couriertls [ options ] [program arg1 arg2 ...]
The couriertls
program is used by applications to encrypt a
network connection using SSL/TLS, without having the application deal with the
gory details of SSL/TLS. couriertls
is used by the Courier IMAP
and ESMTP servers.
couriertls
is not usually run directly from the commandline.
An application typically creates a network connection, then runs
couriertls
with appropriate options to encrypt the network
connection with SSL/TLS.
-host=host, -port=port
- these options are
used instead of -remotefd
, mostly for debugging purposes.
couriertls
connects to the specified server and immediately
starts SSL/TLS negotation when the connection is established.-localfd=n
- read and write data to encrypt via
SSL/TLS from file descriptor n.-statusfd=n
- write SSL negotiation status to file
descriptor n, then close this file descriptor. If SSL started
succesfully, reading on n gets an immediate EOF. Otherwise, a
single line of text - the error message - is read, the file descriptor is
closed, and couriertls stops.-printx509=n
- print the x509 certificate on file
descriptor n then close it. The x509 certificate is printed before
SSL/TLS encryption starts. The application may immediately read the
certificate after running couriertls
, until the file
descriptor is closed.-remotefd=n
- file descriptor n is the
network connection where SSL/TLS encryption is to be used.-server
- negotiate server side of the SSL/TLS connection.
If this option is not used the client side of the SSL/TLS connection is
negotiated.-tcpd
- couriertls
is being called from
couriertcpd
, and the remote socket is present on descriptors
0 and 1. -tcpd
means, basically, the same as
-remotefd=0
, but couriertls
closes file
descriptor 1, and redirects file descriptor 1 to file descriptor 2.-verify=domain
- verify that domain is set in
the CN field of the trusted X.509 certificate presented by the SSL/TLS
peer. TLS_TRUSTCERTS must be initialized (see below), and the certificate
must be signed by one of the trusted certificates. The CN field can
contain a wildcard: CN=*.example will match -verify=foo.example.com. For
SSL/TLS clients, TLS_VERIFYPEER must be set to PEER (see below).-verifyfailmsg=msg
- print msg (to stdout, to
-localfd descriptor, or to program) if domain could not be
verified (otherwise, a generic bland message is printed on stderr).
msg is written verbatim (and must include any trailing newline
character).-protocol=proto
- send proto protocol
commands before enabling SSL/TLS on the remote connection. proto is
either "smtp" or "imap". This is a debugging option that can be used to
troubleshoot SSL/TLS with a remote IMAP or SMTP server.If the -remotefd=n
option is not specified, the rest of
the command line specifies the program to run -- and its arguments -- whose
standard input and output is encrypted via SSL/TLS over the network
connection. If the program is not specified, the standard input and output of
couriertls
itself is encrypted.
couriertls
reads the following environment variables for the
particular details of SSL/TLS negotiations:
TLS_PROTOCOL=proto
- TLS_PROTOCOL sets the protocol
version. The possible versions are: SSL2, SSL3, TLS1.TLS_CIPHER_LIST=cipherlist
- optionally set the list
of ciphers to be used.TLS_TIMEOUT=seconds
- currently not implemented, and
reserved for future use. This is supposed to be an inactivity timeout,
but it's not yet implemented.TLS_DHCERTFILE=filename
- PEM file that stores our
Diffie-Hellman cipher pair. When OpenSSL is compiled to use Diffie-Hellman
ciphers instead of RSA you must generate a DH pair that will be used. In
most situations the DH pair is to be treated as confidential, and
filename must not be world-readable.TLS_CERTFILE=filename
- the certificate to use.
TLS_CERTFILE is required for SSL/TLS servers, and is optional for SSL/TLS
clients. filename must not be world-readable.TLS_TRUSTCERTS=pathname
- load trusted certificates
from pathname. pathname can be a file or a directory. If a
file, the file should contain a list of trusted certificates, in PEM
format. If a directory, the directory should contain the trusted
certificates, in PEM format, one per file and hashed using OpenSSL's
c_rehash script. TLS_TRUSTCERTS is used by SSL/TLS clients (by
specifying the -domain option) and by SSL/TLS servers (TLS_VERIFYPEER is
set to PEER or REQUIREPEER).TLS_VERIFYPEER=level
- whether to verify peer's
X.509 certificate. The exact meaning of this option depends upon whether
couriertls is used in the client or server mode. In server mode:
NONE - do not request an X.509 certificate from the client; PEER - request
an optional X.509 certificate from the client, if the client returns one,
the SSL/TLS connection is shut down unless the certificate is signed by a
trusted certificate authority (see TLS_TRUSTCERTS); REQUIREPEER - same as
PEER, except that the SSL/TLS connects is also shut down if the client
does not return the optional X.509 certificate. In client mode: NONE -
mostly ignore the server's X.509 certificate; PEER - verify the server's
X.509 certificate according to the -domain option, (see above).