ossl-guide-tls-client-block.7ossl 27 KB

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  57. .IX Title "OSSL-GUIDE-TLS-CLIENT-BLOCK 7ossl"
  58. .TH OSSL-GUIDE-TLS-CLIENT-BLOCK 7ossl 2025-01-17 3.4.0 OpenSSL
  59. .\" For nroff, turn off justification. Always turn off hyphenation; it makes
  60. .\" way too many mistakes in technical documents.
  61. .if n .ad l
  62. .nh
  63. .SH NAME
  64. ossl\-guide\-tls\-client\-block
  65. \&\- OpenSSL Guide: Writing a simple blocking TLS client
  66. .SH "SIMPLE BLOCKING TLS CLIENT EXAMPLE"
  67. .IX Header "SIMPLE BLOCKING TLS CLIENT EXAMPLE"
  68. This page will present various source code samples demonstrating how to write
  69. a simple TLS client application which connects to a server, sends an HTTP/1.0
  70. request to it, and reads back the response.
  71. .PP
  72. We use a blocking socket for the purposes of this example. This means that
  73. attempting to read data from a socket that has no data available on it to read
  74. will block (and the function will not return), until data becomes available.
  75. For example, this can happen if we have sent our request, but we are still
  76. waiting for the server's response. Similarly any attempts to write to a socket
  77. that is not able to write at the moment will block until writing is possible.
  78. .PP
  79. This blocking behaviour simplifies the implementation of a client because you do
  80. not have to worry about what happens if data is not yet available. The
  81. application will simply wait until it is available.
  82. .PP
  83. The complete source code for this example blocking TLS client is available in
  84. the \fBdemos/guide\fR directory of the OpenSSL source distribution in the file
  85. \&\fBtls\-client\-block.c\fR. It is also available online at
  86. <https://github.com/openssl/openssl/blob/master/demos/guide/tls\-client\-block.c>.
  87. .PP
  88. We assume that you already have OpenSSL installed on your system; that you
  89. already have some fundamental understanding of OpenSSL concepts and TLS (see
  90. \&\fBossl\-guide\-libraries\-introduction\fR\|(7) and \fBossl\-guide\-tls\-introduction\fR\|(7));
  91. and that you know how to write and build C code and link it against the
  92. libcrypto and libssl libraries that are provided by OpenSSL. It also assumes
  93. that you have a basic understanding of TCP/IP and sockets.
  94. .SS "Creating the SSL_CTX and SSL objects"
  95. .IX Subsection "Creating the SSL_CTX and SSL objects"
  96. The first step is to create an \fBSSL_CTX\fR object for our client. We use the
  97. \&\fBSSL_CTX_new\fR\|(3) function for this purpose. We could alternatively use
  98. \&\fBSSL_CTX_new_ex\fR\|(3) if we want to associate the \fBSSL_CTX\fR with a particular
  99. \&\fBOSSL_LIB_CTX\fR (see \fBossl\-guide\-libraries\-introduction\fR\|(7) to learn about
  100. \&\fBOSSL_LIB_CTX\fR). We pass as an argument the return value of the function
  101. \&\fBTLS_client_method\fR\|(3). You should use this method whenever you are writing a
  102. TLS client. This method will automatically use TLS version negotiation to select
  103. the highest version of the protocol that is mutually supported by both the
  104. client and the server.
  105. .PP
  106. .Vb 10
  107. \& /*
  108. \& * Create an SSL_CTX which we can use to create SSL objects from. We
  109. \& * want an SSL_CTX for creating clients so we use TLS_client_method()
  110. \& * here.
  111. \& */
  112. \& ctx = SSL_CTX_new(TLS_client_method());
  113. \& if (ctx == NULL) {
  114. \& printf("Failed to create the SSL_CTX\en");
  115. \& goto end;
  116. \& }
  117. .Ve
  118. .PP
  119. Since we are writing a client we must ensure that we verify the server's
  120. certificate. We do this by calling the \fBSSL_CTX_set_verify\fR\|(3) function and
  121. pass the \fBSSL_VERIFY_PEER\fR value to it. The final argument to this function
  122. is a callback that you can optionally supply to override the default handling
  123. for certificate verification. Most applications do not need to do this so this
  124. can safely be set to NULL to get the default handling.
  125. .PP
  126. .Vb 6
  127. \& /*
  128. \& * Configure the client to abort the handshake if certificate
  129. \& * verification fails. Virtually all clients should do this unless you
  130. \& * really know what you are doing.
