Provided by: dacs_1.4.40-2_amd64 bug

NAME

       sslclient - an SSL/TLS client

SYNOPSIS

       sslclient [dacsoptions[1]] [-caf | --ca_cert_file filename]
                 [-cad | --ca_cert_dir dirname]
                 [-ccf | --cert_chain_file filename]
                 [-C | --ciphers cipherstring]
                 [--disable-sni] [[-dvp] | [--default_verify_paths] cipherstring]
                 [-h | --help] [-kf | --key_file filename]
                 [-kft | --key_file_type pem | asn1]
                 [-p | -sp | [--server_port] portnum]
                 [-r | --random filename]
                 [[-sm | --server_match regex ]...]
                 [-sni | --enable-sni]
                 [-vd | --verify_depth depth]
                 [-vt | --verify_type none | peer] [--] server [:port ]

DESCRIPTION

       This program is part of the DACS suite. It can be used with the usual DACS command line
       options (dacsoptions[1]), provided they all appear before the program-specific flags (note
       that the -un flag can be used to suppress configuration file processing).  sslclient is
       also used by the dacshttp(1)[2] command and by requests generated internally by DACS
       components.

       The sslclient utility acts as an SSL/TLS client. After establishing a bidirectional
       SSL/TLS connection with an SSL/TLS server, it forwards its standard input to the SSL/TLS
       server and writes data produced by the SSL/TLS server to sslclient's standard output.

       sslclient connects to server (a domain name or IP address). If a port number suffix is
       given (port), it is used; otherwise, if a port number is specified as a separate command
       line argument (--server_port portnum), that is used; failing that, the default SSL/TLS
       port for https (443)[3] is used.

       The program reads from its standard input and the server asynchronously (using
       non-blocking I/O). Note that the server side might need to see end-of-file on its input
       before its output is returned to sslclient.

       This program's underlying SSL/TLS functionality is provided by OpenSSL[4].

OPTIONS

       sslclient recognizes these options:

       -caf filename
       --ca_cert_file filename
           This identifies filename as a file of CA certificates in PEM format. This is the
           CAfile argument to the OpenSSL[4] SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations()[5] function. It is
           similar to mod_ssl's[6] SSLCACertificateFile[7] directive, except that it is used to
           verify the server's SSL certificate.

       -cad dirname
       --ca_cert_dir dirname
           This identifies dirname as a directory containing CA certificates in PEM format, one
           certificate per file. This is the CApath argument to the OpenSSL[4]
           SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations()[5] function. It is similar to mod_ssl's[6]
           SSLCACertificatePath[8] directive, except that it is used to verify the server's
           certificate.

       -ccf filename
       --cert_chain_file filename
           This causes the client certificate chain to be loaded from filename, a file containing
           certificates in PEM format. This is the file argument to the OpenSSL[4]
           SSL_CTX_use_certificate_chain_file()[9] function. It is similar to mod_ssl's[6]
           SSLCACertificateChainFile[10] directive, except that it is used for the client's
           chain.

               Tip
               If you want the client certificate to be sent you must also specify the -kf flag.

       -C cipherstring
       --ciphers cipherstring
           This sets the list of SSL/TLS ciphers to be used to cipherstring. This is the str
           argument to the OpenSSL[4] SSL_CTX_set_cipher_list()[11] function. It is similar to
           mod_ssl's[6] SSLCipherSuite[12] directive. Also see the --with-default-cipher-list[13]
           build option.

       -dvp
       --default_verify_paths
           This flag tells sslclient to use default locations for finding CA certificates. It
           results in a call to the OpenSSL[4] SSL_CTX_set_default_verify_paths() function.

       --disable-sni
           This flag tells sslclient not to use Server Name Indication (SNI), a TLS extension.

       -h
       --help
           Print a usage synopsis, which includes the default cipher list.

       -kf filename
       --key_file filename
           This sets sslclient's private key to the first private key found in filename. This is
           the file argument to the OpenSSL[4] SSL_CTX_usePrivateKey_file() function. The default
           private key file type is PEM. If the key has been encrypted, the program will prompt
           for the passphrase.

       -kft type
       --key_file_type type
           The private key file type is set to type, which must be either pem or asn1 (case
           insensitive). The default private key file type is PEM.

       -p portnum
       -sp portnum
       --server_port portnum
           Unless appended to the server argument, portnum is the port number to use, overriding
           the default port (443).

       -r filename
       --random filename
           Seed material for the PRNG is read from filename. This is the filename argument to the
           OpenSSL[4] RAND_load_file() function.

       -sm regex
       --server_match regex
           This argument, which may be repeated, specifies a constraint on the server's identity
           by matching an attribute value in the server's certificate against regex. These tests
           are made immediately after an SSL/TLS connection is established. Each regex is an IEEE
           Std 1003.2 ("POSIX.2") regular expression with extended expressions and case
           insensitivity (REG_EXTENDED | REG_ICASE). See below[14] for the matching algorithm.

       -sni
       --enable-sni
           When it is provided by its OpenSSL[4] library, the Server Name Indication (SNI) TLS
           extension is used by default, so it should not be necessary to specify this flag.
           Refer to RFC 6066[15] for details.

       -vd depth
       --verify_depth depth
           This sets the maximum depth for certificate chain verification to depth. This is the
           depth argument to the OpenSSL[4] SSL_CTX_set_verify_depth() function.

       -vt type
       --verify_type type
           This sets the verification mode to type, which must be either none or peer (case
           insensitive). This is the mode argument to the OpenSSL[4] SSL_CTX_set_verify()
           function.

       --
           This argument explicitly marks the end of the flags.

