1OCSP(1)                             OpenSSL                            OCSP(1)
2
3
4

NAME

6       openssl-ocsp, ocsp - Online Certificate Status Protocol utility
7

SYNOPSIS

9       openssl ocsp [-help] [-out file] [-issuer file] [-cert file] [-serial
10       n] [-signer file] [-signkey file] [-sign_other file] [-no_certs]
11       [-req_text] [-resp_text] [-text] [-reqout file] [-respout file] [-reqin
12       file] [-respin file] [-nonce] [-no_nonce] [-url URL] [-host host:port]
13       [-multi process-count] [-header] [-path] [-CApath dir] [-CAfile file]
14       [-no-CAfile] [-no-CApath] [-attime timestamp] [-check_ss_sig]
15       [-crl_check] [-crl_check_all] [-explicit_policy] [-extended_crl]
16       [-ignore_critical] [-inhibit_any] [-inhibit_map] [-no_check_time]
17       [-partial_chain] [-policy arg] [-policy_check] [-policy_print]
18       [-purpose purpose] [-suiteB_128] [-suiteB_128_only] [-suiteB_192]
19       [-trusted_first] [-no_alt_chains] [-use_deltas] [-auth_level num]
20       [-verify_depth num] [-verify_email email] [-verify_hostname hostname]
21       [-verify_ip ip] [-verify_name name] [-x509_strict] [-VAfile file]
22       [-validity_period n] [-status_age n] [-noverify] [-verify_other file]
23       [-trust_other] [-no_intern] [-no_signature_verify] [-no_cert_verify]
24       [-no_chain] [-no_cert_checks] [-no_explicit] [-port num] [-ignore_err]
25       [-index file] [-CA file] [-rsigner file] [-rkey file] [-rother file]
26       [-rsigopt nm:v] [-resp_no_certs] [-nmin n] [-ndays n] [-resp_key_id]
27       [-nrequest n] [-digest]
28

DESCRIPTION

30       The Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) enables applications to
31       determine the (revocation) state of an identified certificate (RFC
32       2560).
33
34       The ocsp command performs many common OCSP tasks. It can be used to
35       print out requests and responses, create requests and send queries to
36       an OCSP responder and behave like a mini OCSP server itself.
37