  131. \& */
  132. \& SSL_CTX_set_verify(ctx, SSL_VERIFY_PEER, NULL);
  133. .Ve
  134. .PP
  135. In order for certificate verification to be successful you must have configured
  136. where the trusted certificate store to be used is located (see
  137. \&\fBossl\-guide\-tls\-introduction\fR\|(7)). In most cases you just want to use the
  138. default store so we call \fBSSL_CTX_set_default_verify_paths\fR\|(3).
  139. .PP
  140. .Vb 5
  141. \& /* Use the default trusted certificate store */
  142. \& if (!SSL_CTX_set_default_verify_paths(ctx)) {
  143. \& printf("Failed to set the default trusted certificate store\en");
  144. \& goto end;
  145. \& }
  146. .Ve
  147. .PP
  148. We would also like to restrict the TLS versions that we are willing to accept to
  149. TLSv1.2 or above. TLS protocol versions earlier than that are generally to be
  150. avoided where possible. We can do that using
  151. \&\fBSSL_CTX_set_min_proto_version\fR\|(3):
  152. .PP
  153. .Vb 8
  154. \& /*
  155. \& * TLSv1.1 or earlier are deprecated by IETF and are generally to be
  156. \& * avoided if possible. We require a minimum TLS version of TLSv1.2.
  157. \& */
  158. \& if (!SSL_CTX_set_min_proto_version(ctx, TLS1_2_VERSION)) {
  159. \& printf("Failed to set the minimum TLS protocol version\en");
  160. \& goto end;
  161. \& }
  162. .Ve
  163. .PP
  164. That is all the setup that we need to do for the \fBSSL_CTX\fR, so next we need to
  165. create an \fBSSL\fR object to represent the TLS connection. In a real application
  166. we might expect to be creating more than one TLS connection over time. In that
  167. case we would expect to reuse the \fBSSL_CTX\fR that we already created each time.
  168. There is no need to repeat those steps. In fact it is best not to since certain
  169. internal resources are cached in the \fBSSL_CTX\fR. You will get better performance
  170. by reusing an existing \fBSSL_CTX\fR instead of creating a new one each time.
  171. .PP
  172. Creating the \fBSSL\fR object is a simple matter of calling the \fBSSL_new\|(3)\fR
  173. function and passing the \fBSSL_CTX\fR we created as an argument.
  174. .PP
  175. .Vb 6
  176. \& /* Create an SSL object to represent the TLS connection */
  177. \& ssl = SSL_new(ctx);
  178. \& if (ssl == NULL) {
  179. \& printf("Failed to create the SSL object\en");
  180. \& goto end;
  181. \& }
  182. .Ve
  183. .SS "Creating the socket and BIO"
  184. .IX Subsection "Creating the socket and BIO"
  185. TLS data is transmitted over an underlying transport layer. Normally a TCP
  186. socket. It is the application's responsibility for ensuring that the socket is
  187. created and associated with an SSL object (via a BIO).
  188. .PP
  189. Socket creation for use by a client is typically a 2 step process, i.e.
  190. constructing the socket; and connecting the socket.
  191. .PP
  192. How to construct a socket is platform specific \- but most platforms (including
  193. Windows) provide a POSIX compatible interface via the \fIsocket\fR function, e.g.
  194. to create an IPv4 TCP socket:
  195. .PP
  196. .Vb 1
  197. \& int sock;
  198. \&
  199. \& sock = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
  200. \& if (sock == \-1)
  201. \& return NULL;
  202. .Ve
  203. .PP
  204. Once the socket is constructed it must be connected to the remote server. Again
  205. the details are platform specific but most platforms (including Windows)
  206. provide the POSIX compatible \fIconnect\fR function. For example:
  207. .PP
  208. .Vb 2
  209. \& struct sockaddr_in serveraddr;
  210. \& struct hostent *server;
  211. \&
  212. \& server = gethostbyname("www.openssl.org");
  213. \& if (server == NULL) {
  214. \& close(sock);
  215. \& return NULL;
  216. \& }
  217. \&
  218. \& memset(&serveraddr, 0, sizeof(serveraddr));
  219. \& serveraddr.sin_family = server\->h_addrtype;
  220. \& serveraddr.sin_port = htons(443);
  221. \& memcpy(&serveraddr.sin_addr.s_addr, server\->h_addr, server\->h_length);
  222. \&
  223. \& if (connect(sock, (struct sockaddr *)&serveraddr,
  224. \& sizeof(serveraddr)) == \-1) {
  225. \& close(sock);
  226. \& return NULL;
  227. \& }
  228. .Ve
  229. .PP
  230. OpenSSL provides portable helper functions to do these tasks which also
  231. integrate into the OpenSSL error system to log error data, e.g.
