6 s_client - SSL/TLS client program
10 B<openssl> B<s_client>
11 [B<-connect host:port>]
14 [B<-verify_return_error>]
16 [B<-certform DER|PEM>]
20 [B<-CApath directory>]
41 [B<-cipher cipherlist>]
43 [B<-starttls protocol>]
47 [B<-sess_out filename>]
48 [B<-sess_in filename>]
51 [B<-nextprotoneg protocols>]
55 The B<s_client> command implements a generic SSL/TLS client which connects
56 to a remote host using SSL/TLS. It is a I<very> useful diagnostic tool for
63 =item B<-connect host:port>
65 This specifies the host and optional port to connect to. If not specified
66 then an attempt is made to connect to the local host on port 4433.
68 =item B<-servername name>
70 Set the TLS SNI (Server Name Indication) extension in the ClientHello message.
72 =item B<-cert certname>
74 The certificate to use, if one is requested by the server. The default is
75 not to use a certificate.
77 =item B<-certform format>
79 The certificate format to use: DER or PEM. PEM is the default.
83 The private key to use. If not specified then the certificate file will
86 =item B<-keyform format>
88 The private format to use: DER or PEM. PEM is the default.
92 the private key password source. For more information about the format of B<arg>
93 see the B<PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS> section in L<openssl(1)|openssl(1)>.
95 =item B<-verify depth>
97 The verify depth to use. This specifies the maximum length of the
98 server certificate chain and turns on server certificate verification.
99 Currently the verify operation continues after errors so all the problems
100 with a certificate chain can be seen. As a side effect the connection
101 will never fail due to a server certificate verify failure.
103 =item B<-verify_return_error>
105 Return verification errors instead of continuing. This will typically
106 abort the handshake with a fatal error.
108 =item B<-CApath directory>
110 The directory to use for server certificate verification. This directory
111 must be in "hash format", see B<verify> for more information. These are
112 also used when building the client certificate chain.
114 =item B<-CAfile file>
116 A file containing trusted certificates to use during server authentication
117 and to use when attempting to build the client certificate chain.
119 =item B<-purpose, -ignore_critical, -issuer_checks, -crl_check, -crl_check_all, -policy_check, -extended_crl, -x509_strict, -policy -check_ss_sig>
121 Set various certificate chain valiadition option. See the
122 L<B<verify>|verify(1)> manual page for details.
126 reconnects to the same server 5 times using the same session ID, this can
127 be used as a test that session caching is working.
131 pauses 1 second between each read and write call.
135 display the whole server certificate chain: normally only the server
136 certificate itself is displayed.
140 print session information when the program exits. This will always attempt
141 to print out information even if the connection fails. Normally information
142 will only be printed out once if the connection succeeds. This option is useful
143 because the cipher in use may be renegotiated or the connection may fail
144 because a client certificate is required or is requested only after an
145 attempt is made to access a certain URL. Note: the output produced by this
146 option is not always accurate because a connection might never have been
151 prints out the SSL session states.
155 print extensive debugging information including a hex dump of all traffic.
159 show all protocol messages with hex dump.
163 tests non-blocking I/O
167 turns on non-blocking I/O
171 this option translated a line feed from the terminal into CR+LF as required
176 inhibit shutting down the connection when end of file is reached in the
181 inhibit printing of session and certificate information. This implicitly
182 turns on B<-ign_eof> as well.
186 shut down the connection when end of file is reached in the input.
187 Can be used to override the implicit B<-ign_eof> after B<-quiet>.
189 =item B<-psk_identity identity>
191 Use the PSK identity B<identity> when using a PSK cipher suite.
195 Use the PSK key B<key> when using a PSK cipher suite. The key is
196 given as a hexadecimal number without leading 0x, for example -psk
199 =item B<-ssl2>, B<-ssl3>, B<-tls1>, B<-no_ssl2>, B<-no_ssl3>, B<-no_tls1>
201 these options disable the use of certain SSL or TLS protocols. By default
202 the initial handshake uses a method which should be compatible with all
203 servers and permit them to use SSL v3, SSL v2 or TLS as appropriate.
205 Unfortunately there are a lot of ancient and broken servers in use which
206 cannot handle this technique and will fail to connect. Some servers only
207 work if TLS is turned off with the B<-no_tls> option others will only
208 support SSL v2 and may need the B<-ssl2> option.
212 there are several known bug in SSL and TLS implementations. Adding this
213 option enables various workarounds.
215 =item B<-cipher cipherlist>
217 this allows the cipher list sent by the client to be modified. Although
218 the server determines which cipher suite is used it should take the first
219 supported cipher in the list sent by the client. See the B<ciphers>
220 command for more information.
