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gnutls-serv Invocation

Invoking gnutls-serv

Server program that listens to incoming TLS connections.

gnutls-serv help/usage (-?)

The text printed is the same whether selected with the help option (--help) or the more-help option (--more-help). more-help will print the usage text by passing it through a pager program. more-help is disabled on platforms without a working fork(2) function. The PAGER environment variable is used to select the program, defaulting to more. Both will exit with a status code of 0.

gnutls-serv - GnuTLS server
Usage:  gnutls-serv [ -<flag> [<val>] | --<name>[{=| }<val>] ]... 

None:

   -d, --debug=num            Enable debugging
				- it must be in the range:
				  0 to 9999
       --sni-hostname=str     Server's hostname for server name extension
       --sni-hostname-fatal   Send fatal alert on sni-hostname mismatch
       --alpn=str             Specify ALPN protocol to be enabled by the server
       --alpn-fatal           Send fatal alert on non-matching ALPN name
       --noticket             Don't accept session tickets
       --earlydata            Accept early data
       --maxearlydata=num     The maximum early data size to accept
				- it must be in the range:
				  1 to 2147483648
       --nocookie             Don't require cookie on DTLS sessions
   -g, --generate             Generate Diffie-Hellman parameters
   -q, --quiet                Suppress some messages
       --nodb                 Do not use a resumption database
       --http                 Act as an HTTP server
       --echo                 Act as an Echo server
       --crlf                 Do not replace CRLF by LF in Echo server mode
   -u, --udp                  Use DTLS (datagram TLS) over UDP
       --mtu=num              Set MTU for datagram TLS
				- it must be in the range:
				  0 to 17000
       --srtp-profiles=str    Offer SRTP profiles
   -a, --disable-client-cert  Do not request a client certificate
				- prohibits the option 'require-client-cert'
   -r, --require-client-cert  Require a client certificate
       --verify-client-cert   If a client certificate is sent then verify it
       --compress-cert=str    Compress certificate
   -b, --heartbeat            Activate heartbeat support
       --x509fmtder           Use DER format for certificates to read from
       --priority=str         Priorities string
       --dhparams=file        DH params file to use
				- file must pre-exist
       --x509cafile=str       Certificate file or PKCS #11 URL to use
       --x509crlfile=file     CRL file to use
				- file must pre-exist
       --x509keyfile=str      X.509 key file or PKCS #11 URL to use
       --x509certfile=str     X.509 Certificate file or PKCS #11 URL to use
       --rawpkkeyfile=str     Private key file (PKCS #8 or PKCS #12) or PKCS #11 URL to use
       --rawpkfile=str        Raw public-key file to use
				- requires the option 'rawpkkeyfile'
       --srppasswd=file       SRP password file to use
				- file must pre-exist
       --srppasswdconf=file   SRP password configuration file to use
				- file must pre-exist
       --pskpasswd=file       PSK password file to use
				- file must pre-exist
       --pskhint=str          PSK identity hint to use
       --ocsp-response=str    The OCSP response to send to client
       --ignore-ocsp-response-errors  Ignore any errors when setting the OCSP response
   -p, --port=num             The port to connect to
   -l, --list                 Print a list of the supported algorithms and modes
       --provider=file        Specify the PKCS #11 provider library
				- file must pre-exist
       --keymatexport=str     Label used for exporting keying material
       --keymatexportsize=num Size of the exported keying material
       --recordsize=num       The maximum record size to advertise
				- it must be in the range:
				  0 to 16384
       --httpdata=file        The data used as HTTP response
				- file must pre-exist
       --timeout=num          The timeout period for server
       --attime=str           Perform validation at the timestamp instead of the system time

Version, usage and configuration options:

   -v, --version[=arg]        output version information and exit
   -h, --help                 display extended usage information and exit
   -!, --more-help            extended usage information passed thru pager

Options are specified by doubled hyphens and their name or by a single
hyphen and the flag character.

Server program that listens to incoming TLS connections.

Please send bug reports to:  <bugs@gnutls.org>

debug option (-d).

This is the “enable debugging” option. This option takes a ArgumentType.NUMBER argument. Specifies the debug level.

sni-hostname option.

This is the “server’s hostname for server name extension” option. This option takes a ArgumentType.STRING argument. Server name of type host_name that the server will recognise as its own. If the server receives client hello with different name, it will send a warning-level unrecognized_name alert.

alpn option.

This is the “specify alpn protocol to be enabled by the server” option. This option takes a ArgumentType.STRING argument. Specify the (textual) ALPN protocol for the server to use.

require-client-cert option (-r).

This is the “require a client certificate” option. This option before 3.6.0 used to imply –verify-client-cert. Since 3.6.0 it will no longer verify the certificate by default.

verify-client-cert option.

This is the “if a client certificate is sent then verify it” option. Do not require, but if a client certificate is sent then verify it and close the connection if invalid.

compress-cert option.

