly self-signed.  This is prohibited and will
58           result in an error if it is a non-conforming CA certificate with
59           key usage restrictions not including the keyCertSign bit.  This
60           verification is disabled by default because it doesn't add any
61           security.
62
63       -CRLfile file
64           The file should contain one or more CRLs in PEM format.  This
65           option can be specified more than once to include CRLs from
66           multiple files.
67
68       -crl_download
69           Attempt to download CRL information for this certificate.
70
71       -crl_check
72           Checks end entity certificate validity by attempting to look up a
73           valid CRL.  If a valid CRL cannot be found an error occurs.
74
75       -crl_check_all
76           Checks the validity of all certificates in the chain by attempting
77           to look up valid CRLs.
78
79       -engine id
80           Specifying an engine id will cause verify(1) to attempt to load the
81           specified engine.  The engine will then be set as the default for
82           all its supported algorithms.  If you want to load certificates or
83           CRLs that require engine support via any of the -trusted,
84           -untrusted or -CRLfile options, the -engine option must be
85           specified before those options.
86
87       -explicit_policy
88           Set policy variable require-explicit-policy (see RFC5280).
89
90       -extended_crl
91           Enable extended CRL features such as indirect CRLs and alternate
92           CRL signing keys.
93
94       -ignore_critical
95           Normally if an unhandled critical extension is present which is not
96           supported by OpenSSL the certificate is rejected (as required by
97           RFC5280).  If this option is set critical extensions are ignored.
98
99       -inhibit_any
100           Set policy variable inhibit-any-policy (see RFC5280).
101
102       -inhibit_map
103           Set policy variable inhibit-policy-mapping (see RFC5280).
104
105       -nameopt option
106           Option which determines how the subject or issuer names are
107           displayed. The option argument can be a single option or multiple
108           options separated by commas.  Alternatively the -nameopt switch may
109           be used more than once to set multiple options. See the x509(1)
110           manual page for details.
111
112       -no_check_time
113           This option suppresses checking the validity period of certificates
114           and CRLs against the current time. If option -attime timestamp is
115           used to specify a verification time, the check is not suppressed.
116
117       -partial_chain
118           Allow verification to succeed even if a complete chain cannot be
119           built to a self-signed trust-anchor, provided it is possible to
120           construct a chain to a trusted certificate that might not be self-
121           signed.
122
123       -policy arg
124           Enable policy processing and add arg to the user-initial-policy-set
125           (see RFC5280). The policy arg can be an object name an OID in
126           numeric form.  This argument can appear more than once.
127
128       -policy_check
129           Enables certificate policy processing.
130
131       -policy_print
132           Print out diagnostics related to policy processing.
133
134       -purpose purpose
135           The intended use for the certificate. If this option is not
136           specified, verify will not consider certificate purpose during
137           chain verification.  Currently accepted uses are sslclient,
138           sslserver, nssslserver, smimesign, smimeencrypt. See the VERIFY
139           OPERATION section for more information.
140
141       -suiteB_128_only, -suiteB_128, -suiteB_192
142           Enable the Suite B mode operation at 128 bit Level of Security, 128
143           bit or 192 bit, or only 192 bit Level of Security respectively.
144           See RFC6460 for details. In particular the supported signature
145           algorithms are reduced to support only ECDSA and SHA256 or SHA384
146           and only the elliptic curves P-256 and P-384.
147
148       -trusted_first
149           When constructing the certificate chain, use the trusted
150           certificates specified via -CAfile, -CApath or -trusted before any
151           certificates specified via -untrusted.  This can be useful in
152           environments with Bridge or Cross-Certified CAs.  As of OpenSSL
153           1.1.0 this option is on by default and cannot be disabled.
154
155       -no_alt_chains
156           By default, unless -trusted_first is specified, when building a
157           certificate chain, if the first certificate chain found is not
158           trusted, then OpenSSL will attempt to replace untrusted issuer
159           certificates with certificates from the trust store to see if an
160           alternative chain can be found that is trusted.  As of OpenSSL
161           1.1.0, with -trusted_first always on, this option has no effect.
162
163       -untrusted file
164           A file of additional untrusted certificates (intermediate issuer
165           CAs) used to construct a certificate chain from the subject
166           certificate to a trust-anchor.  The file should contain one or more
167           certificates in PEM format.  This option can be specified more than
168           once to include untrusted certificates from multiple files.
169
170       -trusted file
171           A file of trusted certificates, which must be self-signed, unless
172           the -partial_chain option is specified.  The file contains one or
173           more certificates in PEM format.  With this option, no additional
174           (e.g., default) certificate lists are consulted.  That is, the only
175           trust-anchors are those listed in file.  This option can be
176           specified more than once to include trusted certificates from
177           multiple files.  This option implies the -no-CAfile and -no-CApath
178           options.  This option cannot be used in combination with either of
179           the -CAfile or -CApath options.
180
181       -use_deltas
182           Enable support for delta CRLs.
183
184       -verbose
185           Print extra information about the operations being performed.
186
187       -auth_level level
188           Set the certificate chain authentication security level to level.
189           The authentication security level determines the acceptable
190           signature and public key strength when verifying certificate
191           chains.  For a certificate chain to validate, the public keys of
192           all the certificates must meet the specified security level.  The
193           signature algorithm security level is enforced for all the
194           certificates in the chain except for the chain's trust anchor,
195           which is either directly trusted or validated by means other than
196           its signature.  See SSL_CTX_set_security_level(3) for the
197           definitions of the available levels.  The default security level is
198           -1, or "not set".  At security level 0 or lower all algorithms are
199           acceptable.  Security level 1 requires at least 80-bit-equivalent
200           security and is broadly interoperable, though it will, for example,
201           reject MD5 signatures or RSA keys shorter than 1024 bits.
202
203       -verify_depth num
204           Limit the certificate chain to num intermediate CA certificates.  A
205           maximal depth chain can have up to num+2 certificates, since
206           neither the end-entity certificate nor the trust-anchor certificate
207           count against the -verify_depth limit.
208
209       -verify_email email
210           Verify if the email matches the email address in Subject
211           Alternative Name or the email in the subject Distinguished Name.
212
213       -verify_hostname hostname
214           Verify if the hostname matches DNS name in Subject Alternative Name
215           or Common Name in the subject certificate.
216
217       -verify_ip ip
218           Verify if the ip matches the IP address in Subject Alternative Name
219           of the subject certificate.
220
221       -verify_name name
222           Use default verification policies like trust model and required
223           certificate policies identified by name.  The trust model
224           determines which auxiliary trust or reject OIDs are applicable to
225           verifying the given certificate chain.  See the -addtrust and
226           -addreject options of the x509(1) command-line utility.  Supported
227           policy names include: default, pkcs7, smime_sign, ssl_client,
228           ssl_server.  These mimics the combinations of purpose and trust
229           settings used in SSL, CMS and S/MIME.  As of OpenSSL 1.1.0, the
230           trust model is inferred from the purpose when not specified, so the
231           -verify_name options are functionally equivalent to the
232           corresponding -purpose settings.
233
234       -x509_strict
235           For strict X.509 compliance, disable non-compliant workarounds for
236           broken certificates.
237
238       -show_chain
239           Display information about the certificate chain that has been built
240           (if successful). Certificates in the chain that came from the
241           untrusted list will be flagged as "untrusted".
242
243       -   Indicates the last option. All arguments following this are assumed
244           to be certificate files. This is useful if the first certificate
245           filename begins with a -.
246
247       certificates
248           One or more certificates to verify. If no certificates are given,
249           verify will attempt to read a certificate from standard input.
250           Certificates must be in PEM format.
251