224 use the server's cipher preferences; only used for SSLV2.
226 =item B<-starttls protocol>
228 send the protocol-specific message(s) to switch to TLS for communication.
229 B<protocol> is a keyword for the intended protocol. Currently, the only
230 supported keywords are "smtp", "pop3", "imap", and "ftp".
232 =item B<-tlsextdebug>
234 print out a hex dump of any TLS extensions received from the server.
238 disable RFC4507bis session ticket support.
240 =item B<-sess_out filename>
242 output SSL session to B<filename>
244 =item B<-sess_in sess.pem>
246 load SSL session from B<filename>. The client will attempt to resume a
247 connection from this session.
251 specifying an engine (by its unique B<id> string) will cause B<s_client>
252 to attempt to obtain a functional reference to the specified engine,
253 thus initialising it if needed. The engine will then be set as the default
254 for all available algorithms.
256 =item B<-rand file(s)>
258 a file or files containing random data used to seed the random number
259 generator, or an EGD socket (see L<RAND_egd(3)|RAND_egd(3)>).
260 Multiple files can be specified separated by a OS-dependent character.
261 The separator is B<;> for MS-Windows, B<,> for OpenVMS, and B<:> for
266 sends a certificate status request to the server (OCSP stapling). The server
267 response (if any) is printed out.
269 =item B<-nextprotoneg protocols>
271 enable Next Protocol Negotiation TLS extension and provide a list of
272 comma-separated protocol names that the client should advertise
273 support for. The list should contain most wanted protocols first.
274 Protocol names are printable ASCII strings, for example "http/1.1" or
276 Empty list of protocols is treated specially and will cause the client to
277 advertise support for the TLS extension but disconnect just after
278 reciving ServerHello with a list of server supported protocols.
282 =head1 CONNECTED COMMANDS
284 If a connection is established with an SSL server then any data received
285 from the server is displayed and any key presses will be sent to the
286 server. When used interactively (which means neither B<-quiet> nor B<-ign_eof>
287 have been given), the session will be renegotiated if the line begins with an
288 B<R>, and if the line begins with a B<Q> or if end of file is reached, the
289 connection will be closed down.
293 B<s_client> can be used to debug SSL servers. To connect to an SSL HTTP
296 openssl s_client -connect servername:443
298 would typically be used (https uses port 443). If the connection succeeds
299 then an HTTP command can be given such as "GET /" to retrieve a web page.
301 If the handshake fails then there are several possible causes, if it is
302 nothing obvious like no client certificate then the B<-bugs>, B<-ssl2>,
303 B<-ssl3>, B<-tls1>, B<-no_ssl2>, B<-no_ssl3>, B<-no_tls1> options can be tried
304 in case it is a buggy server. In particular you should play with these
305 options B<before> submitting a bug report to an OpenSSL mailing list.
307 A frequent problem when attempting to get client certificates working
308 is that a web client complains it has no certificates or gives an empty
309 list to choose from. This is normally because the server is not sending
310 the clients certificate authority in its "acceptable CA list" when it
311 requests a certificate. By using B<s_client> the CA list can be viewed
312 and checked. However some servers only request client authentication
313 after a specific URL is requested. To obtain the list in this case it
314 is necessary to use the B<-prexit> option and send an HTTP request
315 for an appropriate page.
317 If a certificate is specified on the command line using the B<-cert>
318 option it will not be used unless the server specifically requests
319 a client certificate. Therefor merely including a client certificate
320 on the command line is no guarantee that the certificate works.
322 If there are problems verifying a server certificate then the
323 B<-showcerts> option can be used to show the whole chain.
325 Since the SSLv23 client hello cannot include compression methods or extensions
326 these will only be supported if its use is disabled, for example by using the
329 The B<s_client> utility is a test tool and is designed to continue the
330 handshake after any certificate verification errors. As a result it will
331 accept any certificate chain (trusted or not) sent by the peer. None test
332 applications should B<not> do this as it makes them vulnerable to a MITM
333 attack. This behaviour can be changed by with the B<-verify_return_error>
334 option: any verify errors are then returned aborting the handshake.
338 Because this program has a lot of options and also because some of
339 the techniques used are rather old, the C source of s_client is rather
340 hard to read and not a model of how things should be done. A typical
341 SSL client program would be much simpler.
343 The B<-prexit> option is a bit of a hack. We should really report
344 information whenever a session is renegotiated.
348 L<sess_id(1)|sess_id(1)>, L<s_server(1)|s_server(1)>, L<ciphers(1)|ciphers(1)>