DIRMNGR(8) GNU Privacy Guard 2.4 DIRMNGR(8)
NAME
dirmngr - GnuPG's network access daemon
SYNOPSIS
dirmngr [options] command [args]
DESCRIPTION
Since version 2.1 of GnuPG, dirmngr takes care of accessing the OpenPGP
keyservers. As with previous versions it is also used as a server for
managing and downloading certificate revocation lists (CRLs) for X.509
certificates, downloading X.509 certificates, and providing access to
OCSP providers. Dirmngr is invoked internally by gpg, gpgsm, or via the
gpg-connect-agent tool.
COMMANDS
Commands are not distinguished from options except for the fact that
only one command is allowed.
--version
Print the program version and licensing information. Note that
you cannot abbreviate this command.
--help, -h
Print a usage message summarizing the most useful command-line
options. Note that you cannot abbreviate this command.
--dump-options
Print a list of all available options and commands. Note that
you cannot abbreviate this command.
--server
Run in server mode and wait for commands on the stdin. The de-
fault mode is to create a socket and listen for commands there.
This is only used for testing.
--daemon
Run in background daemon mode and listen for commands on a
socket. This is the way dirmngr is started on demand by the
other GnuPG components. To force starting dirmngr it is in gen-
eral best to use gpgconf --launch dirmngr.
--supervised
Run in the foreground, sending logs to stderr, and listening on
file descriptor 3, which must already be bound to a listening
socket. This option is deprecated and not supported on Windows.
--list-crls
List the contents of the CRL cache on stdout. This is probably
only useful for debugging purposes.
--load-crl file
This command requires a filename as additional argument, and it
will make Dirmngr try to import the CRL in file into it's cache.
Note, that this is only possible if Dirmngr is able to retrieve
the CA's certificate directly by its own means. In general it is
better to use gpgsm's --call-dirmngr loadcrl filename command so
that gpgsm can help dirmngr.
--fetch-crl url
This command requires an URL as additional argument, and it will
make dirmngr try to retrieve and import the CRL from that url
into it's cache. This is mainly useful for debugging purposes.
The dirmngr-client provides the same feature for a running dirm-
ngr.
--shutdown
This commands shuts down an running instance of Dirmngr. This
command has currently no effect.
--flush
This command removes all CRLs from Dirmngr's cache. Client re-
quests will thus trigger reading of fresh CRLs.
OPTIONS
Note that all long options with the exception of --options and --homedir
may also be given in the configuration file after stripping off the two
leading dashes.
--options file
Reads configuration from file instead of from the default per-
user configuration file. The default configuration file is named
‘dirmngr.conf’ and expected in the home directory.
--homedir dir
Set the name of the home directory to dir. This option is only
effective when used on the command line. The default is the di-
rectory named ‘.gnupg’ directly below the home directory of the
user unless the environment variable GNUPGHOME has been set in
which case its value will be used. Many kinds of data are stored
within this directory.
-v
--verbose
Outputs additional information while running. You can increase
the verbosity by giving several verbose commands to dirmngr, such
as -vv.
--log-file file
Append all logging output to file. This is very helpful in see-
ing what the agent actually does. Use ‘socket://’ to log to
socket.
--compatibility-flags flags
Set compatibility flags to work around certain problems or to em-
ulate bugs. The flags are given as a comma separated list of
flag names and are OR-ed together. The special flag "none"
clears the list and allows one to start over with an empty list.
To get a list of available flags the sole word "help" can be
used.
--faked-system-time epoch
This option is only useful for testing; it sets the system time
back or forth to epoch which is the number of seconds elapsed
since the year 1970. Alternatively epoch may be given as a full
ISO time string (e.g. "20070924T154812").
--debug-level level
Select the debug level for investigating problems. level may be
a numeric value or by a keyword:
none No debugging at all. A value of less than 1 may be used
instead of the keyword.
basic Some basic debug messages. A value between 1 and 2 may be
used instead of the keyword.
advanced
More verbose debug messages. A value between 3 and 5 may
be used instead of the keyword.
expert Even more detailed messages. A value between 6 and 8 may
be used instead of the keyword.
guru All of the debug messages you can get. A value greater
than 8 may be used instead of the keyword. The creation
of hash tracing files is only enabled if the keyword is
used.
