OpenSSL OCSP(1openssl) NNNNAAAAMMMMEEEE
ocsp - Online Certificate Status Protocol utility
SSSSYYYYNNNNOOOOPPPPSSSSIIIISSSSooooppppeeeennnnssssssssllll ooooccccsssspppp [---ooouuuutttt ffffiiiilllleeee] [---iiissssssssuuuueeeerrrr ffffiiiilllleeee] [---ccceeeerrrrtttt ffffiiiilllleeee]
[---ssseeeerrrriiiiaaaallll nnnn] [---sssiiiiggggnnnneeeerrrr ffffiiiilllleeee] [---sssiiiiggggnnnnkkkkeeeeyyyy ffffiiiilllleeee] [---sssiiiiggggnnnn_ooootttthhhheeeerrrr
ffffiiiilllleeee] [---nnnoooo_cccceeeerrrrttttssss] [---rrreeeeqqqq_tttteeeexxxxtttt] [---rrreeeesssspppp_tttteeeexxxxtttt] [---ttteeeexxxxtttt] [---rrreeeeqqqqoooouuuutttt
ffffiiiilllleeee] [---rrreeeessssppppoooouuuutttt ffffiiiilllleeee] [---rrreeeeqqqqiiiinnnn ffffiiiilllleeee] [---rrreeeessssppppiiiinnnn ffffiiiilllleeee] [---nnnoooonnnncccceeee]
[---nnnoooo_nnnnoooonnnncccceeee] [---uuurrrrllll UUUURRRRLLLL] [---hhhoooosssstttt hhhhoooosssstttt::::nnnn] [---pppaaaatttthhhh] [---CCCAAAAppppaaaatttthhhh ddddiiiirrrr]
[---CCCAAAAffffiiiilllleeee ffffiiiilllleeee] [---VVVAAAAffffiiiilllleeee ffffiiiilllleeee] [---vvvaaaalllliiiiddddiiiittttyyyy_ppppeeeerrrriiiioooodddd nnnn]
[---sssttttaaaattttuuuussss_aaaaggggeeee nnnn] [---nnnoooovvvveeeerrrriiiiffffyyyy] [---vvveeeerrrriiiiffffyyyy_ooootttthhhheeeerrrr ffffiiiilllleeee]
[---tttrrrruuuusssstttt_ooootttthhhheeeerrrr] [---nnnoooo_iiiinnnntttteeeerrrrnnnn] [---nnnoooo_ssssiiiiggggnnnnaaaattttuuuurrrreeee_vvvveeeerrrriiiiffffyyyy]
[---nnnoooo_cccceeeerrrrtttt_vvvveeeerrrriiiiffffyyyy] [---nnnoooo_cccchhhhaaaaiiiinnnn] [---nnnoooo_cccceeeerrrrtttt_cccchhhheeeecccckkkkssss] [---pppoooorrrrtttt nnnnuuuummmm]
[---iiinnnnddddeeeexxxx ffffiiiilllleeee] [---CCCAAAA ffffiiiilllleeee] [---rrrssssiiiiggggnnnneeeerrrr ffffiiiilllleeee] [---rrrkkkkeeeeyyyy ffffiiiilllleeee]
[---rrrooootttthhhheeeerrrr ffffiiiilllleeee] [---rrreeeesssspppp_nnnnoooo_cccceeeerrrrttttssss] [---nnnmmmmiiiinnnn nnnn] [---nnnddddaaaayyyyssss nnnn]
[---rrreeeesssspppp_kkkkeeeeyyyy_iiiidddd] [---nnnrrrreeeeqqqquuuueeeesssstttt nnnn]
DDDDEEEESSSSCCCCRRRRIIIIPPPPTTTTIIIIOOOONNNN The Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) enables applications to determine the (revocation) state of an identified certificate (RFC 2560). The ooooccccsssspppp command performs many common OCSP tasks. It can be used to print out requests and responses, create requests and send queries to an OCSP responder and behave like a mini OCSP server itself. OOOOCCCCSSSSPPPP CCCCLLLLIIIIEEEENNNNTTTT OOOOPPPPTTTTIIIIOOOONNNNSSSS-oooouuuutttt ffffiiiilllleeeennnnaaaammmmeeee
specify output filename, default is standard output.-iiiissssssssuuuueeeerrrr ffffiiiilllleeeennnnaaaammmmeeee
This specifies the current issuer certificate. This option can be used multiple times. The certificate specified in ffffiiiilllleeeennnnaaaammmmeeee must be in PEM format. This optionMMMMUUUUSSSSTTTT come before any ---ccceeeerrrrtttt options.