  232. .PP
  233. .Vb 3
  234. \& int sock = \-1;
  235. \& BIO_ADDRINFO *res;
  236. \& const BIO_ADDRINFO *ai = NULL;
  237. \&
  238. \& /*
  239. \& * Lookup IP address info for the server.
  240. \& */
  241. \& if (!BIO_lookup_ex(hostname, port, BIO_LOOKUP_CLIENT, family, SOCK_STREAM, 0,
  242. \& &res))
  243. \& return NULL;
  244. \&
  245. \& /*
  246. \& * Loop through all the possible addresses for the server and find one
  247. \& * we can connect to.
  248. \& */
  249. \& for (ai = res; ai != NULL; ai = BIO_ADDRINFO_next(ai)) {
  250. \& /*
  251. \& * Create a TCP socket. We could equally use non\-OpenSSL calls such
  252. \& * as "socket" here for this and the subsequent connect and close
  253. \& * functions. But for portability reasons and also so that we get
  254. \& * errors on the OpenSSL stack in the event of a failure we use
  255. \& * OpenSSL\*(Aqs versions of these functions.
  256. \& */
  257. \& sock = BIO_socket(BIO_ADDRINFO_family(ai), SOCK_STREAM, 0, 0);
  258. \& if (sock == \-1)
  259. \& continue;
  260. \&
  261. \& /* Connect the socket to the server\*(Aqs address */
  262. \& if (!BIO_connect(sock, BIO_ADDRINFO_address(ai), BIO_SOCK_NODELAY)) {
  263. \& BIO_closesocket(sock);
  264. \& sock = \-1;
  265. \& continue;
  266. \& }
  267. \&
  268. \& /* We have a connected socket so break out of the loop */
  269. \& break;
  270. \& }
  271. \&
  272. \& /* Free the address information resources we allocated earlier */
  273. \& BIO_ADDRINFO_free(res);
  274. .Ve
  275. .PP
  276. See \fBBIO_lookup_ex\fR\|(3), \fBBIO_socket\fR\|(3), \fBBIO_connect\fR\|(3),
  277. \&\fBBIO_closesocket\fR\|(3), \fBBIO_ADDRINFO_next\fR\|(3), \fBBIO_ADDRINFO_address\fR\|(3) and
  278. \&\fBBIO_ADDRINFO_free\fR\|(3) for further information on the functions used here. In
  279. the above example code the \fBhostname\fR and \fBport\fR variables are strings, e.g.
  280. "www.example.com" and "443". Note also the use of the family variable, which
  281. can take the values of AF_INET or AF_INET6 based on the command line \-6 option,
  282. to allow specific connections to an ipv4 or ipv6 enabled host.
  283. .PP
  284. Sockets created using the methods described above will automatically be blocking
  285. sockets \- which is exactly what we want for this example.
  286. .PP
  287. Once the socket has been created and connected we need to associate it with a
  288. BIO object:
  289. .PP
  290. .Vb 1
  291. \& BIO *bio;
  292. \&
  293. \& /* Create a BIO to wrap the socket */
  294. \& bio = BIO_new(BIO_s_socket());
  295. \& if (bio == NULL) {
  296. \& BIO_closesocket(sock);
  297. \& return NULL;
  298. \& }
  299. \&
  300. \& /*
  301. \& * Associate the newly created BIO with the underlying socket. By
  302. \& * passing BIO_CLOSE here the socket will be automatically closed when
  303. \& * the BIO is freed. Alternatively you can use BIO_NOCLOSE, in which
  304. \& * case you must close the socket explicitly when it is no longer
  305. \& * needed.
  306. \& */
  307. \& BIO_set_fd(bio, sock, BIO_CLOSE);
  308. .Ve
  309. .PP
  310. See \fBBIO_new\fR\|(3), \fBBIO_s_socket\fR\|(3) and \fBBIO_set_fd\fR\|(3) for further
  311. information on these functions.