How these messages are mapped to the actual debugging flags is not spec-
ified and may change with newer releases of this program. They are how-
ever carefully selected to best aid in debugging.
--debug flags
Set debug flags. All flags are or-ed and flags may be given in C
syntax (e.g. 0x0042) or as a comma separated list of flag names.
To get a list of all supported flags the single word "help" can
be used. This option is only useful for debugging and the behav-
ior may change at any time without notice.
--debug-all
Same as --debug=0xffffffff
--tls-debug level
Enable debugging of the TLS layer at level. The details of the
debug level depend on the used TLS library and are not set in
stone.
--debug-wait n
When running in server mode, wait n seconds before entering the
actual processing loop and print the pid. This gives time to at-
tach a debugger.
--disable-check-own-socket
On some platforms dirmngr is able to detect the removal of its
socket file and shutdown itself. This option disable this self-
test for debugging purposes.
-s
--sh
-c
--csh Format the info output in daemon mode for use with the standard
Bourne shell respective the C-shell. The default is to guess it
based on the environment variable SHELL which is in almost all
cases sufficient.
--force
Enabling this option forces loading of expired CRLs; this is only
useful for debugging.
--use-tor
--no-use-tor
The option --use-tor switches Dirmngr and thus GnuPG into ``Tor
mode'' to route all network access via Tor (an anonymity net-
work). Certain other features are disabled in this mode. The
effect of --use-tor cannot be overridden by any other command or
even by reloading dirmngr. The use of --no-use-tor disables the
use of Tor. The default is to use Tor if it is available on
startup or after reloading dirmngr. The test on the availability
of Tor is done by trying to connect to a SOCKS proxy at either
port 9050 or 9150; if another type of proxy is listening on one
of these ports, you should use --no-use-tor.
--standard-resolver
This option forces the use of the system's standard DNS resolver
code. This is mainly used for debugging. Note that on Windows a
standard resolver is not used and all DNS access will return the
error ``Not Implemented'' if this option is used. Using this to-
gether with enabled Tor mode returns the error ``Not Enabled''.
--recursive-resolver
When possible use a recursive resolver instead of a stub re-
solver.
--resolver-timeout n
Set the timeout for the DNS resolver to N seconds. The default
are 30 seconds.
--connect-timeout n
--connect-quick-timeout n
Set the timeout for HTTP and generic TCP connection attempts to N
seconds. The value set with the quick variant is used when the
--quick option has been given to certain Assuan commands. The
quick value is capped at the value of the regular connect time-
out. The default values are 15 and 2 seconds. Note that the
timeout values are for each connection attempt; the connection
code will attempt to connect all addresses listed for a server.
--listen-backlog n
Set the size of the queue for pending connections. The default
is 64.
--allow-version-check
Allow Dirmngr to connect to https://versions.gnupg.org to get the
list of current software versions. On debian-packaged versions,
this option does nothing since software updates should be handled
by the distribution. See the option --query-swdb of the command
gpgconf for more details. Note, that regardless of this option a
version check can always be triggered using this command:
gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr 'loadswdb --force' /bye
--keyserver name
Use name as your keyserver. This is the server that gpg communi-
cates with to receive keys, send keys, and search for keys. The
format of the name is a URI: `scheme:[//]keyservername[:port]'
The scheme is the type of keyserver: "hkp" for the HTTP (or com-
patible) keyservers or "ldap" for the LDAP keyservers. Note that
your particular installation of GnuPG may have other keyserver
types available as well. Keyserver schemes are case-insensitive.
After the keyserver name, optional keyserver configuration op-
tions may be provided. These are the same as the --keyserver-op-
tions of gpg, but apply only to this particular keyserver.
Some keyservers synchronize with each other, so there is not al-
ways a need to send keys to more than one server. Some keyservers
use round robin DNS to give a different keyserver each time you
use it.
If exactly two keyservers are configured and only one is a Tor
hidden service (.onion), Dirmngr selects the keyserver to use de-
pending on whether Tor is locally running or not. The check for
a running Tor is done for each new connection.