This is the “compress certificate” option. This option takes a ArgumentType.STRING argument. This option sets a supported compression method for certificate compression.

heartbeat option (-b).

This is the “activate heartbeat support” option. Regularly ping client via heartbeat extension messages

priority option.

This is the “priorities string” option. This option takes a ArgumentType.STRING argument. TLS algorithms and protocols to enable. You can use predefined sets of ciphersuites such as PERFORMANCE, NORMAL, SECURE128, SECURE256. The default is NORMAL.

Check the GnuTLS manual on section “Priority strings” for more information on allowed keywords

x509keyfile option.

This is the “x.509 key file or pkcs #11 url to use” option. This option takes a ArgumentType.STRING argument. Specify the private key file or URI to use; it must correspond to the certificate specified in –x509certfile. Multiple keys and certificates can be specified with this option and in that case each occurrence of keyfile must be followed by the corresponding x509certfile or vice-versa.

x509certfile option.

This is the “x.509 certificate file or pkcs #11 url to use” option. This option takes a ArgumentType.STRING argument. Specify the certificate file or URI to use; it must correspond to the key specified in –x509keyfile. Multiple keys and certificates can be specified with this option and in that case each occurrence of keyfile must be followed by the corresponding x509certfile or vice-versa.

x509dsakeyfile option.

This is an alias for the x509keyfile option, see the x509keyfile option documentation.

x509dsacertfile option.

This is an alias for the x509certfile option, see the x509certfile option documentation.

x509ecckeyfile option.

This is an alias for the x509keyfile option, see the x509keyfile option documentation.

x509ecccertfile option.

This is an alias for the x509certfile option, see the x509certfile option documentation.

rawpkkeyfile option.

This is the “private key file (pkcs #8 or pkcs #12) or pkcs #11 url to use” option. This option takes a ArgumentType.STRING argument. Specify the private key file or URI to use; it must correspond to the raw public-key specified in –rawpkfile. Multiple key pairs can be specified with this option and in that case each occurrence of keyfile must be followed by the corresponding rawpkfile or vice-versa.

In order to instruct the application to negotiate raw public keys one must enable the respective certificate types via the priority strings (i.e. CTYPE-CLI-* and CTYPE-SRV-* flags).

Check the GnuTLS manual on section “Priority strings” for more information on how to set certificate types.

rawpkfile option.

This is the “raw public-key file to use” option. This option takes a ArgumentType.STRING argument.

This option has some usage constraints. It:

Specify the raw public-key file to use; it must correspond to the private key specified in –rawpkkeyfile. Multiple key pairs can be specified with this option and in that case each occurrence of keyfile must be followed by the corresponding rawpkfile or vice-versa.

In order to instruct the application to negotiate raw public keys one must enable the respective certificate types via the priority strings (i.e. CTYPE-CLI-* and CTYPE-SRV-* flags).

Check the GnuTLS manual on section “Priority strings” for more information on how to set certificate types.

ocsp-response option.

This is the “the ocsp response to send to client” option. This option takes a ArgumentType.STRING argument. If the client requested an OCSP response, return data from this file to the client.

ignore-ocsp-response-errors option.

This is the “ignore any errors when setting the ocsp response” option. That option instructs gnutls to not attempt to match the provided OCSP responses with the certificates.

list option (-l).

This is the “print a list of the supported algorithms and modes” option. Print a list of the supported algorithms and modes. If a priority string is given then only the enabled ciphersuites are shown.

provider option.

This is the “specify the pkcs #11 provider library” option. This option takes a ArgumentType.FILE argument. This will override the default options in /etc/gnutls/pkcs11.conf

attime option.

This is the “perform validation at the timestamp instead of the system time” option. This option takes a ArgumentType.STRING argument timestamp. timestamp is an instance in time encoded as Unix time or in a human readable timestring such as "29 Feb 2004", "2004-02-29". Full documentation available at <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/Date-input-formats.html> or locally via info ’(coreutils) date invocation’.

version option (-v).

This is the “output version information and exit” option. This option takes a ArgumentType.KEYWORD argument. Output version of program and exit. The default mode is ‘v’, a simple version. The ‘c’ mode will print copyright information and ‘n’ will print the full copyright notice.

help option (-h).

This is the “display extended usage information and exit” option. Display usage information and exit.

more-help option (-!).

This is the “extended usage information passed thru pager” option. Pass the extended usage information through a pager.

gnutls-serv exit status

One of the following exit values will be returned:

0 (EXIT_SUCCESS)

Successful program execution.

1 (EXIT_FAILURE)

The operation failed or the command syntax was not valid.

gnutls-serv See Also

gnutls-cli-debug(1), gnutls-cli(1)

gnutls-serv Examples

Running your own TLS server based on GnuTLS can be useful when debugging clients and/or GnuTLS itself. This section describes how to use gnutls-serv as a simple HTTPS server.

The most basic server can be started as:

gnutls-serv --http --priority "NORMAL:+ANON-ECDH:+ANON-DH"

It will only support anonymous ciphersuites, which many TLS clients refuse to use.

