Validating a Certificate Path with OpenSSL

This section provides a tutorial example on how to perform validation of a certificate path with the 'openssl verify' command.

With 4 certificates created in the previous section, we are ready to test the "openssl verify" command:

1. Verify the shortest certification path, one certificate only:

herong> openssl verify herong.crt
herong.crt: /C=CN/ST=PN/L=LN/O=ON/OU=UN/CN=Herong Yang
error 18 at 0 depth lookup:self signed certificate
OK

herong> openssl verify -CAfile herong.crt herong.crt
herong.crt: OK
OK

herong> openssl verify john.crt
john.crt: /C=CN/ST=PN/L=LN/O=ON/OU=UN/CN=John Smith
error 20 at 0 depth lookup:unable to get local issuer certificate

herong> openssl verify -CAfile john.crt john.crt
john.crt: /C=CN/ST=PN/L=LN/O=ON/OU=UN/CN=John Smith
error 20 at 0 depth lookup:unable to get local issuer certificate

Note that:

2. Verify certification paths of two certificates:

herong> openssl verify -CAfile herong.crt john.crt
john.crt: OK

herong> openssl verify -CAfile herong.crt bill.crt
bill.crt: /C=CN/ST=PN/L=LN/O=ON/OU=UN/CN=Bill White
error 20 at 0 depth lookup:unable to get local issuer certificate

herong> openssl verify -CAfile john.crt bill.crt
bill.crt: /C=CN/ST=PN/L=LN/O=ON/OU=UN/CN=John Smith
error 2 at 1 depth lookup:unable to get issuer certificate

Note that:

3. Verify certification paths of many certificates:

herong> openssl verify -CAfile herong.crt -untrusted john.crt bill.crt
bill.crt: OK

herong> openssl verify -CAfile herong.crt -untrusted bill.crt tom.crt
tom.crt: /C=CN/ST=PN/L=LN/O=ON/OU=UN/CN=Bill Gate
error 20 at 1 depth lookup:unable to get local issuer certificate

herong> copy  john.crt+bill.crt all.crt
herong> openssl verify -CAfile herong.crt -untrusted all.crt tom.crt
tom.crt: OK

Note that:

Table of Contents

 About This Book

 Cryptography Terminology

 Cryptography Basic Concepts

 Introduction to AES (Advanced Encryption Standard)

 Introduction to DES Algorithm

 DES Algorithm - Illustrated with Java Programs

 DES Algorithm Java Implementation

 DES Algorithm - Java Implementation in JDK JCE

 DES Encryption Operation Modes

 DES in Stream Cipher Modes

 PHP Implementation of DES - mcrypt

 Blowfish - 8-Byte Block Cipher

 Secret Key Generation and Management

 Cipher - Secret Key Encryption and Decryption

 Introduction of RSA Algorithm

 RSA Implementation using java.math.BigInteger Class

 Introduction of DSA (Digital Signature Algorithm)

 Java Default Implementation of DSA

 Private key and Public Key Pair Generation

 PKCS#8/X.509 Private/Public Encoding Standards

 Cipher - Public Key Encryption and Decryption

 MD5 Mesasge Digest Algorithm

 SHA1 Mesasge Digest Algorithm

 OpenSSL Introduction and Installation

 OpenSSL Generating and Managing RSA Keys

 OpenSSL Managing Certificates

 OpenSSL Generating and Signing CSR

OpenSSL Validating Certificate Path

 What Is a Certification Path?

 Certification Path Validation Rules

 Creating a Certificate Path with OpenSSL

Validating a Certificate Path with OpenSSL

 "keytool" and "keystore" from JDK

 "OpenSSL" Signing CSR Generated by "keytool"

 Migrating Keys from "keystore" to "OpenSSL" Key Files

 Certificate X.509 Standard and DER/PEM Formats

 Migrating Keys from "OpenSSL" Key Files to "keystore"

 Using Certificates in IE

 Using Certificates in Google Chrome

 Using Certificates in Firefox

 Archived Tutorials

 References

 Full Version in PDF/EPUB