  312. .PP
  313. Finally we associate the \fBSSL\fR object we created earlier with the \fBBIO\fR using
  314. the \fBSSL_set_bio\fR\|(3) function. Note that this passes ownership of the \fBBIO\fR
  315. object to the \fBSSL\fR object. Once ownership is passed the SSL object is
  316. responsible for its management and will free it automatically when the \fBSSL\fR is
  317. freed. So, once \fBSSL_set_bio\fR\|(3) has been been called, you should not call
  318. \&\fBBIO_free\fR\|(3) on the \fBBIO\fR.
  319. .PP
  320. .Vb 1
  321. \& SSL_set_bio(ssl, bio, bio);
  322. .Ve
  323. .SS "Setting the server's hostname"
  324. .IX Subsection "Setting the server's hostname"
  325. We have already connected our underlying socket to the server, but the client
  326. still needs to know the server's hostname. It uses this information for 2 key
  327. purposes and we need to set the hostname for each one.
  328. .PP
  329. Firstly, the server's hostname is included in the initial ClientHello message
  330. sent by the client. This is known as the Server Name Indication (SNI). This is
  331. important because it is common for multiple hostnames to be fronted by a single
  332. server that handles requests for all of them. In other words a single server may
  333. have multiple hostnames associated with it and it is important to indicate which
  334. one we want to connect to. Without this information we may get a handshake
  335. failure, or we may get connected to the "default" server which may not be the
  336. one we were expecting.
  337. .PP
  338. To set the SNI hostname data we call the \fBSSL_set_tlsext_host_name\fR\|(3) function
  339. like this:
  340. .PP
  341. .Vb 8
  342. \& /*
  343. \& * Tell the server during the handshake which hostname we are attempting
  344. \& * to connect to in case the server supports multiple hosts.
  345. \& */
  346. \& if (!SSL_set_tlsext_host_name(ssl, hostname)) {
  347. \& printf("Failed to set the SNI hostname\en");
  348. \& goto end;
  349. \& }
  350. .Ve
  351. .PP
  352. Here the \f(CW\*(C`hostname\*(C'\fR argument is a string representing the hostname of the
  353. server, e.g. "www.example.com".
  354. .PP
  355. Secondly, we need to tell OpenSSL what hostname we expect to see in the
  356. certificate coming back from the server. This is almost always the same one that
  357. we asked for in the original request. This is important because, without this,
  358. we do not verify that the hostname in the certificate is what we expect it to be
  359. and any certificate is acceptable unless your application explicitly checks this
  360. itself. We do this via the \fBSSL_set1_host\fR\|(3) function:
  361. .PP
  362. .Vb 10
  363. \& /*
  364. \& * Ensure we check during certificate verification that the server has
  365. \& * supplied a certificate for the hostname that we were expecting.
  366. \& * Virtually all clients should do this unless you really know what you
  367. \& * are doing.
  368. \& */
  369. \& if (!SSL_set1_host(ssl, hostname)) {
  370. \& printf("Failed to set the certificate verification hostname");
  371. \& goto end;
  372. \& }
  373. .Ve
  374. .PP
  375. All of the above steps must happen before we attempt to perform the handshake
  376. otherwise they will have no effect.
  377. .SS "Performing the handshake"
  378. .IX Subsection "Performing the handshake"
  379. Before we can start sending or receiving application data over a TLS connection
  380. the TLS handshake must be performed. We can do this explicitly via the
  381. \&\fBSSL_connect\fR\|(3) function.
  382. .PP
  383. .Vb 12
  384. \& /* Do the handshake with the server */
  385. \& if (SSL_connect(ssl) < 1) {
  386. \& printf("Failed to connect to the server\en");
  387. \& /*
  388. \& * If the failure is due to a verification error we can get more
  389. \& * information about it from SSL_get_verify_result().
  390. \& */
  391. \& if (SSL_get_verify_result(ssl) != X509_V_OK)
  392. \& printf("Verify error: %s\en",
  393. \& X509_verify_cert_error_string(SSL_get_verify_result(ssl)));
  394. \& goto end;
  395. \& }
  396. .Ve
  397. .PP
  398. The \fBSSL_connect\fR\|(3) function can return 1, 0 or less than 0. Only a return
  399. value of 1 is considered a success. For a simple blocking client we only need
  400. to concern ourselves with whether the call was successful or not. Anything else
  401. indicates that we have failed to connect to the server.
