@node ocsptool Invocation @subsection Invoking ocsptool @pindex ocsptool @subheading On verification Responses are typically signed/issued by designated certificates or certificate authorities and thus this tool requires on verification the certificate of the issuer or the full certificate chain in order to determine the appropriate signing authority. The specified certificate of the issuer is assumed trusted. @anchor{ocsptool usage} @subsubheading ocsptool help/usage (@option{-?}) @cindex ocsptool help The text printed is the same whether selected with the @code{help} option (@option{--help}) or the @code{more-help} option (@option{--more-help}). @code{more-help} will print the usage text by passing it through a pager program. @code{more-help} is disabled on platforms without a working @code{fork(2)} function. The @code{PAGER} environment variable is used to select the program, defaulting to @file{more}. Both will exit with a status code of 0. @exampleindent 0 @example ocsptool - GnuTLS OCSP tool Usage: ocsptool [ - [] | --[@{=| @}] ]... None: -d, --debug=num Enable debugging - it must be in the range: 0 to 9999 -V, --verbose More verbose output --infile=file Input file - file must pre-exist --outfile=str Output file --ask[=str] Ask an OCSP/HTTP server on a certificate validity -e, --verify-response Verify response -i, --request-info Print information on a OCSP request -j, --response-info Print information on a OCSP response -q, --generate-request Generates an OCSP request --nonce Use (or not) a nonce to OCSP request --load-chain=file Reads a set of certificates forming a chain from file - file must pre-exist --load-issuer=file Reads issuer's certificate from file - file must pre-exist --load-cert=file Reads the certificate to check from file - file must pre-exist --load-trust=file Read OCSP trust anchors from file - prohibits the option 'load-signer' - file must pre-exist --load-signer=file Reads the OCSP response signer from file - prohibits the option 'load-trust' - file must pre-exist --inder Use DER format for input certificates and private keys --outder Use DER format for output of responses (this is the default) --outpem Use PEM format for output of responses -Q, --load-request=file Reads the DER encoded OCSP request from file - file must pre-exist -S, --load-response=file Reads the DER encoded OCSP response from file - file must pre-exist --ignore-errors Ignore any verification errors --verify-allow-broken Allow broken algorithms, such as MD5 for verification Version, usage and configuration options: -v, --version[=arg] output version information and exit -h, --help display extended usage information and exit -!, --more-help extended usage information passed thru pager Options are specified by doubled hyphens and their name or by a single hyphen and the flag character. ocsptool is a program that can parse and print information about OCSP requests/responses, generate requests and verify responses. Unlike other GnuTLS applications it outputs DER encoded structures by default unless the '--outpem' option is specified. Please send bug reports to: @end example @exampleindent 4 @subsubheading debug option (-d). @anchor{ocsptool debug} This is the ``enable debugging'' option. This option takes a ArgumentType.NUMBER argument. Specifies the debug level. @subsubheading ask option. @anchor{ocsptool ask} This is the ``ask an ocsp/http server on a certificate validity'' option. This option takes a ArgumentType.STRING argument @file{server name|url}. Connects to the specified HTTP OCSP server and queries on the validity of the loaded certificate. Its argument can be a URL or a plain server name. It can be combined with --load-chain, where it checks all certificates in the provided chain, or with --load-cert and --load-issuer options. The latter checks the provided certificate against its specified issuer certificate. @subsubheading verify-response option (-e). @anchor{ocsptool verify-response} This is the ``verify response'' option. Verifies the provided OCSP response against the system trust anchors (unless --load-trust is provided). It requires the --load-signer or --load-chain options to obtain the signer of the OCSP response. @subsubheading request-info option (-i). @anchor{ocsptool request-info} This is the ``print information on a ocsp request'' option. Display detailed information on the provided OCSP request. @subsubheading response-info option (-j). @anchor{ocsptool response-info} This is the ``print information on a ocsp response'' option. Display detailed information on the provided OCSP response. @subsubheading load-trust option. @anchor{ocsptool load-trust} This is the ``read ocsp trust anchors from file'' option. This option takes a ArgumentType.FILE argument. @noindent This option has some usage constraints. It: @itemize @bullet @item must not appear in combination with any of the following options: load-signer. @end itemize When verifying an OCSP response read the trust anchors from the provided file. When this is not provided, the system's trust anchors will be used. @subsubheading outder option. @anchor{ocsptool outder} This is the ``use der format for output of responses (this is the default)'' option. The output will be in DER encoded format. Unlike other GnuTLS tools, this is the default for this tool @subsubheading outpem option. @anchor{ocsptool outpem} This is the ``use pem format for output of responses'' option. The output will be in PEM format. @subsubheading verify-allow-broken option. @anchor{ocsptool verify-allow-broken} This is the ``allow broken algorithms, such as md5 for verification'' option. This can be combined with --verify-response. @subsubheading version option (-v). @anchor{ocsptool version} This is the ``output version information and