OPTIONS

39       This command operates as either a client or a server.  The options are
40       described below, divided into those two modes.
41
42   OCSP Client Options
43       -help
44           Print out a usage message.
45
46       -out filename
47           specify output filename, default is standard output.
48
49       -issuer filename
50           This specifies the current issuer certificate. This option can be
51           used multiple times. The certificate specified in filename must be
52           in PEM format. This option MUST come before any -cert options.
53
54       -cert filename
55           Add the certificate filename to the request. The issuer certificate
56           is taken from the previous issuer option, or an error occurs if no
57           issuer certificate is specified.
58
59       -serial num
60           Same as the cert option except the certificate with serial number
61           num is added to the request. The serial number is interpreted as a
62           decimal integer unless preceded by 0x. Negative integers can also
63           be specified by preceding the value by a - sign.
64
65       -signer filename, -signkey filename
66           Sign the OCSP request using the certificate specified in the signer
67           option and the private key specified by the signkey option. If the
68           signkey option is not present then the private key is read from the
69           same file as the certificate. If neither option is specified then
70           the OCSP request is not signed.
71
72       -sign_other filename
73           Additional certificates to include in the signed request.
74
75       -nonce, -no_nonce
76           Add an OCSP nonce extension to a request or disable OCSP nonce
77           addition.  Normally if an OCSP request is input using the reqin
78           option no nonce is added: using the nonce option will force
79           addition of a nonce.  If an OCSP request is being created (using
80           cert and serial options) a nonce is automatically added specifying
81           no_nonce overrides this.
82
83       -req_text, -resp_text, -text
84           Print out the text form of the OCSP request, response or both
85           respectively.
86
87       -reqout file, -respout file
88           Write out the DER encoded certificate request or response to file.
89
90       -reqin file, -respin file
91           Read OCSP request or response file from file. These option are
92           ignored if OCSP request or response creation is implied by other
93           options (for example with serial, cert and host options).
94
95       -url responder_url
96           Specify the responder URL. Both HTTP and HTTPS (SSL/TLS) URLs can
97           be specified.
98
99       -host hostname:port, -path pathname
100           If the host option is present then the OCSP request is sent to the
101           host hostname on port port. path specifies the HTTP path name to
102           use or "/" by default.  This is equivalent to specifying -url with
103           scheme http:// and the given hostname, port, and pathname.
104
105       -header name=value
106           Adds the header name with the specified value to the OCSP request
107           that is sent to the responder.  This may be repeated.
108
109       -timeout seconds
110           Connection timeout to the OCSP responder in seconds.  On POSIX
111           systems, when running as an OCSP responder, this option also limits
112           the time that the responder is willing to wait for the client
113           request.  This time is measured from the time the responder accepts
114           the connection until the complete request is received.
115
116       -multi process-count
117           Run the specified number of OCSP responder child processes, with
118           the parent process respawning child processes as needed.  Child
119           processes will detect changes in the CA index file and
120           automatically reload it.  When running as a responder -timeout
121           option is recommended to limit the time each child is willing to
122           wait for the client's OCSP response.  This option is available on
123           POSIX systems (that support the fork() and other required unix
124           system-calls).
125
126       -CAfile file, -CApath pathname
127           File or pathname containing trusted CA certificates. These are used
128           to verify the signature on the OCSP response.
129
130       -no-CAfile
131           Do not load the trusted CA certificates from the default file
132           location
133
134       -no-CApath
135           Do not load the trusted CA certificates from the default directory
136           location
137
138       -attime, -check_ss_sig, -crl_check, -crl_check_all, -explicit_policy,
139       -extended_crl, -ignore_critical, -inhibit_any, -inhibit_map,
140       -no_alt_chains, -no_check_time, -partial_chain, -policy, -policy_check,
141       -policy_print, -purpose, -suiteB_128, -suiteB_128_only, -suiteB_192,
142       -trusted_first, -use_deltas, -auth_level, -verify_depth, -verify_email,
143       -verify_hostname, -verify_ip, -verify_name, -x509_strict
144           Set different certificate verification options.  See verify(1)
145           manual page for details.
146
147       -verify_other file
148           File containing additional certificates to search when attempting
149           to locate the OCSP response signing certificate. Some responders
150           omit the actual signer's certificate from the response: this option
151           can be used to supply the necessary certificate in such cases.
152
153       -trust_other
154           The certificates specified by the -verify_other option should be
155           explicitly trusted and no additional checks will be performed on
156           them. This is useful when the complete responder certificate chain
157           is not available or trusting a root CA is not appropriate.
158
159       -VAfile file
160           File containing explicitly trusted responder certificates.
161           Equivalent to the -verify_other and -trust_other options.
162
163       -noverify
164           Don't attempt to verify the OCSP response signature or the nonce
165           values. This option will normally only be used for debugging since
166           it disables all verification of the responders certificate.
167
168       -no_intern
169           Ignore certificates contained in the OCSP response when searching
170           for the signers certificate. With this option the signers
171           certificate must be specified with either the -verify_other or
172           -VAfile options.
173
174       -no_signature_verify
175           Don't check the signature on the OCSP response. Since this option
176           tolerates invalid signatures on OCSP responses it will normally
177           only be used for testing purposes.
178
179       -no_cert_verify
180           Don't verify the OCSP response signers certificate at all. Since
181           this option allows the OCSP response to be signed by any
182           certificate it should only be used for testing purposes.
183
184       -no_chain
185           Do not use certificates in the response as additional untrusted CA
186           certificates.
187
188       -no_explicit
189           Do not explicitly trust the root CA if it is set to be trusted for
190           OCSP signing.
191
192       -no_cert_checks
193           Don't perform any additional checks on the OCSP response signers
194           certificate.  That is do not make any checks to see if the signers
195           certificate is authorised to provide the necessary status
196           information: as a result this option should only be used for
197           testing purposes.
198
199       -validity_period nsec, -status_age age
200           These options specify the range of times, in seconds, which will be
201           tolerated in an OCSP response. Each certificate status response
202           includes a notBefore time and an optional notAfter time. The
203           current time should fall between these two values, but the interval
204           between the two times may be only a few seconds. In practice the
205           OCSP responder and clients clocks may not be precisely synchronised
206           and so such a check may fail. To avoid this the -validity_period
207           option can be used to specify an acceptable error range in seconds,
208           the default value is 5 minutes.
209
210           If the notAfter time is omitted from a response then this means
211           that new status information is immediately available. In this case
212           the age of the notBefore field is checked to see it is not older
213           than age seconds old.  By default this additional check is not
214           performed.
215
216       -digest
217           This option sets digest algorithm to use for certificate
218           identification in the OCSP request. Any digest supported by the
219           OpenSSL dgst command can be used.  The default is SHA-1. This
220           option may be used multiple times to specify the digest used by
221           subsequent certificate identifiers.
222
223   OCSP Server Options
224       -index indexfile
225           The indexfile parameter is the name of a text index file in ca
226           format containing certificate revocation information.
227
228           If the index option is specified the ocsp utility is in responder
229           mode, otherwise it is in client mode. The request(s) the responder
230           processes can be either specified on the command line (using issuer
231           and serial options), supplied in a file (using the reqin option) or
232           via external OCSP clients (if port or url is specified).
233
234           If the index option is present then the CA and rsigner options must
235           also be present.
236
237       -CA file
238           CA certificate corresponding to the revocation information in
239           indexfile.
240
241       -rsigner file
242           The certificate to sign OCSP responses with.
243
244       -rother file
245           Additional certificates to include in the OCSP response.
246
247       -resp_no_certs
248           Don't include any certificates in the OCSP response.
249
250       -resp_key_id
251           Identify the signer certificate using the key ID, default is to use
252           the subject name.
253
254       -rkey file
255           The private key to sign OCSP responses with: if not present the
256           file specified in the rsigner option is used.
257
258       -rsigopt nm:v
259           Pass options to the signature algorithm when signing OCSP
260           responses.  Names and values of these options are algorithm-
261           specific.
262
263       -port portnum
264           Port to listen for OCSP requests on. The port may also be specified
265           using the url option.
266
267       -ignore_err
268           Ignore malformed requests or responses: When acting as an OCSP
269           client, retry if a malformed response is received. When acting as
270           an OCSP responder, continue running instead of terminating upon
271           receiving a malformed request.
272
273       -nrequest number
274           The OCSP server will exit after receiving number requests, default
275           unlimited.
276
277       -nmin minutes, -ndays days
278           Number of minutes or days when fresh revocation information is
279           available: used in the nextUpdate field. If neither option is
280           present then the nextUpdate field is omitted meaning fresh
281           revocation information is immediately available.
282