  402. .PP
  403. A common cause of failures at this stage is due to a problem verifying the
  404. server's certificate. For example if the certificate has expired, or it is not
  405. signed by a CA in our trusted certificate store. We can use the
  406. \&\fBSSL_get_verify_result\fR\|(3) function to find out more information about the
  407. verification failure. A return value of \fBX509_V_OK\fR indicates that the
  408. verification was successful (so the connection error must be due to some other
  409. cause). Otherwise we use the \fBX509_verify_cert_error_string\fR\|(3) function to get
  410. a human readable error message.
  411. .SS "Sending and receiving data"
  412. .IX Subsection "Sending and receiving data"
  413. Once the handshake is complete we are able to send and receive application data.
  414. Exactly what data is sent and in what order is usually controlled by some
  415. application level protocol. In this example we are using HTTP 1.0 which is a
  416. very simple request and response protocol. The client sends a request to the
  417. server. The server sends the response data and then immediately closes down the
  418. connection.
  419. .PP
  420. To send data to the server we use the \fBSSL_write_ex\fR\|(3) function and to receive
  421. data from the server we use the \fBSSL_read_ex\fR\|(3) function. In HTTP 1.0 the
  422. client always writes data first. Our HTTP request will include the hostname that
  423. we are connecting to. For simplicity, we write the HTTP request in three
  424. chunks. First we write the start of the request. Secondly we write the hostname
  425. we are sending the request to. Finally we send the end of the request.
  426. .PP
  427. .Vb 3
  428. \& size_t written;
  429. \& const char *request_start = "GET / HTTP/1.0\er\enConnection: close\er\enHost: ";
  430. \& const char *request_end = "\er\en\er\en";
  431. \&
  432. \& /* Write an HTTP GET request to the peer */
  433. \& if (!SSL_write_ex(ssl, request_start, strlen(request_start), &written)) {
  434. \& printf("Failed to write start of HTTP request\en");
  435. \& goto end;
  436. \& }
  437. \& if (!SSL_write_ex(ssl, hostname, strlen(hostname), &written)) {
  438. \& printf("Failed to write hostname in HTTP request\en");
  439. \& goto end;
  440. \& }
  441. \& if (!SSL_write_ex(ssl, request_end, strlen(request_end), &written)) {
  442. \& printf("Failed to write end of HTTP request\en");
  443. \& goto end;
  444. \& }
  445. .Ve
  446. .PP
  447. The \fBSSL_write_ex\fR\|(3) function returns 0 if it fails and 1 if it is successful.
  448. If it is successful then we can proceed to waiting for a response from the
  449. server.
  450. .PP
  451. .Vb 2
  452. \& size_t readbytes;
  453. \& char buf[160];
  454. \&
  455. \& /*
  456. \& * Get up to sizeof(buf) bytes of the response. We keep reading until the
  457. \& * server closes the connection.
  458. \& */
  459. \& while (SSL_read_ex(ssl, buf, sizeof(buf), &readbytes)) {
  460. \& /*
  461. \& * OpenSSL does not guarantee that the returned data is a string or
  462. \& * that it is NUL terminated so we use fwrite() to write the exact
  463. \& * number of bytes that we read. The data could be non\-printable or
  464. \& * have NUL characters in the middle of it. For this simple example
  465. \& * we\*(Aqre going to print it to stdout anyway.
  466. \& */
  467. \& fwrite(buf, 1, readbytes, stdout);
  468. \& }
  469. \& /* In case the response didn\*(Aqt finish with a newline we add one now */
  470. \& printf("\en");
  471. .Ve
  472. .PP
  473. We use the \fBSSL_read_ex\fR\|(3) function to read the response. We don't know
  474. exactly how much data we are going to receive back so we enter a loop reading
  475. blocks of data from the server and printing each block that we receive to the
  476. screen. The loop ends as soon as \fBSSL_read_ex\fR\|(3) returns 0 \- meaning that it
  477. failed to read any data.
  478. .PP
  479. A failure to read data could mean that there has been some error, or it could
  480. simply mean that server has sent all the data that it wants to send and has
  481. indicated that it has finished by sending a "close_notify" alert. This alert is
  482. a TLS protocol level message indicating that the endpoint has finished sending
  483. all of its data and it will not send any more. Both of these conditions result
  484. in a 0 return value from \fBSSL_read_ex\fR\|(3) and we need to use the function
  485. \&\fBSSL_get_error\fR\|(3) to determine the cause of the 0 return value.