-cccceeeerrrrtttt ffffiiiilllleeeennnnaaaammmmeeee
Add the certificate ffffiiiilllleeeennnnaaaammmmeeee to the request. The issuer certificate is taken from the previous iiiissssssssuuuueeeerrrr option, or an error occurs if no issuer certificate is specified.-sssseeeerrrriiiiaaaallll nnnnuuuummmm
Same as the cccceeeerrrrtttt option except the certificate with serial number nnnnuuuummmm is added to the request. The serial number is interpreted as a decimal integer unless preceded by 0000xxxx. Negative integers can also be specifiedby preceding the value by a ---- sign.
-ssssiiiiggggnnnneeeerrrr ffffiiiilllleeeennnnaaaammmmeeee, -ssssiiiiggggnnnnkkkkeeeeyyyy ffffiiiilllleeeennnnaaaammmmeeee
Sign the OCSP request using the certificate specified in the ssssiiiiggggnnnneeeerrrr option and the private key specified by the25/Feb/2008 Last change: 0.9.8o 1 OpenSSL OCSP(1openssl) ssssiiiiggggnnnnkkkkeeeeyyyy option. If the ssssiiiiggggnnnnkkkkeeeeyyyy option is not present then the private key is read from the same file as the certificate. If neither option is specified then the OCSP request is not signed.
-ssssiiiiggggnnnn_ooootttthhhheeeerrrr ffffiiiilllleeeennnnaaaammmmeeee
Additional certificates to include in the signed request.-nnnnoooonnnncccceeee, -nnnnoooo_nnnnoooonnnncccceeee
Add an OCSP nonce extension to a request or disable OCSP nonce addition. Normally if an OCSP request is input using the rrrreeeessssppppiiiinnnn option no nonce is added: using the nnnnoooonnnncccceeee option will force addition of a nonce. If an OCSP request is being created (using cccceeeerrrrtttt and sssseeeerrrriiiiaaaallll options)a nonce is automatically added specifying nnnnoooo_nnnnoooonnnncccceeee
overrides this.-rrrreeeeqqqq_tttteeeexxxxtttt, -rrrreeeesssspppp_tttteeeexxxxtttt, -tttteeeexxxxtttt
print out the text form of the OCSP request, response or both respectively.-rrrreeeeqqqqoooouuuutttt ffffiiiilllleeee, -rrrreeeessssppppoooouuuutttt ffffiiiilllleeee
write out the DER encoded certificate request or response to ffffiiiilllleeee.-rrrreeeeqqqqiiiinnnn ffffiiiilllleeee, -rrrreeeessssppppiiiinnnn ffffiiiilllleeee
read OCSP request or response file from ffffiiiilllleeee. These option are ignored if OCSP request or response creation is implied by other options (for example with sssseeeerrrriiiiaaaallll, cccceeeerrrrtttt and hhhhoooosssstttt options).-uuuurrrrllll rrrreeeessssppppoooonnnnddddeeeerrrr_uuuurrrrllll
specify the responder URL. Both HTTP and HTTPS (SSL/TLS) URLs can be specified.
-hhhhoooosssstttt hhhhoooossssttttnnnnaaaammmmeeee::::ppppoooorrrrtttt, -ppppaaaatttthhhh ppppaaaatttthhhhnnnnaaaammmmeeee
if the hhhhoooosssstttt option is present then the OCSP request is sent to the host hhhhoooossssttttnnnnaaaammmmeeee on port ppppoooorrrrtttt. ppppaaaatttthhhh specifies the HTTP path name to use or "/" by default.-CCCCAAAAffffiiiilllleeee ffffiiiilllleeee, -CCCCAAAAppppaaaatttthhhh ppppaaaatttthhhhnnnnaaaammmmeeee
file or pathname containing trusted CA certificates. These are used to verify the signature on the OCSP response.-vvvveeeerrrriiiiffffyyyy_ooootttthhhheeeerrrr ffffiiiilllleeee
file containing additional certificates to search when attempting to locate the OCSP response signing certificate. Some responders omit the actual signer's certificate from the response: this option can be used to supply the necessary certificate in such cases.25/Feb/2008 Last change: 0.9.8o 2 OpenSSL OCSP(1openssl)
-ttttrrrruuuusssstttt_ooootttthhhheeeerrrr
the certificates specified by the ---vvveeeerrrriiiiffffyyyy_ooootttthhhheeeerrrr option
should be explicitly trusted and no additional checks will be performed on them. This is useful when the complete responder certificate chain is not available or trusting a root CA is not appropriate.-VVVVAAAAffffiiiilllleeee ffffiiiilllleeee
file containing explicitly trusted respondercertificates. Equivalent to the ---vvveeeerrrriiiiffffyyyy_ooootttthhhheeeerrrr and
---tttrrrruuuusssstttt_ooootttthhhheeeerrrr options.