OCSP Response verification.

284       OCSP Response follows the rules specified in RFC2560.
285
286       Initially the OCSP responder certificate is located and the signature
287       on the OCSP request checked using the responder certificate's public
288       key.
289
290       Then a normal certificate verify is performed on the OCSP responder
291       certificate building up a certificate chain in the process. The
292       locations of the trusted certificates used to build the chain can be
293       specified by the CAfile and CApath options or they will be looked for
294       in the standard OpenSSL certificates directory.
295
296       If the initial verify fails then the OCSP verify process halts with an
297       error.
298
299       Otherwise the issuing CA certificate in the request is compared to the
300       OCSP responder certificate: if there is a match then the OCSP verify
301       succeeds.
302
303       Otherwise the OCSP responder certificate's CA is checked against the
304       issuing CA certificate in the request. If there is a match and the
305       OCSPSigning extended key usage is present in the OCSP responder
306       certificate then the OCSP verify succeeds.
307
308       Otherwise, if -no_explicit is not set the root CA of the OCSP
309       responders CA is checked to see if it is trusted for OCSP signing. If
310       it is the OCSP verify succeeds.
311
312       If none of these checks is successful then the OCSP verify fails.
313
314       What this effectively means if that if the OCSP responder certificate
315       is authorised directly by the CA it is issuing revocation information
316       about (and it is correctly configured) then verification will succeed.
317
318       If the OCSP responder is a "global responder" which can give details
319       about multiple CAs and has its own separate certificate chain then its
320       root CA can be trusted for OCSP signing. For example:
321
322        openssl x509 -in ocspCA.pem -addtrust OCSPSigning -out trustedCA.pem
323
324       Alternatively the responder certificate itself can be explicitly
325       trusted with the -VAfile option.
326

NOTES

328       As noted, most of the verify options are for testing or debugging
329       purposes.  Normally only the -CApath, -CAfile and (if the responder is
330       a 'global VA') -VAfile options need to be used.
331
332       The OCSP server is only useful for test and demonstration purposes: it
333       is not really usable as a full OCSP responder. It contains only a very
334       simple HTTP request handling and can only handle the POST form of OCSP
335       queries. It also handles requests serially meaning it cannot respond to
336       new requests until it has processed the current one. The text index
337       file format of revocation is also inefficient for large quantities of
338       revocation data.
339
340       It is possible to run the ocsp application in responder mode via a CGI
341       script using the reqin and respout options.
342

EXAMPLES

344       Create an OCSP request and write it to a file:
345
346        openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem -reqout req.der
347
348       Send a query to an OCSP responder with URL http://ocsp.myhost.com/ save
349       the response to a file, print it out in text form, and verify the
350       response:
351
352        openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem \
353            -url http://ocsp.myhost.com/ -resp_text -respout resp.der
354
355       Read in an OCSP response and print out text form:
356
357        openssl ocsp -respin resp.der -text -noverify
358
359       OCSP server on port 8888 using a standard ca configuration, and a
360       separate responder certificate. All requests and responses are printed
361       to a file.
362
363        openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
364               -text -out log.txt
365
366       As above but exit after processing one request:
367
368        openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
369            -nrequest 1
370
371       Query status information using an internally generated request:
372
373        openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
374            -issuer demoCA/cacert.pem -serial 1
375
376       Query status information using request read from a file, and write the
377       response to a second file.
378
379        openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
380            -reqin req.der -respout resp.der
381

HISTORY

383       The -no_alt_chains options was first added to OpenSSL 1.1.0.
384
386       Copyright 2001-2018 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
387
388       Licensed under the OpenSSL license (the "License").  You may not use
389       this file except in compliance with the License.  You can obtain a copy
390       in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
391       <https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.
392
393
394
3951.1.1                             2018-09-11                           OCSP(1)
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