  486. .PP
  487. .Vb 10
  488. \& /*
  489. \& * Check whether we finished the while loop above normally or as the
  490. \& * result of an error. The 0 argument to SSL_get_error() is the return
  491. \& * code we received from the SSL_read_ex() call. It must be 0 in order
  492. \& * to get here. Normal completion is indicated by SSL_ERROR_ZERO_RETURN.
  493. \& */
  494. \& if (SSL_get_error(ssl, 0) != SSL_ERROR_ZERO_RETURN) {
  495. \& /*
  496. \& * Some error occurred other than a graceful close down by the
  497. \& * peer
  498. \& */
  499. \& printf ("Failed reading remaining data\en");
  500. \& goto end;
  501. \& }
  502. .Ve
  503. .PP
  504. If \fBSSL_get_error\fR\|(3) returns \fBSSL_ERROR_ZERO_RETURN\fR then we know that the
  505. server has finished sending its data. Otherwise an error has occurred.
  506. .SS "Shutting down the connection"
  507. .IX Subsection "Shutting down the connection"
  508. Once we have finished reading data from the server then we are ready to close
  509. the connection down. We do this via the \fBSSL_shutdown\fR\|(3) function which has
  510. the effect of sending a TLS protocol level message (a "close_notify" alert) to
  511. the server saying that we have finished writing data:
  512. .PP
  513. .Vb 10
  514. \& /*
  515. \& * The peer already shutdown gracefully (we know this because of the
  516. \& * SSL_ERROR_ZERO_RETURN above). We should do the same back.
  517. \& */
  518. \& ret = SSL_shutdown(ssl);
  519. \& if (ret < 1) {
  520. \& /*
  521. \& * ret < 0 indicates an error. ret == 0 would be unexpected here
  522. \& * because that means "we\*(Aqve sent a close_notify and we\*(Aqre waiting
  523. \& * for one back". But we already know we got one from the peer
  524. \& * because of the SSL_ERROR_ZERO_RETURN above.
  525. \& */
  526. \& printf("Error shutting down\en");
  527. \& goto end;
  528. \& }
  529. .Ve
  530. .PP
  531. The \fBSSL_shutdown\fR\|(3) function will either return 1, 0, or less than 0. A
  532. return value of 1 is a success, and a return value less than 0 is an error. More
  533. precisely a return value of 1 means that we have sent a "close_notify" alert to
  534. the server, and that we have also received one back. A return value of 0 means
  535. that we have sent a "close_notify" alert to the server, but we have not yet
  536. received one back. Usually in this scenario you would call \fBSSL_shutdown\fR\|(3)
  537. again which (with a blocking socket) would block until the "close_notify" is
  538. received. However in this case we already know that the server has sent us a
  539. "close_notify" because of the SSL_ERROR_ZERO_RETURN that we received from the
  540. call to \fBSSL_read_ex\fR\|(3). So this scenario should never happen in practice. We
  541. just treat it as an error in this example.
  542. .SS "Final clean up"
  543. .IX Subsection "Final clean up"
  544. Before the application exits we have to clean up some memory that we allocated.
  545. If we are exiting due to an error we might also want to display further
  546. information about that error if it is available to the user:
  547. .PP
  548. .Vb 10
  549. \& /* Success! */
  550. \& res = EXIT_SUCCESS;
  551. \& end:
  552. \& /*
  553. \& * If something bad happened then we will dump the contents of the
  554. \& * OpenSSL error stack to stderr. There might be some useful diagnostic
  555. \& * information there.
  556. \& */
  557. \& if (res == EXIT_FAILURE)
  558. \& ERR_print_errors_fp(stderr);
  559. \&
  560. \& /*
  561. \& * Free the resources we allocated. We do not free the BIO object here
  562. \& * because ownership of it was immediately transferred to the SSL object
  563. \& * via SSL_set_bio(). The BIO will be freed when we free the SSL object.
  564. \& */
  565. \& SSL_free(ssl);
  566. \& SSL_CTX_free(ctx);
  567. \& return res;
  568. .Ve
  569. .PP
  570. To display errors we make use of the \fBERR_print_errors_fp\fR\|(3) function which
  571. simply dumps out the contents of any errors on the OpenSSL error stack to the
  572. specified location (in this case \fIstderr\fR).
  573. .PP
  574. We need to free up the \fBSSL\fR object that we created for the connection via the
  575. \&\fBSSL_free\fR\|(3) function. Also, since we are not going to be creating any more
  576. TLS connections we must also free up the \fBSSL_CTX\fR via a call to
  577. \&\fBSSL_CTX_free\fR\|(3).