VERIFY OPERATION

253       The verify program uses the same functions as the internal SSL and
254       S/MIME verification, therefore, this description applies to these
255       verify operations too.
256
257       There is one crucial difference between the verify operations performed
258       by the verify program: wherever possible an attempt is made to continue
259       after an error whereas normally the verify operation would halt on the
260       first error. This allows all the problems with a certificate chain to
261       be determined.
262
263       The verify operation consists of a number of separate steps.
264
265       Firstly a certificate chain is built up starting from the supplied
266       certificate and ending in the root CA.  It is an error if the whole
267       chain cannot be built up.  The chain is built up by looking up the
268       issuers certificate of the current certificate.  If a certificate is
269       found which is its own issuer it is assumed to be the root CA.
270
271       The process of 'looking up the issuers certificate' itself involves a
272       number of steps.  After all certificates whose subject name matches the
273       issuer name of the current certificate are subject to further tests.
274       The relevant authority key identifier components of the current
275       certificate (if present) must match the subject key identifier (if
276       present) and issuer and serial number of the candidate issuer, in
277       addition the keyUsage extension of the candidate issuer (if present)
278       must permit certificate signing.
279
280       The lookup first looks in the list of untrusted certificates and if no
281       match is found the remaining lookups are from the trusted certificates.
282       The root CA is always looked up in the trusted certificate list: if the
283       certificate to verify is a root certificate then an exact match must be
284       found in the trusted list.
285
286       The second operation is to check every untrusted certificate's
287       extensions for consistency with the supplied purpose. If the -purpose
288       option is not included then no checks are done. The supplied or "leaf"
289       certificate must have extensions compatible with the supplied purpose
290       and all other certificates must also be valid CA certificates. The
291       precise extensions required are described in more detail in the
292       CERTIFICATE EXTENSIONS section of the x509 utility.
293
294       The third operation is to check the trust settings on the root CA. The
295       root CA should be trusted for the supplied purpose.  For compatibility
296       with previous versions of OpenSSL, a certificate with no trust settings
297       is considered to be valid for all purposes.
298
299       The final operation is to check the validity of the certificate chain.
300       For each element in the chain, including the root CA certificate, the
301       validity period as specified by the "notBefore" and "notAfter" fields
302       is checked against the current system time.  The -attime flag may be
303       used to use a reference time other than "now."  The certificate
304       signature is checked as well (except for the signature of the typically
305       self-signed root CA certificate, which is verified only if the
306       -check_ss_sig option is given).
307
308       If all operations complete successfully then certificate is considered
309       valid. If any operation fails then the certificate is not valid.
310