The next step is to add support for X.509. First we generate a CA:

$ certtool --generate-privkey > x509-ca-key.pem
$ echo 'cn = GnuTLS test CA' > ca.tmpl
$ echo 'ca' >> ca.tmpl
$ echo 'cert_signing_key' >> ca.tmpl
$ certtool --generate-self-signed --load-privkey x509-ca-key.pem \
  --template ca.tmpl --outfile x509-ca.pem

Then generate a server certificate. Remember to change the dns_name value to the name of your server host, or skip that command to avoid the field.

$ certtool --generate-privkey > x509-server-key.pem
$ echo 'organization = GnuTLS test server' > server.tmpl
$ echo 'cn = test.gnutls.org' >> server.tmpl
$ echo 'tls_www_server' >> server.tmpl
$ echo 'encryption_key' >> server.tmpl
$ echo 'signing_key' >> server.tmpl
$ echo 'dns_name = test.gnutls.org' >> server.tmpl
$ certtool --generate-certificate --load-privkey x509-server-key.pem \
  --load-ca-certificate x509-ca.pem --load-ca-privkey x509-ca-key.pem \
  --template server.tmpl --outfile x509-server.pem

For use in the client, you may want to generate a client certificate as well.

$ certtool --generate-privkey > x509-client-key.pem
$ echo 'cn = GnuTLS test client' > client.tmpl
$ echo 'tls_www_client' >> client.tmpl
$ echo 'encryption_key' >> client.tmpl
$ echo 'signing_key' >> client.tmpl
$ certtool --generate-certificate --load-privkey x509-client-key.pem \
  --load-ca-certificate x509-ca.pem --load-ca-privkey x509-ca-key.pem \
  --template client.tmpl --outfile x509-client.pem

To be able to import the client key/certificate into some applications, you will need to convert them into a PKCS#12 structure. This also encrypts the security sensitive key with a password.

$ certtool --to-p12 --load-ca-certificate x509-ca.pem \
  --load-privkey x509-client-key.pem --load-certificate x509-client.pem \
  --outder --outfile x509-client.p12

For icing, we’ll create a proxy certificate for the client too.

$ certtool --generate-privkey > x509-proxy-key.pem
$ echo 'cn = GnuTLS test client proxy' > proxy.tmpl
$ certtool --generate-proxy --load-privkey x509-proxy-key.pem \
  --load-ca-certificate x509-client.pem --load-ca-privkey x509-client-key.pem \
  --load-certificate x509-client.pem --template proxy.tmpl \
  --outfile x509-proxy.pem

Then start the server again:

$ gnutls-serv --http \
            --x509cafile x509-ca.pem \
            --x509keyfile x509-server-key.pem \
            --x509certfile x509-server.pem

Try connecting to the server using your web browser. Note that the server listens to port 5556 by default.

While you are at it, to allow connections using ECDSA, you can also create a ECDSA key and certificate for the server. These credentials will be used in the final example below.

$ certtool --generate-privkey --ecdsa > x509-server-key-ecc.pem
$ certtool --generate-certificate --load-privkey x509-server-key-ecc.pem \
  --load-ca-certificate x509-ca.pem --load-ca-privkey x509-ca-key.pem \
  --template server.tmpl --outfile x509-server-ecc.pem

The next step is to add support for SRP authentication. This requires an SRP password file created with srptool. To start the server with SRP support:

gnutls-serv --http --priority NORMAL:+SRP-RSA:+SRP \
            --srppasswdconf srp-tpasswd.conf \
            --srppasswd srp-passwd.txt

Let’s also start a server with support for PSK. This would require a password file created with psktool.

gnutls-serv --http --priority NORMAL:+ECDHE-PSK:+PSK \
            --pskpasswd psk-passwd.txt

If you want a server with support for raw public-keys we can also add these credentials. Note however that there is no identity information linked to these keys as is the case with regular x509 certificates. Authentication must be done via different means. Also we need to explicitly enable raw public-key certificates via the priority strings.

gnutls-serv --http --priority NORMAL:+CTYPE-CLI-RAWPK:+CTYPE-SRV-RAWPK \
            --rawpkfile srv.rawpk.pem \
            --rawpkkeyfile srv.key.pem

Finally, we start the server with all the earlier parameters and you get this command:

gnutls-serv --http --priority NORMAL:+PSK:+SRP:+CTYPE-CLI-RAWPK:+CTYPE-SRV-RAWPK \
            --x509cafile x509-ca.pem \
            --x509keyfile x509-server-key.pem \
            --x509certfile x509-server.pem \
            --x509keyfile x509-server-key-ecc.pem \
            --x509certfile x509-server-ecc.pem \
            --srppasswdconf srp-tpasswd.conf \
            --srppasswd srp-passwd.txt \
            --pskpasswd psk-passwd.txt \
            --rawpkfile srv.rawpk.pem \
            --rawpkkeyfile srv.key.pem

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