  578. .SH TROUBLESHOOTING
  579. .IX Header "TROUBLESHOOTING"
  580. There are a number of things that might go wrong when running the demo
  581. application. This section describes some common things you might encounter.
  582. .SS "Failure to connect the underlying socket"
  583. .IX Subsection "Failure to connect the underlying socket"
  584. This could occur for numerous reasons. For example if there is a problem in the
  585. network route between the client and the server; or a firewall is blocking the
  586. communication; or the server is not in DNS. Check the network configuration.
  587. .SS "Verification failure of the server certificate"
  588. .IX Subsection "Verification failure of the server certificate"
  589. A verification failure of the server certificate would result in a failure when
  590. running the \fBSSL_connect\fR\|(3) function. \fBERR_print_errors_fp\fR\|(3) would display
  591. an error which would look something like this:
  592. .PP
  593. .Vb 2
  594. \& Verify error: unable to get local issuer certificate
  595. \& 40E74AF1F47F0000:error:0A000086:SSL routines:tls_post_process_server_certificate:certificate verify failed:ssl/statem/statem_clnt.c:2069:
  596. .Ve
  597. .PP
  598. A server certificate verification failure could be caused for a number of
  599. reasons. For example
  600. .IP "Failure to correctly setup the trusted certificate store" 4
  601. .IX Item "Failure to correctly setup the trusted certificate store"
  602. See the page \fBossl\-guide\-tls\-introduction\fR\|(7) and check that your trusted
  603. certificate store is correctly configured
  604. .IP "Unrecognised CA" 4
  605. .IX Item "Unrecognised CA"
  606. If the CA used by the server's certificate is not in the trusted certificate
  607. store for the client then this will cause a verification failure during
  608. connection. Often this can occur if the server is using a self-signed
  609. certificate (i.e. a test certificate that has not been signed by a CA at all).
  610. .IP "Missing intermediate CAs" 4
  611. .IX Item "Missing intermediate CAs"
  612. This is a server misconfiguration where the client has the relevant root CA in
  613. its trust store, but the server has not supplied all of the intermediate CA
  614. certificates between that root CA and the server's own certificate. Therefore
  615. a trust chain cannot be established.
  616. .IP "Mismatched hostname" 4
  617. .IX Item "Mismatched hostname"
  618. If for some reason the hostname of the server that the client is expecting does
  619. not match the hostname in the certificate then this will cause verification to
  620. fail.
  621. .IP "Expired certificate" 4
  622. .IX Item "Expired certificate"
  623. The date that the server's certificate is valid to has passed.
  624. .PP
  625. The "unable to get local issuer certificate" we saw in the example above means
  626. that we have been unable to find the issuer of the server's certificate (or one
  627. of its intermediate CA certificates) in our trusted certificate store (e.g.
  628. because the trusted certificate store is misconfigured, or there are missing
  629. intermediate CAs, or the issuer is simply unrecognised).
  630. .SH "FURTHER READING"
  631. .IX Header "FURTHER READING"
  632. See \fBossl\-guide\-tls\-client\-non\-block\fR\|(7) to read a tutorial on how to modify
  633. the client developed on this page to support a nonblocking socket.
  634. .PP
  635. See \fBossl\-guide\-tls\-server\-block\fR\|(7) for a tutorial on how to implement a
  636. simple TLS server handling one client at a time over a blocking socket.
  637. .PP
  638. See \fBossl\-guide\-quic\-client\-block\fR\|(7) to read a tutorial on how to modify the
  639. client developed on this page to support QUIC instead of TLS.
  640. .SH "SEE ALSO"
  641. .IX Header "SEE ALSO"
  642. \&\fBossl\-guide\-introduction\fR\|(7), \fBossl\-guide\-libraries\-introduction\fR\|(7),
  643. \&\fBossl\-guide\-libssl\-introduction\fR\|(7), \fBossl\-guide\-tls\-introduction\fR\|(7),
  644. \&\fBossl\-guide\-tls\-client\-non\-block\fR\|(7), \fBossl\-guide\-quic\-client\-block\fR\|(7)
  645. .SH COPYRIGHT
  646. .IX Header "COPYRIGHT"
  647. Copyright 2023\-2024 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
  648. .PP
  649. Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use
  650. this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy
  651. in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
  652. <https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.