DIAGNOSTICS

312       When a verify operation fails the output messages can be somewhat
313       cryptic. The general form of the error message is:
314
315        server.pem: /C=AU/ST=Queensland/O=CryptSoft Pty Ltd/CN=Test CA (1024 bit)
316        error 24 at 1 depth lookup:invalid CA certificate
317
318       The first line contains the name of the certificate being verified
319       followed by the subject name of the certificate. The second line
320       contains the error number and the depth. The depth is number of the
321       certificate being verified when a problem was detected starting with
322       zero for the certificate being verified itself then 1 for the CA that
323       signed the certificate and so on. Finally a text version of the error
324       number is presented.
325
326       A partial list of the error codes and messages is shown below, this
327       also includes the name of the error code as defined in the header file
328       x509_vfy.h Some of the error codes are defined but never returned:
329       these are described as "unused".
330
331       X509_V_OK
332           The operation was successful.
333
334       X509_V_ERR_UNSPECIFIED
335           Unspecified error; should not happen.
336
337       X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_GET_ISSUER_CERT
338           The issuer certificate of a looked up certificate could not be
339           found. This normally means the list of trusted certificates is not
340           complete.
341
342       X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_GET_CRL
343           The CRL of a certificate could not be found.
344
345       X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_DECRYPT_CERT_SIGNATURE
346           The certificate signature could not be decrypted. This means that
347           the actual signature value could not be determined rather than it
348           not matching the expected value, this is only meaningful for RSA
349           keys.
350
351       X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_DECRYPT_CRL_SIGNATURE
352           The CRL signature could not be decrypted: this means that the
353           actual signature value could not be determined rather than it not
354           matching the expected value. Unused.
355
356       X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_DECODE_ISSUER_PUBLIC_KEY
357           The public key in the certificate SubjectPublicKeyInfo could not be
358           read.
359
360       X509_V_ERR_CERT_SIGNATURE_FAILURE
361           The signature of the certificate is invalid.
362
363       X509_V_ERR_CRL_SIGNATURE_FAILURE
364           The signature of the certificate is invalid.
365
366       X509_V_ERR_CERT_NOT_YET_VALID
367           The certificate is not yet valid: the notBefore date is after the
368           current time.
369
370       X509_V_ERR_CERT_HAS_EXPIRED
371           The certificate has expired: that is the notAfter date is before
372           the current time.
373
374       X509_V_ERR_CRL_NOT_YET_VALID
375           The CRL is not yet valid.
376
377       X509_V_ERR_CRL_HAS_EXPIRED
378           The CRL has expired.
379
380       X509_V_ERR_ERROR_IN_CERT_NOT_BEFORE_FIELD
381           The certificate notBefore field contains an invalid time.
382
383       X509_V_ERR_ERROR_IN_CERT_NOT_AFTER_FIELD
384           The certificate notAfter field contains an invalid time.
385
386       X509_V_ERR_ERROR_IN_CRL_LAST_UPDATE_FIELD
387           The CRL lastUpdate field contains an invalid time.
388
389       X509_V_ERR_ERROR_IN_CRL_NEXT_UPDATE_FIELD
390           The CRL nextUpdate field contains an invalid time.
391
392       X509_V_ERR_OUT_OF_MEM
393           An error occurred trying to allocate memory. This should never
394           happen.
395
396       X509_V_ERR_DEPTH_ZERO_SELF_SIGNED_CERT
397           The passed certificate is self-signed and the same certificate
398           cannot be found in the list of trusted certificates.
399
400       X509_V_ERR_SELF_SIGNED_CERT_IN_CHAIN
401           The certificate chain could be built up using the untrusted
402           certificates but the root could not be found locally.
