Ubuntu Manpage: dirmngr - GnuPG's network access daemon

Provided by: dirmngr_2.4.4-2ubuntu21_amd64

NAME

       dirmngr - GnuPG's network access daemon

SYNOPSIS

       dirmngr [options] command [args]

DESCRIPTION

       Since  version  2.1  of GnuPG, dirmngr takes care of accessing the OpenPGP keyservers.  As
       with previous versions  it  is  also  used  as  a  server  for  managing  and  downloading
       certificate   revocation   lists   (CRLs)   for   X.509  certificates,  downloading  X.509
       certificates, and providing access to OCSP providers.  Dirmngr is  invoked  internally  by
       gpg, gpgsm, or via the gpg-connect-agent tool.

COMMANDS

Commands are not distinguished from options except for the fact that only one command is
allowed.

--version
Print the program version and licensing information. Note that you cannot
abbreviate this command.

--help, -h
Print a usage message summarizing the most useful command-line options. Note that
you cannot abbreviate this command.

--dump-options
Print a list of all available options and commands. Note that you cannot
abbreviate this command.

--server
Run in server mode and wait for commands on the stdin. The default mode is to
create a socket and listen for commands there. This is only used for testing.

--daemon
Run in background daemon mode and listen for commands on a socket. This is the way
dirmngr is started on demand by the other GnuPG components. To force starting
dirmngr it is in general best to use gpgconf --launch dirmngr.

--supervised
Run in the foreground, sending logs to stderr, and listening on file descriptor 3,
which must already be bound to a listening socket. This option is deprecated and
not supported on Windows.

--list-crls
List the contents of the CRL cache on stdout. This is probably only useful for
debugging purposes.

--load-crl file
This command requires a filename as additional argument, and it will make Dirmngr
try to import the CRL in file into it's cache. Note, that this is only possible if
Dirmngr is able to retrieve the CA's certificate directly by its own means. In
general it is better to use gpgsm's --call-dirmngr loadcrl filename command so that
gpgsm can help dirmngr.

--fetch-crl url
This command requires an URL as additional argument, and it will make dirmngr try
to retrieve and import the CRL from that url into it's cache. This is mainly
useful for debugging purposes. The dirmngr-client provides the same feature for a
running dirmngr.

--shutdown
This commands shuts down an running instance of Dirmngr. This command has
currently no effect.

--flush
This command removes all CRLs from Dirmngr's cache. Client requests will thus
trigger reading of fresh CRLs.

OPTIONS

Note that all long options with the exception of --options and --homedir may also be given
in the configuration file after stripping off the two leading dashes.

--options file
Reads configuration from file instead of from the default per-user configuration
file. The default configuration file is named ‘dirmngr.conf’ and expected in the
home directory.

--homedir dir
Set the name of the home directory to dir. This option is only effective when used
on the command line. The default is the directory named ‘.gnupg’ directly below
the home directory of the user unless the environment variable GNUPGHOME has been
set in which case its value will be used. Many kinds of data are stored within
this directory.

-v

--verbose
Outputs additional information while running. You can increase the verbosity by
giving several verbose commands to dirmngr, such as -vv.

--log-file file
Append all logging output to file. This is very helpful in seeing what the agent
actually does. Use ‘socket://’ to log to socket.

--compatibility-flags flags
Set compatibility flags to work around certain problems or to emulate bugs. The
flags are given as a comma separated list of flag names and are OR-ed together.
The special flag "none" clears the list and allows one to start over with an empty
list. To get a list of available flags the sole word "help" can be used.

--faked-system-time epoch
This option is only useful for testing; it sets the system time back or forth to
epoch which is the number of seconds elapsed since the year 1970. Alternatively
epoch may be given as a full ISO time string (e.g. "20070924T154812").

--debug-level level
Select the debug level for investigating problems. level may be a numeric value or
by a keyword:

none No debugging at all. A value of less than 1 may be used instead of the
keyword.

basic Some basic debug messages. A value between 1 and 2 may be used instead of
the keyword.

advanced
More verbose debug messages. A value between 3 and 5 may be used instead of
the keyword.

expert Even more detailed messages. A value between 6 and 8 may be used instead of
the keyword.

guru All of the debug messages you can get. A value greater than 8 may be used
instead of the keyword. The creation of hash tracing files is only enabled
if the keyword is used.

How these messages are mapped to the actual debugging flags is not specified and may
change with newer releases of this program. They are however carefully selected to best
aid in debugging.

--debug flags
Set debug flags. All flags are or-ed and flags may be given in C syntax (e.g.
0x0042) or as a comma separated list of flag names. To get a list of all supported
flags the single word "help" can be used. This option is only useful for debugging
and the behavior may change at any time without notice.

