1VERIFY(1) OpenSSL VERIFY(1)
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6 verify - Utility to verify certificates.
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9 openssl verify [-CApath directory] [-CAfile file] [-trusted_first]
10 [-purpose purpose] [-policy arg] [-ignore_critical] [-attime timestamp]
11 [-check_ss_sig] [-crlfile file] [-crl_download] [-crl_check]
12 [-crl_check_all] [-policy_check] [-explicit_policy] [-inhibit_any]
13 [-inhibit_map] [-x509_strict] [-extended_crl] [-use_deltas]
14 [-policy_print] [-no_alt_chains] [-allow_proxy_certs] [-untrusted file]
15 [-help] [-issuer_checks] [-trusted file] [-verbose] [-] [certificates]
16
18 The verify command verifies certificate chains.
19
21 -CApath directory
22 A directory of trusted certificates. The certificates should have
23 names of the form: hash.0 or have symbolic links to them of this
24 form ("hash" is the hashed certificate subject name: see the -hash
25 option of the x509 utility). Under Unix the c_rehash script will
26 automatically create symbolic links to a directory of certificates.
27 -CAfile file A file of trusted certificates. The file should contain
29 multiple certificates in PEM format concatenated together.
30 -attime timestamp
31 Perform validation checks using time specified by timestamp and not
32 current system time. timestamp is the number of seconds since
33 01.01.1970 (UNIX time).
34 -check_ss_sig
36 Verify the signature on the self-signed root CA. This is disabled
37 by default because it doesn't add any security.
38 -crlfile file
40 File containing one or more CRL's (in PEM format) to load.
41 -crl_download
43 Attempt to download CRL information for this certificate.
44 -crl_check
46 Checks end entity certificate validity by attempting to look up a
47 valid CRL. If a valid CRL cannot be found an error occurs.
48 -untrusted file
50 A file of untrusted certificates. The file should contain multiple
51 certificates in PEM format concatenated together.
52 -trusted_first
54 Use certificates in CA file or CA directory before the certificates
55 in the untrusted file when building the trust chain to verify
56 certificates. This is mainly useful in environments with Bridge CA
57 or Cross-Certified CAs.
58 -purpose purpose
60 The intended use for the certificate. If this option is not
61 specified, verify will not consider certificate purpose during
62 chain verification. Currently accepted uses are sslclient,
63 sslserver, nssslserver, smimesign, smimeencrypt. See the VERIFY
64 OPERATION section for more information.
65 -help
67 Print out a usage message.
68 -verbose
70 Print extra information about the operations being performed.
71 -issuer_checks
73 Print out diagnostics relating to searches for the issuer
74 certificate of the current certificate. This shows why each
75 candidate issuer certificate was rejected. The presence of
76 rejection messages does not itself imply that anything is wrong;
77 during the normal verification process, several rejections may take
78 place.
79 -policy arg
81 Enable policy processing and add arg to the user-initial-policy-set
82 (see RFC5280). The policy arg can be an object name an OID in
83 numeric form. This argument can appear more than once.
84 -policy_check
86 Enables certificate policy processing.
87 -explicit_policy
89 Set policy variable require-explicit-policy (see RFC5280).
90 -inhibit_any
92 Set policy variable inhibit-any-policy (see RFC5280).
93 -inhibit_map
95 Set policy variable inhibit-policy-mapping (see RFC5280).
96 -no_alt_chains
98 When building a certificate chain, if the first certificate chain
99 found is not trusted, then OpenSSL will continue to check to see if
100 an alternative chain can be found that is trusted. With this option
101 that behaviour is suppressed so that only the first chain found is
102 ever used. Using this option will force the behaviour to match that
103 of previous OpenSSL versions.
104 -allow_proxy_certs
106 Allow the verification of proxy certificates.
107 -trusted file
109 A file of additional trusted certificates. The file should contain
110 multiple certificates in PEM format concatenated together.
111 -policy_print
113 Print out diagnostics related to policy processing.
114 -crl_check
116 Checks end entity certificate validity by attempting to look up a
117 valid CRL. If a valid CRL cannot be found an error occurs.
118 -crl_check_all
120 Checks the validity of all certificates in the chain by attempting
121 to look up valid CRLs.
122 -ignore_critical
124 Normally if an unhandled critical extension is present which is not
125 supported by OpenSSL the certificate is rejected (as required by
126 RFC5280). If this option is set critical extensions are ignored.
127 -x509_strict
129 For strict X.509 compliance, disable non-compliant workarounds for
130 broken certificates.
131 -extended_crl
133 Enable extended CRL features such as indirect CRLs and alternate
134 CRL signing keys.
135 -use_deltas
137 Enable support for delta CRLs.
138 -check_ss_sig
140 Verify the signature on the self-signed root CA. This is disabled
141 by default because it doesn't add any security.
142 - Indicates the last option. All arguments following this are assumed
144 to be certificate files. This is useful if the first certificate
145 filename begins with a -.
146 certificates
148 One or more certificates to verify. If no certificates are given,
149 verify will attempt to read a certificate from standard input.