403
404       X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_GET_ISSUER_CERT_LOCALLY
405           The issuer certificate could not be found: this occurs if the
406           issuer certificate of an untrusted certificate cannot be found.
407
408       X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_VERIFY_LEAF_SIGNATURE
409           No signatures could be verified because the chain contains only one
410           certificate and it is not self signed.
411
412       X509_V_ERR_CERT_CHAIN_TOO_LONG
413           The certificate chain length is greater than the supplied maximum
414           depth. Unused.
415
416       X509_V_ERR_CERT_REVOKED
417           The certificate has been revoked.
418
419       X509_V_ERR_INVALID_CA
420           A CA certificate is invalid. Either it is not a CA or its
421           extensions are not consistent with the supplied purpose.
422
423       X509_V_ERR_PATH_LENGTH_EXCEEDED
424           The basicConstraints pathlength parameter has been exceeded.
425
426       X509_V_ERR_INVALID_PURPOSE
427           The supplied certificate cannot be used for the specified purpose.
428
429       X509_V_ERR_CERT_UNTRUSTED
430           The root CA is not marked as trusted for the specified purpose.
431
432       X509_V_ERR_CERT_REJECTED
433           The root CA is marked to reject the specified purpose.
434
435       X509_V_ERR_SUBJECT_ISSUER_MISMATCH
436           Not used as of OpenSSL 1.1.0 as a result of the deprecation of the
437           -issuer_checks option.
438
439       X509_V_ERR_AKID_SKID_MISMATCH
440           Not used as of OpenSSL 1.1.0 as a result of the deprecation of the
441           -issuer_checks option.
442
443       X509_V_ERR_AKID_ISSUER_SERIAL_MISMATCH
444           Not used as of OpenSSL 1.1.0 as a result of the deprecation of the
445           -issuer_checks option.
446
447       X509_V_ERR_KEYUSAGE_NO_CERTSIGN
448           Not used as of OpenSSL 1.1.0 as a result of the deprecation of the
449           -issuer_checks option.
450
451       X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_GET_CRL_ISSUER
452           Unable to get CRL issuer certificate.
453
454       X509_V_ERR_UNHANDLED_CRITICAL_EXTENSION
455           Unhandled critical extension.
456
457       X509_V_ERR_KEYUSAGE_NO_CRL_SIGN
458           Key usage does not include CRL signing.
459
460       X509_V_ERR_UNHANDLED_CRITICAL_CRL_EXTENSION
461           Unhandled critical CRL extension.
462
463       X509_V_ERR_INVALID_NON_CA
464           Invalid non-CA certificate has CA markings.
465
466       X509_V_ERR_PROXY_PATH_LENGTH_EXCEEDED
467           Proxy path length constraint exceeded.
468
469       X509_V_ERR_PROXY_SUBJECT_INVALID
470           Proxy certificate subject is invalid.  It MUST be the same as the
471           issuer with a single CN component added.
472
473       X509_V_ERR_KEYUSAGE_NO_DIGITAL_SIGNATURE
474           Key usage does not include digital signature.
475
476       X509_V_ERR_PROXY_CERTIFICATES_NOT_ALLOWED
477           Proxy certificates not allowed, please use -allow_proxy_certs.
478
479       X509_V_ERR_INVALID_EXTENSION
480           Invalid or inconsistent certificate extension.
481
482       X509_V_ERR_INVALID_POLICY_EXTENSION
483           Invalid or inconsistent certificate policy extension.
484
485       X509_V_ERR_NO_EXPLICIT_POLICY
486           No explicit policy.
487
488       X509_V_ERR_DIFFERENT_CRL_SCOPE
489           Different CRL scope.
490
491       X509_V_ERR_UNSUPPORTED_EXTENSION_FEATURE
492           Unsupported extension feature.
493
494       X509_V_ERR_UNNESTED_RESOURCE
495           RFC 3779 resource not subset of parent's resources.
496
497       X509_V_ERR_PERMITTED_VIOLATION
498           Permitted subtree violation.
499
500       X509_V_ERR_EXCLUDED_VIOLATION
501           Excluded subtree violation.
502
503       X509_V_ERR_SUBTREE_MINMAX
504           Name constraints minimum and maximum not supported.
505
506       X509_V_ERR_APPLICATION_VERIFICATION
507           Application verification failure. Unused.
508
509       X509_V_ERR_UNSUPPORTED_CONSTRAINT_TYPE
510           Unsupported name constraint type.
511