--debug-all
Same as --debug=0xffffffff

--tls-debug level
Enable debugging of the TLS layer at level. The details of the debug level depend
on the used TLS library and are not set in stone.

--debug-wait n
When running in server mode, wait n seconds before entering the actual processing
loop and print the pid. This gives time to attach a debugger.

--disable-check-own-socket
On some platforms dirmngr is able to detect the removal of its socket file and
shutdown itself. This option disable this self-test for debugging purposes.

-s
--sh
-c
--csh Format the info output in daemon mode for use with the standard Bourne shell
respective the C-shell. The default is to guess it based on the environment
variable SHELL which is in almost all cases sufficient.

--force
Enabling this option forces loading of expired CRLs; this is only useful for
debugging.

--use-tor
--no-use-tor
The option --use-tor switches Dirmngr and thus GnuPG into ``Tor mode'' to route all
network access via Tor (an anonymity network). Certain other features are disabled
in this mode. The effect of --use-tor cannot be overridden by any other command or
even by reloading dirmngr. The use of --no-use-tor disables the use of Tor. The
default is to use Tor if it is available on startup or after reloading dirmngr.
The test on the availability of Tor is done by trying to connect to a SOCKS proxy
at either port 9050 or 9150; if another type of proxy is listening on one of these
ports, you should use --no-use-tor.

--standard-resolver
This option forces the use of the system's standard DNS resolver code. This is
mainly used for debugging. Note that on Windows a standard resolver is not used
and all DNS access will return the error ``Not Implemented'' if this option is
used. Using this together with enabled Tor mode returns the error ``Not Enabled''.

--recursive-resolver
When possible use a recursive resolver instead of a stub resolver.

--resolver-timeout n
Set the timeout for the DNS resolver to N seconds. The default are 30 seconds.

--connect-timeout n

--connect-quick-timeout n
Set the timeout for HTTP and generic TCP connection attempts to N seconds. The
value set with the quick variant is used when the --quick option has been given to
certain Assuan commands. The quick value is capped at the value of the regular
connect timeout. The default values are 15 and 2 seconds. Note that the timeout
values are for each connection attempt; the connection code will attempt to connect
all addresses listed for a server.

--listen-backlog n
Set the size of the queue for pending connections. The default is 64.

--allow-version-check
Allow Dirmngr to connect to https://versions.gnupg.org to get the list of current
software versions. On debian-packaged versions, this option does nothing since
software updates should be handled by the distribution. See the option
--query-swdb of the command gpgconf for more details. Note, that regardless of
this option a version check can always be triggered using this command:

gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr 'loadswdb --force' /bye

--keyserver name
Use name as your keyserver. This is the server that gpg communicates with to
receive keys, send keys, and search for keys. The format of the name is a URI:
`scheme:[//]keyservername[:port]' The scheme is the type of keyserver: "hkp" for
the HTTP (or compatible) keyservers or "ldap" for the LDAP keyservers. Note that
your particular installation of GnuPG may have other keyserver types available as
well. Keyserver schemes are case-insensitive. After the keyserver name, optional
keyserver configuration options may be provided. These are the same as the
--keyserver-options of gpg, but apply only to this particular keyserver.

Some keyservers synchronize with each other, so there is not always a need to send
keys to more than one server. Some keyservers use round robin DNS to give a
different keyserver each time you use it.

If exactly two keyservers are configured and only one is a Tor hidden service
(.onion), Dirmngr selects the keyserver to use depending on whether Tor is locally
running or not. The check for a running Tor is done for each new connection.

If no keyserver is explicitly configured, dirmngr will use the built-in default of
hkps://keys.openpgp.org. To avoid the use of a default keyserver the value none
can be used.

Note that the above default is a Debian-specific choice. Upstream GnuPG prefers
hkps://keys.openpgp.org. See /usr/share/doc/gpgconf/NEWS.Debian.gz for more
details.

Windows users with a keyserver running on their Active Directory may use the short
form ldap:/// for name to access this directory.

