1ocsptool(1) User Commands ocsptool(1)
2
6 ocsptool - GnuTLS OCSP tool
7
9 ocsptool [-flags] [-flag [value]] [--option-name[[=| ]value]]
10 All arguments must be options.
12
15 Ocsptool is a program that can parse and print information about OCSP
16 requests/responses, generate requests and verify responses.
17
20 -d number, --debug=number
21 Enable debugging. This option takes an integer number as its
22 argument. The value of number is constrained to being:
23 in the range 0 through 9999
24 Specifies the debug level.
26 -V, --verbose
28 More verbose output. This option may appear an unlimited number
29 of times.
30 --infile=file
33 Input file.
34 --outfile=string
37 Output file.
38 --ask [=server name|url]
41 Ask an OCSP/HTTP server on a certificate validity. This option
42 must appear in combination with the following options: load-
43 cert, load-issuer.
44 Connects to the specified HTTP OCSP server and queries on the
46 validity of the loaded certificate.
47 -e, --verify-response
49 Verify response.
50 -i, --request-info
53 Print information on a OCSP request.
54 -j, --response-info
57 Print information on a OCSP response.
58 -q, --generate-request
61 Generate an OCSP request.
62 --nonce, --no-nonce
65 Use (or not) a nonce to OCSP request. The no-nonce form will
66 disable the option.
67 --load-issuer=file
70 Read issuer certificate from file.
71 --load-cert=file
74 Read certificate to check from file.
75 --load-trust=file
78 Read OCSP trust anchors from file. This option must not appear
79 in combination with any of the following options: load-signer.
80 --load-signer=file
83 Read OCSP response signer from file. This option must not
84 appear in combination with any of the following options: load-
85 trust.
86 --inder, --no-inder
89 Use DER format for input certificates and private keys. The
90 no-inder form will disable the option.
91 -Q file, --load-request=file
94 Read DER encoded OCSP request from file.
95 -S file, --load-response=file
98 Read DER encoded OCSP response from file.
99 -h, --help
102 Display usage information and exit.
103 -!, --more-help
105 Pass the extended usage information through a pager.
106 -v [{v|c|n --version [{v|c|n}]}]
108 Output version of program and exit. The default mode is `v', a
109 simple version. The `c' mode will print copyright information
110 and `n' will print the full copyright notice.
111
113 Print information about an OCSP request
114 To parse an OCSP request and print information about the content, the
116 -i or --request-info parameter may be used as follows. The -Q parame‐
117 ter specify the name of the file containing the OCSP request, and it
118 should contain the OCSP request in binary DER format.
119 $ ocsptool -i -Q ocsp-request.der
121 The input file may also be sent to standard input like this:
123 $ cat ocsp-request.der | ocsptool --request-info
125 Print information about an OCSP response
127 Similar to parsing OCSP requests, OCSP responses can be parsed using
129 the -j or --response-info as follows.
130 $ ocsptool -j -Q ocsp-response.der
132 $ cat ocsp-response.der | ocsptool --response-info
133 Generate an OCSP request
135 The -q or --generate-request parameters are used to generate an OCSP
137 request. By default the OCSP request is written to standard output in
138 binary DER format, but can be stored in a file using --outfile. To
139 generate an OCSP request the issuer of the certificate to check needs
140 to be specified with --load-issuer and the certificate to check with
141 --load-cert. By default PEM format is used for these files, although
142 --inder can be used to specify that the input files are in DER format.
143 $ ocsptool -q --load-issuer issuer.pem --load-cert client.pem --outfile ocsp-request.der
145 When generating OCSP requests, the tool will add an OCSP extension con‐
147 taining a nonce. This behaviour can be disabled by specifying
148 --no-nonce.
149 Verify signature in OCSP response
151 To verify the signature in an OCSP response the -e or --verify-response
153 parameter is used. The tool will read an OCSP response in DER format
154 from standard input, or from the file specified by --load-response.
155 The OCSP response is verified against a set of trust anchors, which are
156 specified using --load-trust. The trust anchors are concatenated cer‐
157 tificates in PEM format. The certificate that signed the OCSP response
158 needs to be in the set of trust anchors, or the issuer of the signer
159 certificate needs to be in the set of trust anchors and the OCSP
160 Extended Key Usage bit has to be asserted in the signer certificate.
161 $ ocsptool -e --load-trust issuer.pem --load-response ocsp-response.der
163 The tool will print status of verification.
165 Verify signature in OCSP response against given certificate
167 It is possible to override the normal trust logic if you know that a
169 certain certificate is supposed to have signed the OCSP response, and
170 you want to use it to check the signature. This is achieved using
171 --load-signer instead of --load-trust. This will load one certificate
172 and it will be used to verify the signature in the OCSP response. It
173 will not check the Extended Key Usage bit.
174 $ ocsptool -e --load-signer ocsp-signer.pem --load-response ocsp-response.der
176 This approach is normally only relevant in two situations. The first
178 is when the OCSP response does not contain a copy of the signer cer‐
179 tificate, so the --load-trust code would fail. The second is if you
180 want to avoid the indirect mode where the OCSP response signer certifi‐
181 cate is signed by a trust anchor.
182 Real-world example
184 Here is an example of how to generate an OCSP request for a certificate
186 and to verify the response. For illustration we'll use the blog.josef‐
187 sson.org host, which (as of writing) uses a certificate from CACert.
188 First we'll use gnutls-cli to get a copy of the server certificate
189 chain. The server is not required to send this information, but this
190 particular one is configured to do so.
191 $ echo | gnutls-cli -p 443 blog.josefsson.org --print-cert > chain.pem
193 Use a text editor on chain.pem to create three files for each separate
195 certificates, called cert.pem for the first certificate for the domain
196 itself, secondly issuer.pem for the intermediate certificate and
197 root.pem for the final root certificate.
198 The domain certificate normally contains a pointer to where the OCSP
200 responder is located, in the Authority Information Access Information
201 extension. For example, from certtool -i < cert.pem there is this
202 information:
203 Authority Information Access Information (not critical):
205 Access Method: 1.3.6.1.5.5.7.48.1 (id-ad-ocsp)
206 Access Location URI: http://ocsp.CAcert.org/
207 This means the CA support OCSP queries over HTTP. We are now ready to
209 create a OCSP request for the certificate.
210 $ ocsptool --ask ocsp.CAcert.org --load-issuer issuer.pem --load-cert cert.pem --outfile ocsp-response.der
212 The request is sent via HTTP to the OCSP server address specified. If
214 the address is ommited ocsptool will use the address stored in the cer‐
215 tificate.
216
219 One of the following exit values will be returned:
220 0 (EXIT_SUCCESS)
222 Successful program execution.
223 1 (EXIT_FAILURE)
225 The operation failed or the command syntax was not valid.
226 70 (EX_SOFTWARE)
228 libopts had an internal operational error. Please report it to
229 autogen-users@lists.sourceforge.net. Thank you.
230
232 certtool (1)
233
235 Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos, Simon Josefsson and others; see
236 /usr/share/doc/gnutls/AUTHORS for a complete list.
237
239 Copyright (C) 2000-2018 Free Software Foundation, and others all rights
240 reserved. This program is released under the terms of the GNU General
241 Public License, version 3 or later.
242
244 Please send bug reports to: bugs@gnutls.org
245
247 This manual page was AutoGen-erated from the ocsptool option defini‐
248 tions.
2493.3.29 16 Feb 2018 ocsptool(1)