openssl/doc/man3/SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations.pod
Dr. David von Oheimb f9ac6f6956 Improve the documentation of cert path building and validation
Reviewed-by: Paul Dale <pauli@openssl.org>
(Merged from https://github.com/openssl/openssl/pull/13735)
2021-06-08 07:47:41 +02:00

182 lines
6.4 KiB
Plaintext

=pod
=head1 NAME
SSL_CTX_load_verify_dir, SSL_CTX_load_verify_file,
SSL_CTX_load_verify_store, SSL_CTX_set_default_verify_paths,
SSL_CTX_set_default_verify_dir, SSL_CTX_set_default_verify_file,
SSL_CTX_set_default_verify_store, SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations
- set default locations for trusted CA certificates
=head1 SYNOPSIS
#include <openssl/ssl.h>
int SSL_CTX_load_verify_dir(SSL_CTX *ctx, const char *CApath);
int SSL_CTX_load_verify_file(SSL_CTX *ctx, const char *CAfile);
int SSL_CTX_load_verify_store(SSL_CTX *ctx, const char *CAstore);
int SSL_CTX_set_default_verify_paths(SSL_CTX *ctx);
int SSL_CTX_set_default_verify_dir(SSL_CTX *ctx);
int SSL_CTX_set_default_verify_file(SSL_CTX *ctx);
int SSL_CTX_set_default_verify_store(SSL_CTX *ctx);
int SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations(SSL_CTX *ctx, const char *CAfile,
const char *CApath);
=head1 DESCRIPTION
SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations(), SSL_CTX_load_verify_dir(),
SSL_CTX_load_verify_file(), SSL_CTX_load_verify_store() specifies the
locations for B<ctx>, at which CA certificates for verification purposes
are located. The certificates available via B<CAfile>, B<CApath> and
B<CAstore> are trusted.
Details of the certificate verification and chain checking process are
described in L<openssl-verification-options(1)/Certification Path Validation>.
SSL_CTX_set_default_verify_paths() specifies that the default locations from
which CA certificates are loaded should be used. There is one default directory,
one default file and one default store.
The default CA certificates directory is called F<certs> in the default OpenSSL
directory, and this is also the default store.
Alternatively the B<SSL_CERT_DIR> environment variable can be defined to
override this location.
The default CA certificates file is called F<cert.pem> in the default
OpenSSL directory.
Alternatively the B<SSL_CERT_FILE> environment variable can be defined to
override this location.
SSL_CTX_set_default_verify_dir() is similar to
SSL_CTX_set_default_verify_paths() except that just the default directory is
used.
SSL_CTX_set_default_verify_file() is similar to
SSL_CTX_set_default_verify_paths() except that just the default file is
used.
SSL_CTX_set_default_verify_store() is similar to
SSL_CTX_set_default_verify_paths() except that just the default store is
used.
=head1 NOTES
If B<CAfile> is not NULL, it points to a file of CA certificates in PEM
format. The file can contain several CA certificates identified by
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
... (CA certificate in base64 encoding) ...
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
sequences. Before, between, and after the certificates text is allowed
which can be used e.g. for descriptions of the certificates.
The B<CAfile> is processed on execution of the SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations()
function.
If B<CApath> is not NULL, it points to a directory containing CA certificates
in PEM format. The files each contain one CA certificate. The files are
looked up by the CA subject name hash value, which must hence be available.
If more than one CA certificate with the same name hash value exist, the
extension must be different (e.g. 9d66eef0.0, 9d66eef0.1 etc). The search
is performed in the ordering of the extension number, regardless of other
properties of the certificates.
Use the B<c_rehash> utility to create the necessary links.
The certificates in B<CApath> are only looked up when required, e.g. when
building the certificate chain or when actually performing the verification
of a peer certificate.
When looking up CA certificates for chain building, the OpenSSL library
will search for suitable certificates first in B<CAfile>, then in B<CApath>.
Details of the chain building process are described in
L<openssl-verification-options(1)/Certification Path Building>.
If B<CAstore> is not NULL, it's a URI for to a store, which may
represent a single container or a whole catalogue of containers.
Apart from the B<CAstore> not necessarily being a local file or
directory, it's generally treated the same way as a B<CApath>.
In server mode, when requesting a client certificate, the server must send
the list of CAs of which it will accept client certificates. This list
is not influenced by the contents of B<CAfile> or B<CApath> and must
explicitly be set using the
L<SSL_CTX_set_client_CA_list(3)>
family of functions.
When building its own certificate chain, an OpenSSL client/server will
try to fill in missing certificates from B<CAfile>/B<CApath>, if the
certificate chain was not explicitly specified (see
L<SSL_CTX_add_extra_chain_cert(3)>,
L<SSL_CTX_use_certificate(3)>.
=head1 WARNINGS
If several CA certificates matching the name, key identifier, and serial
number condition are available, only the first one will be examined. This
may lead to unexpected results if the same CA certificate is available
with different expiration dates. If a "certificate expired" verification
error occurs, no other certificate will be searched. Make sure to not
have expired certificates mixed with valid ones.
=head1 RETURN VALUES
For SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations the following return values can occur:
=over 4
=item Z<>0
The operation failed because B<CAfile> and B<CApath> are NULL or the
processing at one of the locations specified failed. Check the error
stack to find out the reason.
=item Z<>1
The operation succeeded.
=back
SSL_CTX_set_default_verify_paths(), SSL_CTX_set_default_verify_dir() and
SSL_CTX_set_default_verify_file() all return 1 on success or 0 on failure. A
missing default location is still treated as a success.
=head1 EXAMPLES
Generate a CA certificate file with descriptive text from the CA certificates
ca1.pem ca2.pem ca3.pem:
#!/bin/sh
rm CAfile.pem
for i in ca1.pem ca2.pem ca3.pem ; do
openssl x509 -in $i -text >> CAfile.pem
done
Prepare the directory /some/where/certs containing several CA certificates
for use as B<CApath>:
cd /some/where/certs
c_rehash .
=head1 SEE ALSO
L<ssl(7)>,
L<SSL_CTX_set_client_CA_list(3)>,
L<SSL_get_client_CA_list(3)>,
L<SSL_CTX_use_certificate(3)>,
L<SSL_CTX_add_extra_chain_cert(3)>,
L<SSL_CTX_set_cert_store(3)>,
L<SSL_CTX_set_client_CA_list(3)>
=head1 COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2000-2020 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use
this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy
in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
L<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.
=cut