exit'' option. This option takes a ArgumentType.KEYWORD argument. Output version of program and exit. The default mode is `v', a simple version. The `c' mode will print copyright information and `n' will print the full copyright notice. @subsubheading help option (-h). @anchor{ocsptool help} This is the ``display extended usage information and exit'' option. Display usage information and exit. @subsubheading more-help option (-!). @anchor{ocsptool more-help} This is the ``extended usage information passed thru pager'' option. Pass the extended usage information through a pager. @anchor{ocsptool exit status} @subsubheading ocsptool exit status One of the following exit values will be returned: @table @samp @item 0 (EXIT_SUCCESS) Successful program execution. @item 1 (EXIT_FAILURE) The operation failed or the command syntax was not valid. @end table @anchor{ocsptool See Also} @subsubheading ocsptool See Also certtool (1) @anchor{ocsptool Examples} @subsubheading ocsptool Examples @subsubheading Print information about an OCSP request To parse an OCSP request and print information about the content, the @code{-i} or @code{--request-info} parameter may be used as follows. The @code{-Q} parameter specify the name of the file containing the OCSP request, and it should contain the OCSP request in binary DER format. @example $ ocsptool -i -Q ocsp-request.der @end example The input file may also be sent to standard input like this: @example $ cat ocsp-request.der | ocsptool --request-info @end example @subsubheading Print information about an OCSP response Similar to parsing OCSP requests, OCSP responses can be parsed using the @code{-j} or @code{--response-info} as follows. @example $ ocsptool -j -Q ocsp-response.der $ cat ocsp-response.der | ocsptool --response-info @end example @subsubheading Generate an OCSP request The @code{-q} or @code{--generate-request} parameters are used to generate an OCSP request. By default the OCSP request is written to standard output in binary DER format, but can be stored in a file using @code{--outfile}. To generate an OCSP request the issuer of the certificate to check needs to be specified with @code{--load-issuer} and the certificate to check with @code{--load-cert}. By default PEM format is used for these files, although @code{--inder} can be used to specify that the input files are in DER format. @example $ ocsptool -q --load-issuer issuer.pem --load-cert client.pem \ --outfile ocsp-request.der @end example When generating OCSP requests, the tool will add an OCSP extension containing a nonce. This behaviour can be disabled by specifying @code{--no-nonce}. @subsubheading Verify signature in OCSP response To verify the signature in an OCSP response the @code{-e} or @code{--verify-response} parameter is used. The tool will read an OCSP response in DER format from standard input, or from the file specified by @code{--load-response}. The OCSP response is verified against a set of trust anchors, which are specified using @code{--load-trust}. The trust anchors are concatenated certificates in PEM format. The certificate that signed the OCSP response needs to be in the set of trust anchors, or the issuer of the signer certificate needs to be in the set of trust anchors and the OCSP Extended Key Usage bit has to be asserted in the signer certificate. @example $ ocsptool -e --load-trust issuer.pem \ --load-response ocsp-response.der @end example The tool will print status of verification. @subsubheading Verify signature in OCSP response against given certificate It is possible to override the normal trust logic if you know that a certain certificate is supposed to have signed the OCSP response, and you want to use it to check the signature. This is achieved using @code{--load-signer} instead of @code{--load-trust}. This will load one certificate and it will be used to verify the signature in the OCSP response. It will not check the Extended Key Usage bit. @example $ ocsptool -e --load-signer ocsp-signer.pem \ --load-response ocsp-response.der @end example This approach is normally only relevant in two situations. The first is when the OCSP response does not contain a copy of the signer certificate, so the @code{--load-trust} code would fail. The second is if you want to avoid the indirect mode where the OCSP response signer certificate is signed by a trust anchor. @subsubheading Real-world example Here is an example of how to generate an OCSP request for a certificate and to verify the response. For illustration we'll use the @code{blog.josefsson.org} host, which (as of writing) uses a certificate from CACert. First we'll use @code{gnutls-cli} to get a copy of the server certificate chain. The server is not required to send this information, but this particular one is configured to do so. @example $ echo | gnutls-cli -p 443 blog.josefsson.org --save-cert chain.pem @end example The saved certificates normally contain a pointer to where the OCSP responder is located, in the Authority Information Access Information extension. For example, from @code{certtool -i < chain.pem} there is this information: @example Authority Information Access Information (not critical): Access Method: 1.3.6.1.5.5.7.48.1 (id-ad-ocsp) Access Location URI: https://ocsp.CAcert.org/ @end example This means that ocsptool can discover the servers to contact over HTTP. We can now request information on the chain certificates. @example $ ocsptool --ask --load-chain chain.pem @end example The request is sent via HTTP to the OCSP server address found in the certificates. It is possible to override the address of the OCSP server as well as ask information on a particular certificate using --load-cert and --load-issuer. @example $ ocsptool --ask https://ocsp.CAcert.org/ --load-chain chain.pem @end example