-nnnnoooovvvveeeerrrriiiiffffyyyy
don't attempt to verify the OCSP response signature or the nonce values. This option will normally only be used for debugging since it disables all verification of the responders certificate.-nnnnoooo_iiiinnnntttteeeerrrrnnnn
ignore certificates contained in the OCSP response when searching for the signers certificate. With this option the signers certificate must be specified with eitherthe ---vvveeeerrrriiiiffffyyyy_ooootttthhhheeeerrrr or ---VVVAAAAffffiiiilllleeee options.
-nnnnoooo_ssssiiiiggggnnnnaaaattttuuuurrrreeee_vvvveeeerrrriiiiffffyyyy
don't check the signature on the OCSP response. Since this option tolerates invalid signatures on OCSP responses it will normally only be used for testing purposes.-nnnnoooo_cccceeeerrrrtttt_vvvveeeerrrriiiiffffyyyy
don't verify the OCSP response signers certificate at all. Since this option allows the OCSP response to be signed by any certificate it should only be used for testing purposes.-nnnnoooo_cccchhhhaaaaiiiinnnn
do not use certificates in the response as additional untrusted CA certificates.-nnnnoooo_cccceeeerrrrtttt_cccchhhheeeecccckkkkssss
don't perform any additional checks on the OCSP response signers certificate. That is do not make any checks to see if the signers certificate is authorised to provide the necessary status information: as a result this option should only be used for testing purposes.-vvvvaaaalllliiiiddddiiiittttyyyy_ppppeeeerrrriiiioooodddd nnnnsssseeeecccc, -ssssttttaaaattttuuuussss_aaaaggggeeee aaaaggggeeee
these options specify the range of times, in seconds, which will be tolerated in an OCSP response. Each certificate status response includes a nnnnoooottttBBBBeeeeffffoooorrrreeee time and an optional nnnnoooottttAAAAfffftttteeeerrrr time. The current time should25/Feb/2008 Last change: 0.9.8o 3 OpenSSL OCSP(1openssl) fall between these two values, but the interval between the two times may be only a few seconds. In practice the OCSP responder and clients clocks may not be precisely synchronised and so such a check may fail. To avoid this
the ---vvvaaaalllliiiiddddiiiittttyyyy_ppppeeeerrrriiiioooodddd option can be used to specify an
acceptable error range in seconds, the default value is 5 minutes. If the nnnnoooottttAAAAfffftttteeeerrrr time is omitted from a response then this means that new status information is immediately available. In this case the age of the nnnnoooottttBBBBeeeeffffoooorrrreeee field is checked to see it is not older than aaaaggggeeee seconds old. By default this additional check is not performed. OOOOCCCCSSSSPPPP SSSSEEEERRRRVVVVEEEERRRR OOOOPPPPTTTTIIIIOOOONNNNSSSS-iiiinnnnddddeeeexxxx iiiinnnnddddeeeexxxxffffiiiilllleeee
iiiinnnnddddeeeexxxxffffiiiilllleeee is a text index file in ccccaaaa format containing certificate revocation information. If the iiiinnnnddddeeeexxxx option is specified the ooooccccsssspppp utility is in responder mode, otherwise it is in client mode. The request(s) the responder processes can be either specified on the command line (using iiiissssssssuuuueeeerrrr and sssseeeerrrriiiiaaaallll options), supplied in a file (using the rrrreeeessssppppiiiinnnn option) or via external OCSP clients (if ppppoooorrrrtttt or uuuurrrrllll is specified). If the iiiinnnnddddeeeexxxx option is present then the CCCCAAAA and rrrrssssiiiiggggnnnneeeerrrr options must also be present.-CCCCAAAA ffffiiiilllleeee
CA certificate corresponding to the revocation information in iiiinnnnddddeeeexxxxffffiiiilllleeee.-rrrrssssiiiiggggnnnneeeerrrr ffffiiiilllleeee
The certificate to sign OCSP responses with.-rrrrooootttthhhheeeerrrr ffffiiiilllleeee
Additional certificates to include in the OCSP response.-rrrreeeesssspppp_nnnnoooo_cccceeeerrrrttttssss
Don't include any certificates in the OCSP response.-rrrreeeesssspppp_kkkkeeeeyyyy_iiiidddd
Identify the signer certificate using the key ID, default is to use the subject name.-rrrrkkkkeeeeyyyy ffffiiiilllleeee
The private key to sign OCSP responses with: if not present the file specified in the rrrrssssiiiiggggnnnneeeerrrr option is used.25/Feb/2008 Last change: 0.9.8o 4 OpenSSL OCSP(1openssl)
-ppppoooorrrrtttt ppppoooorrrrttttnnnnuuuummmm
Port to listen for OCSP requests on. The port may also be specified using the uuuurrrrllll option.-nnnnrrrreeeeqqqquuuueeeesssstttt nnnnuuuummmmbbbbeeeerrrr
The OCSP server will exit after receiving nnnnuuuummmmbbbbeeeerrrr requests, default unlimited.-nnnnmmmmiiiinnnn mmmmiiiinnnnuuuutttteeeessss, -nnnnddddaaaayyyyssss ddddaaaayyyyssss