512       X509_V_ERR_UNSUPPORTED_CONSTRAINT_SYNTAX
513           Unsupported or invalid name constraint syntax.
514
515       X509_V_ERR_UNSUPPORTED_NAME_SYNTAX
516           Unsupported or invalid name syntax.
517
518       X509_V_ERR_CRL_PATH_VALIDATION_ERROR
519           CRL path validation error.
520
521       X509_V_ERR_PATH_LOOP
522           Path loop.
523
524       X509_V_ERR_SUITE_B_INVALID_VERSION
525           Suite B: certificate version invalid.
526
527       X509_V_ERR_SUITE_B_INVALID_ALGORITHM
528           Suite B: invalid public key algorithm.
529
530       X509_V_ERR_SUITE_B_INVALID_CURVE
531           Suite B: invalid ECC curve.
532
533       X509_V_ERR_SUITE_B_INVALID_SIGNATURE_ALGORITHM
534           Suite B: invalid signature algorithm.
535
536       X509_V_ERR_SUITE_B_LOS_NOT_ALLOWED
537           Suite B: curve not allowed for this LOS.
538
539       X509_V_ERR_SUITE_B_CANNOT_SIGN_P_384_WITH_P_256
540           Suite B: cannot sign P-384 with P-256.
541
542       X509_V_ERR_HOSTNAME_MISMATCH
543           Hostname mismatch.
544
545       X509_V_ERR_EMAIL_MISMATCH
546           Email address mismatch.
547
548       X509_V_ERR_IP_ADDRESS_MISMATCH
549           IP address mismatch.
550
551       X509_V_ERR_DANE_NO_MATCH
552           DANE TLSA authentication is enabled, but no TLSA records matched
553           the certificate chain.  This error is only possible in s_client(1).
554
555       X509_V_ERR_EE_KEY_TOO_SMALL
556           EE certificate key too weak.
557
558       X509_ERR_CA_KEY_TOO_SMALL
559           CA certificate key too weak.
560
561       X509_ERR_CA_MD_TOO_WEAK
562           CA signature digest algorithm too weak.
563
564       X509_V_ERR_INVALID_CALL
565           nvalid certificate verification context.
566
567       X509_V_ERR_STORE_LOOKUP
568           Issuer certificate lookup error.
569
570       X509_V_ERR_NO_VALID_SCTS
571           Certificate Transparency required, but no valid SCTs found.
572
573       X509_V_ERR_PROXY_SUBJECT_NAME_VIOLATION
574           Proxy subject name violation.
575
576       X509_V_ERR_OCSP_VERIFY_NEEDED
577           Returned by the verify callback to indicate an OCSP verification is
578           needed.
579
580       X509_V_ERR_OCSP_VERIFY_FAILED
581           Returned by the verify callback to indicate OCSP verification
582           failed.
583
584       X509_V_ERR_OCSP_CERT_UNKNOWN
585           Returned by the verify callback to indicate that the certificate is
586           not recognized by the OCSP responder.
587

BUGS

589       Although the issuer checks are a considerable improvement over the old
590       technique they still suffer from limitations in the underlying
591       X509_LOOKUP API. One consequence of this is that trusted certificates
592       with matching subject name must either appear in a file (as specified
593       by the -CAfile option) or a directory (as specified by -CApath). If
594       they occur in both then only the certificates in the file will be
595       recognised.
596
597       Previous versions of OpenSSL assume certificates with matching subject
598       name are identical and mishandled them.
599
600       Previous versions of this documentation swapped the meaning of the
601       X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_GET_ISSUER_CERT and
602       X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_GET_ISSUER_CERT_LOCALLY error codes.
603

SEE ALSO

605       x509(1)
606

HISTORY

608       The -show_chain option was added in OpenSSL 1.1.0.
609
610       The -issuer_checks option is deprecated as of OpenSSL 1.1.0 and is
611       silently ignored.
612
614       Copyright 2000-2020 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
615
616       Licensed under the OpenSSL license (the "License").  You may not use
617       this file except in compliance with the License.  You can obtain a copy
618       in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
619       <https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.
620
621
622
6231.1.1k                            2021-03-26                         VERIFY(1)
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