For accessing anonymous LDAP keyservers name is in general just a
ldaps://ldap.example.com. A BaseDN parameter should never be specified. If
authentication is required things are more complicated and two methods are
available:

The modern method (since version 2.2.28) is to use the very same syntax as used
with the option --ldapserver. Please see over there for details; here is an
example:

keyserver ldap:ldap.example.com::uid=USERNAME,ou=GnuPG Users,
dc=example,dc=com:PASSWORD::starttls

The other method is to use a full URL for name; for example:

keyserver ldaps://ldap.example.com/????bindname=uid=USERNAME
%2Cou=GnuPG%20Users%2Cdc=example%2Cdc=com,password=PASSWORD

Put this all on one line without any spaces and keep the '%2C'
as given. Replace USERNAME, PASSWORD, and the 'dc' parts
according to the instructions received from your LDAP
administrator. Note that only simple authentication
(i.e. cleartext passwords) is supported and thus using ldaps is
strongly suggested (since 2.2.28 "ldaps" defaults to port 389
and uses STARTTLS). On Windows authentication via AD can be
requested by adding gpgNtds=1 after the fourth question
mark instead of the bindname and password parameter.

--nameserver ipaddr
In ``Tor mode'' Dirmngr uses a public resolver via Tor to resolve DNS names. If
the default public resolver, which is 8.8.8.8, shall not be used a different one
can be given using this option. Note that a numerical IP address must be given
(IPv6 or IPv4) and that no error checking is done for ipaddr.

--disable-ipv4

--disable-ipv6
Disable the use of all IPv4 or IPv6 addresses.

--disable-ldap
Entirely disables the use of LDAP.

--disable-http
Entirely disables the use of HTTP.

--ignore-http-dp
When looking for the location of a CRL, the to be tested certificate usually
contains so called CRL Distribution Point (DP) entries which are URLs describing
the way to access the CRL. The first found DP entry is used. With this option all
entries using the HTTP scheme are ignored when looking for a suitable DP.

--ignore-ldap-dp
This is similar to --ignore-http-dp but ignores entries using the LDAP scheme.
Both options may be combined resulting in ignoring DPs entirely.

--ignore-ocsp-service-url
Ignore all OCSP URLs contained in the certificate. The effect is to force the use
of the default responder.

--honor-http-proxy
If the environment variable ‘http_proxy’ has been set, use its value to access HTTP
servers. If on Windows the option is used but the environment variable is not set,
the proxy settings are taken from the system.

--http-proxy host[:port]
Use host and port to access HTTP servers. The use of this option overrides the
environment variable ‘http_proxy’ regardless whether --honor-http-proxy has been
set.

--ldap-proxy host[:port]
Use host and port to connect to LDAP servers. If port is omitted, port 389
(standard LDAP port) is used. This overrides any specified host and port part in a
LDAP URL and will also be used if host and port have been omitted from the URL.

--only-ldap-proxy
Never use anything else but the LDAP "proxy" as configured with --ldap-proxy.
Usually dirmngr tries to use other configured LDAP server if the connection using
the "proxy" failed.

--ldapserverlist-file file
Read the list of LDAP servers to consult for CRLs and X.509 certificates from file
instead of the default per-user ldap server list file. The default value for file
is ‘dirmngr_ldapservers.conf’.

This server list file contains one LDAP server per line in the format

hostname:port:username:password:base_dn:flags

Lines starting with a ‘#’ are comments.

Note that as usual all strings entered are expected to be UTF-8 encoded. Obviously
this will lead to problems if the password has originally been encoded as Latin-1.
There is no other solution here than to put such a password in the binary encoding
into the file (i.e. non-ascii characters won't show up readable). ([The gpgconf
tool might be helpful for frontends as it enables editing this configuration file
using percent-escaped strings.])

--ldapserver spec
This is an alternative way to specify LDAP servers for CRL and X.509 certificate
retrieval. If this option is used the servers configured in
‘dirmngr_ldapservers.conf’ (or the file given by --ldapserverlist-file) are
cleared. Note that ‘dirmngr_ldapservers.conf’ is not read again by a reload
signal. However, --ldapserver options are read again.

spec is either a proper LDAP URL or a colon delimited list of the form

hostname:port:username:password:base_dn:flags:

with an optional prefix of ldap: (but without the two slashes which would turn this
into a proper LDAP URL). flags is a list of one or more comma delimited keywords:

plain The default: Do not use a TLS secured connection at all; the default port is
389.

starttls
Use STARTTLS to secure the connection; the default port is 389.

ldaptls
Tunnel LDAP through a TLS connection; the default port is 636.

ntds On Windows authenticate the LDAP connection using the Active Directory with
the current user.

areconly
On Windows use only the A or AAAA record when resolving the LDAP server
name.

Note that in an URL style specification the scheme ldaps:// refers to STARTTLS and _not_
to LDAP-over-TLS.

--ldaptimeout secs
Specify the number of seconds to wait for an LDAP query before timing out. The
default are 15 seconds. 0 will never timeout.

--add-servers
This option makes dirmngr add any servers it discovers when validating certificates
against CRLs to the internal list of servers to consult for certificates and CRLs.
This option should in general not be used.