150 Certificates must be in PEM format.
151
153 The verify program uses the same functions as the internal SSL and
154 S/MIME verification, therefore this description applies to these verify
155 operations too.
156 There is one crucial difference between the verify operations performed
158 by the verify program: wherever possible an attempt is made to continue
159 after an error whereas normally the verify operation would halt on the
160 first error. This allows all the problems with a certificate chain to
161 be determined.
162 The verify operation consists of a number of separate steps.
164 Firstly a certificate chain is built up starting from the supplied
166 certificate and ending in the root CA. It is an error if the whole
167 chain cannot be built up. The chain is built up by looking up the
168 issuers certificate of the current certificate. If a certificate is
169 found which is its own issuer it is assumed to be the root CA.
170 The process of 'looking up the issuers certificate' itself involves a
172 number of steps. In versions of OpenSSL before 0.9.5a the first
173 certificate whose subject name matched the issuer of the current
174 certificate was assumed to be the issuers certificate. In OpenSSL 0.9.6
175 and later all certificates whose subject name matches the issuer name
176 of the current certificate are subject to further tests. The relevant
177 authority key identifier components of the current certificate (if
178 present) must match the subject key identifier (if present) and issuer
179 and serial number of the candidate issuer, in addition the keyUsage
180 extension of the candidate issuer (if present) must permit certificate
181 signing.
182 The lookup first looks in the list of untrusted certificates and if no
184 match is found the remaining lookups are from the trusted certificates.
185 The root CA is always looked up in the trusted certificate list: if the
186 certificate to verify is a root certificate then an exact match must be
187 found in the trusted list.
188 The second operation is to check every untrusted certificate's
190 extensions for consistency with the supplied purpose. If the -purpose
191 option is not included then no checks are done. The supplied or "leaf"
192 certificate must have extensions compatible with the supplied purpose
193 and all other certificates must also be valid CA certificates. The
194 precise extensions required are described in more detail in the
195 CERTIFICATE EXTENSIONS section of the x509 utility.
196 The third operation is to check the trust settings on the root CA. The
198 root CA should be trusted for the supplied purpose. For compatibility
199 with previous versions of SSLeay and OpenSSL a certificate with no
200 trust settings is considered to be valid for all purposes.
201 The final operation is to check the validity of the certificate chain.
203 The validity period is checked against the current system time and the
204 notBefore and notAfter dates in the certificate. The certificate
205 signatures are also checked at this point.
206 If all operations complete successfully then certificate is considered
208 valid. If any operation fails then the certificate is not valid.
209
211 When a verify operation fails the output messages can be somewhat
212 cryptic. The general form of the error message is:
213 server.pem: /C=AU/ST=Queensland/O=CryptSoft Pty Ltd/CN=Test CA (1024 bit)
215 error 24 at 1 depth lookup:invalid CA certificate
216 The first line contains the name of the certificate being verified
218 followed by the subject name of the certificate. The second line
219 contains the error number and the depth. The depth is number of the
220 certificate being verified when a problem was detected starting with
221 zero for the certificate being verified itself then 1 for the CA that
222 signed the certificate and so on. Finally a text version of the error
223 number is presented.
224 An exhaustive list of the error codes and messages is shown below, this
226 also includes the name of the error code as defined in the header file
227 x509_vfy.h Some of the error codes are defined but never returned:
228 these are described as "unused".
229 0 X509_V_OK: ok
231 the operation was successful.
232 2 X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_GET_ISSUER_CERT: unable to get issuer
234 certificate
235 the issuer certificate of a looked up certificate could not be
236 found. This normally means the list of trusted certificates is not
237 complete.
238 3 X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_GET_CRL: unable to get certificate CRL
240 the CRL of a certificate could not be found.
241 4 X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_DECRYPT_CERT_SIGNATURE: unable to decrypt
243 certificate's signature
244 the certificate signature could not be decrypted. This means that
245 the actual signature value could not be determined rather than it
246 not matching the expected value, this is only meaningful for RSA
247 keys.
248 5 X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_DECRYPT_CRL_SIGNATURE: unable to decrypt CRL's
250 signature
251 the CRL signature could not be decrypted: this means that the
252 actual signature value could not be determined rather than it not
253 matching the expected value. Unused.
254 6 X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_DECODE_ISSUER_PUBLIC_KEY: unable to decode
256 issuer public key
257 the public key in the certificate SubjectPublicKeyInfo could not be
258 read.
259 7 X509_V_ERR_CERT_SIGNATURE_FAILURE: certificate signature failure
261 the signature of the certificate is invalid.
262 8 X509_V_ERR_CRL_SIGNATURE_FAILURE: CRL signature failure
264 the signature of the certificate is invalid.
265 9 X509_V_ERR_CERT_NOT_YET_VALID: certificate is not yet valid
267 the certificate is not yet valid: the notBefore date is after the
268 current time.
269 10 X509_V_ERR_CERT_HAS_EXPIRED: certificate has expired
271 the certificate has expired: that is the notAfter date is before
272 the current time.
