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s_server
Description
Connected Commands
Restrictions
 Options
Notes
See Also

NAME

s_server - SSL/TLS server program

Synopsis  

openssl s_server [-accept port] [-context id] [-verify depth] [-Verify depth] [-cert filename] [-key keyfile] [-dcert filename] [-dkey keyfile] [-dhparam filename] [-nbio] [-nbio_test] [-crlf] [-debug] [-msg] [-state] [-CApath directory] [-CAfile filename] [-nocert] [-cipher cipherlist] [-quiet] [-no_tmp_rsa] [-ssl2] [-ssl3] [-tls1] [-no_ssl2] [-no_ssl3] [-no_tls1] [-no_dhe] [-bugs] [-hack] [-www] [-WWW] [-HTTP] [-engine id] [-id_prefix arg] [-rand file(s)]


return to top DESCRIPTION  

The s_server command implements a generic SSL/TLS server which listens for connections on a given port using SSL/TLS.


return to top OPTIONS  


return to top CONNECTED COMMANDS  

If a connection request is established with an SSL client and neither the -www nor the -WWW option has been used then normally any data received from the client is displayed and any key presses will be sent to the client.

Certain single letter commands are also recognized which perform special operations: these are listed below.


return to top NOTES  

s_server can be used to debug SSL clients. To accept connections from a web browser the command:
 openssl s_server -accept 443 -www
can be used for example.

Most web browsers (in particular Netscape and MSIE) only support RSA cipher suites, so they cannot connect to servers which don't use a certificate carrying an RSA key or a version of OpenSSL with RSA disabled.

Although specifying an empty list of CAs when requesting a client certificate is strictly speaking a protocol violation, some SSL clients interpret this to mean any CA is acceptable. This is useful for debugging purposes.

The session parameters can printed out using the sess_id program.


return to top Restrictions  

Because this program has a lot of options and also because some of the techniques used are rather old, the C source of s_server is rather hard to read and not a model of how things should be done. A typical SSL server program would be much simpler.

The output of common ciphers is wrong: it just gives the list of ciphers that OpenSSL recognizes and the client supports.

There should be a way for the s_server program to print out details of any unknown cipher suites a client says it supports.


return to top SEE ALSO  

sess_id(1) , s_client(1) , ciphers(1)
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