This option might be useful when trying to validate a certificate that has a CRL
distribution point that points to a server that is not already listed in the
ldapserverlist. Dirmngr will always go to this server and try to download the CRL,
but chances are high that the certificate used to sign the CRL is located on the
same server. So if dirmngr doesn't add that new server to list, it will often not
be able to verify the signature of the CRL unless the --add-servers option is used.

Caveat emptor: Using this option may enable denial-of-service attacks and leak
search requests to unknown third parties. This is because arbitrary servers are
added to the internal list of LDAP servers which in turn is used for all unspecific
LDAP queries as well as a fallback for queries which did not return a result.

--allow-ocsp
This option enables OCSP support if requested by the client.

OCSP requests are rejected by default because they may violate the privacy of the
user; for example it is possible to track the time when a user is reading a mail.

--ocsp-responder url
Use url as the default OCSP Responder if the certificate does not contain
information about an assigned responder. Note, that --ocsp-signer must also be set
to a valid certificate.

--ocsp-signer fpr|file
Use the certificate with the fingerprint fpr to check the responses of the default
OCSP Responder. Alternatively a filename can be given in which case the response
is expected to be signed by one of the certificates described in that file. Any
argument which contains a slash, dot or tilde is considered a filename. Usual
filename expansion takes place: A tilde at the start followed by a slash is
replaced by the content of ‘HOME’, no slash at start describes a relative filename
which will be searched at the home directory. To make sure that the file is
searched in the home directory, either prepend the name with "./" or use a name
which contains a dot.

If a response has been signed by a certificate described by these fingerprints no
further check upon the validity of this certificate is done.

The format of the FILE is a list of SHA-1 fingerprint, one per line with optional
colons between the bytes. Empty lines and lines prefix with a hash mark are
ignored.

--ocsp-max-clock-skew n
The number of seconds a skew between the OCSP responder and them local clock is
accepted. Default is 600 (10 minutes).

--ocsp-max-period n
Seconds a response is at maximum considered valid after the time given in the
thisUpdate field. Default is 7776000 (90 days).

--ocsp-current-period n
The number of seconds an OCSP response is considered valid after the time given in
the NEXT_UPDATE datum. Default is 10800 (3 hours).

--max-replies n
Do not return more that n items in one query. The default is 10.

--ignore-cert-extension oid
Add oid to the list of ignored certificate extensions. The oid is expected to be
in dotted decimal form, like 2.5.29.3. This option may be used more than once.
Critical flagged certificate extensions matching one of the OIDs in the list are
treated as if they are actually handled and thus the certificate won't be rejected
due to an unknown critical extension. Use this option with care because extensions
are usually flagged as critical for a reason.

--ignore-crl-extension oid
Add oid to the list of ignored CRL extensions. The oid is expected to be in dotted
decimal form. Critical flagged CRL extensions matching one of the OIDs in the list
are treated as if they are actually handled and thus the certificate won't be
rejected due to an unknown critical extension. Use this option with care because
extensions are usually flagged as critical for a reason.

--ignore-cert fpr|file
Entirely ignore certificates with the fingerprint fpr. As an alternative to the
fingerprint a filename can be given in which case all certificates described in
that file are ignored. Any argument which contains a slash, dot or tilde is
considered a filename. Usual filename expansion takes place: A tilde at the start
followed by a slash is replaced by the content of ‘HOME’, no slash at start
describes a relative filename which will be searched at the home directory. To
make sure that the file is searched in the home directory, either prepend the name
with "./" or use a name which contains a dot. The format of such a file is a list
of SHA-1 fingerprint, one per line with optional colons between the bytes. Empty
lines and lines prefixed with a hash mark are ignored.

This option is useful as a quick workaround to exclude certain certificates from
the system store.

--hkp-cacert file
Use the root certificates in file for verification of the TLS certificates used
with hkps (keyserver access over TLS). If the file is in PEM format a suffix of
.pem is expected for file. This option may be given multiple times to add more
root certificates. Tilde expansion is supported.

If no hkp-cacert directive is present, dirmngr will use the system CAs.

EXAMPLES

       Here is an example on how to show dirmngr's internal table of OpenPGP keyserver addresses.
       The output is intended for debugging purposes and not part of a defined API.

           gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr 'keyserver --hosttable' /bye

       To  inhibit  the  use of a particular host you have noticed in one of the keyserver pools,
       you may use

          gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr 'keyserver --dead pgpkeys.bnd.de' /bye

       The description of the keyserver command can be printed using

          gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr 'help keyserver' /bye

FILES

Dirmngr makes use of several directories when running in daemon mode: There are a few
configuration files to control the operation of dirmngr. By default they may all be found
in the current home directory (see: [option --homedir]).

dirmngr.conf
This is the standard configuration file read by dirmngr on startup. It may contain
any valid long option; the leading two dashes may not be entered and the option may
not be abbreviated. This file is also read after a SIGHUP however not all options
will actually have an effect. This default name may be changed on the command line
(see: [option --options]). You should backup this file.