273 11 X509_V_ERR_CRL_NOT_YET_VALID: CRL is not yet valid
275 the CRL is not yet valid.
276 12 X509_V_ERR_CRL_HAS_EXPIRED: CRL has expired
278 the CRL has expired.
279 13 X509_V_ERR_ERROR_IN_CERT_NOT_BEFORE_FIELD: format error in
281 certificate's notBefore field
282 the certificate notBefore field contains an invalid time.
283 14 X509_V_ERR_ERROR_IN_CERT_NOT_AFTER_FIELD: format error in
285 certificate's notAfter field
286 the certificate notAfter field contains an invalid time.
287 15 X509_V_ERR_ERROR_IN_CRL_LAST_UPDATE_FIELD: format error in CRL's
289 lastUpdate field
290 the CRL lastUpdate field contains an invalid time.
291 16 X509_V_ERR_ERROR_IN_CRL_NEXT_UPDATE_FIELD: format error in CRL's
293 nextUpdate field
294 the CRL nextUpdate field contains an invalid time.
295 17 X509_V_ERR_OUT_OF_MEM: out of memory
297 an error occurred trying to allocate memory. This should never
298 happen.
299 18 X509_V_ERR_DEPTH_ZERO_SELF_SIGNED_CERT: self signed certificate
301 the passed certificate is self signed and the same certificate
302 cannot be found in the list of trusted certificates.
303 19 X509_V_ERR_SELF_SIGNED_CERT_IN_CHAIN: self signed certificate in
305 certificate chain
306 the certificate chain could be built up using the untrusted
307 certificates but the root could not be found locally.
308 20 X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_GET_ISSUER_CERT_LOCALLY: unable to get local
310 issuer certificate
311 the issuer certificate could not be found: this occurs if the
312 issuer certificate of an untrusted certificate cannot be found.
313 21 X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_VERIFY_LEAF_SIGNATURE: unable to verify the
315 first certificate
316 no signatures could be verified because the chain contains only one
317 certificate and it is not self signed.
318 22 X509_V_ERR_CERT_CHAIN_TOO_LONG: certificate chain too long
320 the certificate chain length is greater than the supplied maximum
321 depth. Unused.
322 23 X509_V_ERR_CERT_REVOKED: certificate revoked
324 the certificate has been revoked.
325 24 X509_V_ERR_INVALID_CA: invalid CA certificate
327 a CA certificate is invalid. Either it is not a CA or its
328 extensions are not consistent with the supplied purpose.
329 25 X509_V_ERR_PATH_LENGTH_EXCEEDED: path length constraint exceeded
331 the basicConstraints pathlength parameter has been exceeded.
332 26 X509_V_ERR_INVALID_PURPOSE: unsupported certificate purpose
334 the supplied certificate cannot be used for the specified purpose.
335 27 X509_V_ERR_CERT_UNTRUSTED: certificate not trusted
337 the root CA is not marked as trusted for the specified purpose.
338 28 X509_V_ERR_CERT_REJECTED: certificate rejected
340 the root CA is marked to reject the specified purpose.
341 29 X509_V_ERR_SUBJECT_ISSUER_MISMATCH: subject issuer mismatch
343 the current candidate issuer certificate was rejected because its
344 subject name did not match the issuer name of the current
345 certificate. Only displayed when the -issuer_checks option is set.
346 30 X509_V_ERR_AKID_SKID_MISMATCH: authority and subject key identifier
348 mismatch
349 the current candidate issuer certificate was rejected because its
350 subject key identifier was present and did not match the authority
351 key identifier current certificate. Only displayed when the
352 -issuer_checks option is set.
353 31 X509_V_ERR_AKID_ISSUER_SERIAL_MISMATCH: authority and issuer serial
355 number mismatch
356 the current candidate issuer certificate was rejected because its
357 issuer name and serial number was present and did not match the
358 authority key identifier of the current certificate. Only displayed
359 when the -issuer_checks option is set.
360 32 X509_V_ERR_KEYUSAGE_NO_CERTSIGN:key usage does not include
362 certificate signing
363 the current candidate issuer certificate was rejected because its
364 keyUsage extension does not permit certificate signing.
365 50 X509_V_ERR_APPLICATION_VERIFICATION: application verification
367 failure
368 an application specific error. Unused.
369
371 Although the issuer checks are a considerable improvement over the old
372 technique they still suffer from limitations in the underlying
373 X509_LOOKUP API. One consequence of this is that trusted certificates
374 with matching subject name must either appear in a file (as specified
375 by the -CAfile option) or a directory (as specified by -CApath. If they
376 occur in both then only the certificates in the file will be
377 recognised.
378 Previous versions of OpenSSL assume certificates with matching subject
380 name are identical and mishandled them.
381 Previous versions of this documentation swapped the meaning of the
383 X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_GET_ISSUER_CERT and 20
384 X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_GET_ISSUER_CERT_LOCALLY error codes.
385
387 x509(1)
388
390 The -no_alt_chains options was first added to OpenSSL 1.0.2b.
3911.0.2k 2019-03-12 VERIFY(1)