Number of minutes or days when fresh revocation information is available: used in the nnnneeeexxxxttttUUUUppppddddaaaatttteeee field. If neither option is present then the nnnneeeexxxxttttUUUUppppddddaaaatttteeee field is omitted meaning fresh revocation information is immediately available. OOOOCCCCSSSSPPPP RRRReeeessssppppoooonnnnsssseeee vvvveeeerrrriiiiffffiiiiccccaaaattttiiiioooonnnn.... OCSP Response follows the rules specified in RFC2560. Initially the OCSP responder certificate is located and the signature on the OCSP request checked using the responder certificate's public key. Then a normal certificate verify is performed on the OCSP responder certificate building up a certificate chain in the process. The locations of the trusted certificates used to build the chain can be specified by the CCCCAAAAffffiiiilllleeee and CCCCAAAAppppaaaatttthhhh options or they will be looked for in the standard OpenSSL certificates directory. If the initial verify fails then the OCSP verify process halts with an error. Otherwise the issuing CA certificate in the request is compared to the OCSP responder certificate: if there is a match then the OCSP verify succeeds. Otherwise the OCSP responder certificate's CA is checked against the issuing CA certificate in the request. If there is a match and the OCSPSigning extended key usage is present in the OCSP responder certificate then the OCSP verify succeeds. Otherwise the root CA of the OCSP responders CA is checked to see if it is trusted for OCSP signing. If it is the OCSP verify succeeds. If none of these checks is successful then the OCSP verify fails. What this effectively means if that if the OCSP responder certificate is authorised directly by the CA it is issuing revocation information about (and it is correctly25/Feb/2008 Last change: 0.9.8o 5 OpenSSL OCSP(1openssl) configured) then verification will succeed. If the OCSP responder is a "global responder" which can give details about multiple CAs and has its own separate certificate chain then its root CA can be trusted for OCSP signing. For example:
openssl x509 -in ocspCA.pem -addtrust OCSPSigning -out trustedCA.pem
Alternatively the responder certificate itself can beexplicitly trusted with the ---VVVAAAAffffiiiilllleeee option.
NNNNOOOOTTTTEEEESSSS As noted, most of the verify options are for testing ordebugging purposes. Normally only the ---CCCAAAAppppaaaatttthhhh, ---CCCAAAAffffiiiilllleeee and
(if the responder is a 'global VA') ---VVVAAAAffffiiiilllleeee options need to
be used. The OCSP server is only useful for test and demonstration purposes: it is not really usable as a full OCSP responder. It contains only a very simple HTTP request handling and can only handle the POST form of OCSP queries. It also handles requests serially meaning it cannot respond to new requests until it has processed the current one. The text index file format of revocation is also inefficient for large quantities of revocation data. It is possible to run the ooooccccsssspppp application in responder mode via a CGI script using the rrrreeeessssppppiiiinnnn and rrrreeeessssppppoooouuuutttt options. EEEEXXXXAAAAMMMMPPPPLLLLEEEESSSS Create an OCSP request and write it to a file:openssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem -reqout req.der
Send a query to an OCSP responder with URLhttp://ocsp.myhost.com/ save the response to a file and
print it out in text formopenssl ocsp -issuer issuer.pem -cert c1.pem -cert c2.pem \
-url http://ocsp.myhost.com/ -resp_text -respout resp.der
Read in an OCSP response and print out text form:openssl ocsp -respin resp.der -text
OCSP server on port 8888 using a standard ccccaaaa configuration, and a separate responder certificate. All requests and responses are printed to a file.openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
-text -out log.txt
25/Feb/2008 Last change: 0.9.8o 6 OpenSSL OCSP(1openssl) As above but exit after processing one request:
openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -port 8888 -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
-nrequest 1
Query status information using internally generated request:openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
-issuer demoCA/cacert.pem -serial 1
Query status information using request read from a file, write response to a second file.openssl ocsp -index demoCA/index.txt -rsigner rcert.pem -CA demoCA/cacert.pem
-reqin req.der -respout resp.der
25/Feb/2008 Last change: 0.9.8o 7 OpenSSL OCSP(1openssl)
25/Feb/2008 Last change: 0.9.8o 8