/etc/gnupg/trusted-certs
This directory should be filled with certificates of Root CAs you are trusting in
checking the CRLs and signing OCSP Responses.

Usually these are the same certificates you use with the applications making use of
dirmngr. It is expected that each of these certificate files contain exactly one
DER encoded certificate in a file with the suffix ‘.crt’ or ‘.der’. dirmngr reads
those certificates on startup and when given a SIGHUP. Certificates which are not
readable or do not make up a proper X.509 certificate are ignored; see the log file
for details.

Applications using dirmngr (e.g. gpgsm) can request these certificates to complete
a trust chain in the same way as with the extra-certs directory (see below).

Note that for OCSP responses the certificate specified using the option
--ocsp-signer is always considered valid to sign OCSP requests.

/etc/gnupg/extra-certs
This directory may contain extra certificates which are preloaded into the internal
cache on startup. Applications using dirmngr (e.g. gpgsm) can request cached
certificates to complete a trust chain. This is convenient in cases you have a
couple intermediate CA certificates or certificates usually used to sign OCSP
responses. These certificates are first tried before going out to the net to look
for them. These certificates must also be DER encoded and suffixed with ‘.crt’ or
‘.der’.

~/.gnupg/crls.d
This directory is used to store cached CRLs. The ‘crls.d’ part will be created by
dirmngr if it does not exists but you need to make sure that the upper directory
exists.

Several options control the use of trusted certificates for TLS and CRLs. Here is an
Overview on the use and origin of those Root CA certificates:

System

These System root certificates are used by: FIXME

The origin of the system provided certificates depends on the platform. On Windows
all certificates from the Windows System Stores ROOT and CA are used.

On other platforms the certificates are read from the first file found form this
list: ‘/etc/ssl/ca-bundle.pem’, ‘/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt’,
‘/etc/pki/tls/cert.pem’, ‘/usr/local/share/certs/ca-root-nss.crt’,
‘/etc/ssl/cert.pem’.

GnuPG

The GnuPG specific certificates stored in the directory ‘/etc/gnupg/trusted-certs’
are only used to validate CRLs.

OpenPGP keyserver

For accessing the OpenPGP keyservers the only certificates used are those set with
the configuration option hkp-cacert.

OpenPGP keyserver pool

This is usually only one certificate read from the file
‘/usr/share/gnupg/gnupg/sks-keyservers.netCA.pem’. If this certificate exists it
is used to access the special keyservers hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net (or
‘hkps://keys.gnupg.net’).

Please note that gpgsm accepts Root CA certificates for its own purposes only if they are
listed in its file ‘trustlist.txt’. dirmngr does not make use of this list - except
FIXME.

NOTES

       To be able to see diagnostics it is often useful to put at least the following lines  into
       the configuration file ‘~/gnupg/dirmngr.conf’:

         log-file ~/dirmngr.log
         verbose

       You  may  want  to  check the log file to see whether all desired root CA certificates are
       correctly loaded.

       To be able to perform OCSP requests you probably want to add the line:

         allow-ocsp

       To make sure that new options are read or that after  the  installation  of  a  new  GnuPG
       versions the right dirmngr version is running, you should kill an existing dirmngr so that
       a new instance is started as needed by the other components:

         gpgconf --kill dirmngr

       Direct interfaction with the dirmngr is possible by using the command

         gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr

       Enter HELP at the prompt to see a list of commands and enter HELP followed  by  a  command
       name to get help on that command.

SIGNALS

       A  running  dirmngr  may  be  controlled by signals, i.e. using the kill command to send a
       signal to the process.

       Here is a list of supported signals:

       SIGHUP This signal flushes all internally cached CRLs as well as any cached  certificates.
              Then  the  certificate  cache  is reinitialized as on startup.  Options are re-read
              from the configuration file.  Instead of sending this signal it is better to use
         gpgconf --reload dirmngr

       SIGTERM
              Shuts down the process but waits until all current requests are fulfilled.  If  the
              process  has received 3 of these signals and requests are still pending, a shutdown
              is forced.  You may also use
         gpgconf --kill dirmngr
       instead of this signal

       SIGINT Shuts down the process immediately.

       SIGUSR1
              This prints some caching statistics to the log file.