OPENSSL-VERIFY(1)

NAME
openssl-verify - certificate verification command

SYNOPSIS
openssl verify [-help] [-CRLfile filename|uri] [-crl_download] [-show_chain] [-verbose] [-trusted filename|uri] [-untrusted filename|uri] [-vfyopt nm:v] [-nameopt option] [-CAfile file] [-no-CAfile] [-CApath dir] [-no-CApath] [-CAstore uri] [-no-CAstore] [-engine id] [-allow_proxy_certs] [-attime timestamp] [-no_check_time] [-check_ss_sig] [-crl_check] [-crl_check_all] [-explicit_policy] [-extended_crl] [-ignore_critical] [-inhibit_any] [-inhibit_map] [-partial_chain] [-policy arg] [-policy_check] [-policy_print] [-purpose purpose] [-suiteB_128] [-suiteB_128_only] [-suiteB_192] [-trusted_first] [-no_alt_chains] [-use_deltas] [-auth_level num] [-verify_depth num] [-verify_email email] [-verify_hostname hostname] [-verify_ip ip] [-verify_name name] [-x509_strict] [-issuer_checks] [-provider name] [-provider-path path] [-provparam [name:]key=value] [-propquery propq] [--] [certificate ...]

DESCRIPTION
This command verifies certificate chains. If a certificate chain has multiple problems, this program attempts to display all of them.

OPTIONS

-help
    Print out a usage message.

-CRLfile filename|uri
    The file or URI should contain one or more CRLs in PEM or DER format. This option can be specified more than once to include CRLs from multiple sources.

-crl_download
    Attempt to download CRL information for certificates via their CDP entries.

-show_chain
    Display information about the certificate chain that has been built (if successful). Certificates in the chain that came from the untrusted list will be flagged as "untrusted".

-verbose
    Print extra information about the operations being performed.

-trusted filename|uri
    A file or URI of (more or less) trusted certificates. See openssl-verification-options(1) for more information on trust settings.

    This option can be specified more than once to load certificates from multiple sources.

-untrusted filename|uri
    A file or URI of untrusted certificates to use for chain building. This option can be specified more than once to load certificates from multiple sources.

-vfyopt nm:v
    Pass options to the signature algorithm during verify operations. Names and values of these options are algorithm-specific.

-nameopt option
    This specifies how the subject or issuer names are displayed. See openssl-namedisplay-options(1) for details.

-engine id
    See "Engine Options" in openssl(1). This option is deprecated.

    To load certificates or CRLs that require engine support, specify the -engine option before any of the -trusted, -untrusted or -CRLfile options.

-CAfile file, -no-CAfile, -CApath dir, -no-CApath, -CAstore uri, -no-CAstore
    See "Trusted Certificate Options" in openssl-verification-options(1) for details.

-allow_proxy_certs, -attime, -no_check_time, -check_ss_sig, -crl_check, -crl_check_all, -explicit_policy, -extended_crl, -ignore_critical, -inhibit_any, -inhibit_map, -no_alt_chains, -partial_chain, -policy, -policy_check, -policy_print, -purpose, -suiteB_128, -suiteB_128_only, -suiteB_192, -trusted_first, -use_deltas, -auth_level, -verify_depth, -verify_email, -verify_hostname, -verify_ip, -verify_name, -x509_strict -issuer_checks
    Set various options of certificate chain verification. See "Verification Options" in openssl-verification-options(1) for details.

-provider name
-provider-path path
-provparam [name:]key=value
-propquery propq
    See "Provider Options" in openssl(1), provider(7), and property(7).

--  Indicates the last option. All arguments following this are assumed to be certificate files. This is useful if the first certificate filename begins with a -.

certificate ...
    One or more target certificates to verify, one per file. If no certificates are given, this command will attempt to read a single certificate from standard input.

Note that the first parameter that does not begin with a - ends the list of options and starts the list of certificates. If you place any options after a certificate filename, they will be interpreted not as options but as certificates.

DIAGNOSTICS
When a verify operation fails the output messages can be somewhat cryptic. The general form of the error message is:

 server.pem: /C=AU/ST=Queensland/O=CryptSoft Pty Ltd/CN=Test CA (1024 bit)
 error 24 at 1 depth lookup:invalid CA certificate

The first line contains the name of the certificate being verified followed by the subject name of the certificate. The second line contains the error number and the depth. The depth is number of the certificate being verified when a problem was detected starting with zero for the target ("leaf") certificate itself then 1 for the CA that signed the target certificate and so on. Finally a textual version of the error number is presented.

A list of the error codes and messages can be found in X509_STORE_CTX_get_error(3); the full list is defined in the header file <openssl/x509_vfy.h>.

This command ignores many errors, in order to allow all the problems with a certificate chain to be determined.

SEE ALSO
openssl-verification-options(1), openssl-x509(1), ossl_store-file(7)

HISTORY
The -show_chain option was added in OpenSSL 1.1.0.

The -engine option was deprecated in OpenSSL 3.0.

COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2000-2026 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.

Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at <https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.