       The DACS -v (or --verbose) flag causes the program to show some of the server's SSL
       certificate, print feedback about regular expression matching, and so on. If sslclient is
       not doing what you expect, try using this flag.

   Server Identity Verification
       If the server presents a valid SSL (X.509) certificate, a set of checks is applied to it
       to help ensure that sslclient is communicating with the intended entity. Verification is
       successful and checking is terminated as soon as any test is successful. If no test
       succeeds, the program terminates immediately.

           Tip
           You can use a command like the following one to display an X.509 certificate to stdout
           in text form:

               % openssl x509 -noout -text < cert.crt

           Here, cert.crt is the certificate to display.

       The server certificate's subjectAltName extension fields have the format
       field-name:field-value. For each such field, tests are made in the following sequence:

        1. the entire field is matched against each of the regular expressions given on the
           command line.

        2. if the previous test failed and field-name is "DNS" (exact match), it is compared case
           insensitively to the server's name (as given on the command line).

        3. if the previous test failed and if the field-name is "IP Address" (exact match), it is
           compared to the server's name (exact match), which is assumed to be an IP address (as
           given on the command line).

       If the above procedure is unsuccessful and the server certificate's commonName attribute
       value is available, it is matched against each of the regular expressions given on the
       command line.

EXAMPLES

       The following command line attempts to connect to port 443 at example.com and prints to
       stdout the server's response to a request for the home page:

           % printf "GET https://example.com:443 HTTP/1.0\r\n\r\n" | sslclient example.com:443

           Tip
           When connecting to a web server, note that the request-line and every header-field
           should be terminated by a CRLF (carriage return, line feed/newline), otherwise the web
           server may respond with a 400 (Bad Request) error or a 301 (Moved Permanently)
           redirect. Apparently, Apache has become more strict in this regard[16]. In particular,
           this may trip you up if you use sslclient interactively, since your input will end
           with only a newline. Refer to RFC 7230[17], Section 3.

DIAGNOSTICS

       When used with DACS logging configured, messages are directed to a log file, otherwise
       error messages and verbose output are written to stderr. The program exits 0 if everything
       was fine, 1 if an error occurred.

NOTES

       A wrapper mode of operation might be useful.

       It would also be useful to have a mode where it listens for an SSL/TLS connection for
       input (rather than its standard input) and then relays data over that connection to a
       specified server, possibly but not necessarily via SSL/TLS. This mode might run on a
       firewall host to forward an approved incoming SSL/TLS connection (presumably authenticated
       by a client certificate, and possibly by a DACS ruleset) to a service running on an
       interior host, for instance.

SEE ALSO

       dacshttp(1)[2], openssl(1)[4], s_client(1)[18], stunnel(1)[19], curl(1)[20],
       sslwrap(1)[21], and others, and regex(3)[22].

       A variety of reference material on SSL/TLS is available. Perhaps best is Network Security
       with OpenSSL by John Viega, Matt Messier, and Pravir Chandra, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.,
       2002. Also useful are SSL/TLS Strong Encryption: An Introduction[23], Netscape SSL 3.0
       Specification[24], RFC 2246[25], and RFC 6066[15].

AUTHOR

       Distributed Systems Software (www.dss.ca[26])

COPYING

       Copyright © 2003-2018 Distributed Systems Software. See the LICENSE[27] file that
       accompanies the distribution for licensing information.

NOTES

        1. dacsoptions
           http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs.1.html#dacsoptions

        2. dacshttp(1)
           http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacshttp.1.html

        3. default SSL/TLS port for https (443)
           http://www.iana.org/assignments/port-numbers

        4. OpenSSL
           http://www.openssl.org

        5. SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations()
           http://www.openssl.org/docs/ssl/SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations.html

        6. mod_ssl's
           http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.2/mod/mod_ssl.html

        7. SSLCACertificateFile
           http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.2/mod/mod_ssl.html#sslcacertificatefile

        8. SSLCACertificatePath
           http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.2/mod/mod_ssl.html#sslcacertificatepath

        9. SSL_CTX_use_certificate_chain_file()
           http://www.openssl.org/docs/ssl/SSL_CTX_use_certificate.html

       10. SSLCACertificateChainFile
           http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.2/mod/mod_ssl.html#sslcacertificatechainfile

       11. SSL_CTX_set_cipher_list()
           http://www.openssl.org/docs/ssl/SSL_CTX_set_cipher_list.html

       12. SSLCipherSuite
           http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.2/mod/mod_ssl.html#sslciphersuite

       13. --with-default-cipher-list
           http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs.install.7.html#build_flag_--with-default-cipher-list

       14. below
           http://dacs.dss.ca/man/#verificaton

       15. RFC 6066
           http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6066.txt

       16. Apache has become more strict in this regard
           https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=60695

       17. RFC 7230
           http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7230.txt

       18. s_client(1)
           http://www.openssl.org/docs/apps/s_client.html

       19. stunnel(1)
           http://www.stunnel.org

       20. curl(1)
           http://directory.fsf.org/project/curl

       21. sslwrap(1)
           http://www.rickk.com/sslwrap

       22. regex(3)
           https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=regex&apropos=0&sektion=3&manpath=FreeBSD+10.3-RELEASE&format=html

       23. SSL/TLS Strong Encryption: An Introduction
           http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.2/ssl/ssl_intro.html

       24. Netscape SSL 3.0 Specification
           http://web.archive.org/web/20070717014933rn_1/wp.netscape.com/eng/ssl3//

       25. RFC 2246
           http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2246.txt

       26. www.dss.ca
           http://www.dss.ca

       27. LICENSE
           http://dacs.dss.ca/man/../misc/LICENSE