If no keyserver is explicitly configured, dirmngr will use the
built-in default of hkps://keys.openpgp.org. To avoid the use of
a default keyserver the value none can be used.
Note that the above default is a Debian-specific choice. Up-
stream GnuPG prefers https://keyserver.ubuntu.com. See
/usr/share/doc/gpgconf/NEWS.Debian.gz for more details.
Windows users with a keyserver running on their Active Directory
may use the short form ldap:/// for name to access this direc-
tory.
For accessing anonymous LDAP keyservers name is in general just a
ldaps://ldap.example.com. A BaseDN parameter should never be
specified. If authentication is required things are more compli-
cated and two methods are available:
The modern method (since version 2.2.28) is to use the very same
syntax as used with the option --ldapserver. Please see over
there for details; here is an example:
keyserver ldap:ldap.example.com::uid=USERNAME,ou=GnuPG Users,
dc=example,dc=com:PASSWORD::starttls
The other method is to use a full URL for name; for example:
keyserver ldaps://ldap.example.com/????bindname=uid=USERNAME
%2Cou=GnuPG%20Users%2Cdc=example%2Cdc=com,password=PASSWORD
Put this all on one line without any spaces and keep the '%2C'
as given. Replace USERNAME, PASSWORD, and the 'dc' parts
according to the instructions received from your LDAP
administrator. Note that only simple authentication
(i.e. cleartext passwords) is supported and thus using ldaps is
strongly suggested (since 2.2.28 "ldaps" defaults to port 389
and uses STARTTLS). On Windows authentication via AD can be
requested by adding gpgNtds=1 after the fourth question
mark instead of the bindname and password parameter.
--nameserver ipaddr
In ``Tor mode'' Dirmngr uses a public resolver via Tor to resolve
DNS names. If the default public resolver, which is 8.8.8.8,
shall not be used a different one can be given using this option.
Note that a numerical IP address must be given (IPv6 or IPv4) and
that no error checking is done for ipaddr.
--disable-ipv4
--disable-ipv6
Disable the use of all IPv4 or IPv6 addresses.
--disable-ldap
Entirely disables the use of LDAP.
--disable-http
Entirely disables the use of HTTP.
--ignore-http-dp
When looking for the location of a CRL, the to be tested certifi-
cate usually contains so called CRL Distribution Point (DP) en-
tries which are URLs describing the way to access the CRL. The
first found DP entry is used. With this option all entries using
the HTTP scheme are ignored when looking for a suitable DP.
--ignore-ldap-dp
This is similar to --ignore-http-dp but ignores entries using the
LDAP scheme. Both options may be combined resulting in ignoring
DPs entirely.
--ignore-ocsp-service-url
Ignore all OCSP URLs contained in the certificate. The effect is
to force the use of the default responder.
--honor-http-proxy
If the environment variable ‘http_proxy’ has been set, use its
value to access HTTP servers. If on Windows the option is used
but the environment variable is not set, the proxy settings are
taken from the system.
--http-proxy host[:port]
Use host and port to access HTTP servers. The use of this option
overrides the environment variable ‘http_proxy’ regardless
whether --honor-http-proxy has been set.
--ldap-proxy host[:port]
Use host and port to connect to LDAP servers. If port is omit-
ted, port 389 (standard LDAP port) is used. This overrides any
specified host and port part in a LDAP URL and will also be used
if host and port have been omitted from the URL.
--only-ldap-proxy
Never use anything else but the LDAP "proxy" as configured with
--ldap-proxy. Usually dirmngr tries to use other configured LDAP
server if the connection using the "proxy" failed.
--ldapserverlist-file file
Read the list of LDAP servers to consult for CRLs and X.509 cer-
tificates from file instead of the default per-user ldap server
list file. The default value for file is ‘dirm-
ngr_ldapservers.conf’.
This server list file contains one LDAP server per line in the
format
hostname:port:username:password:base_dn:flags
Lines starting with a ‘#’ are comments.
Note that as usual all strings entered are expected to be UTF-8
encoded. Obviously this will lead to problems if the password
has originally been encoded as Latin-1. There is no other solu-
tion here than to put such a password in the binary encoding into
the file (i.e. non-ascii characters won't show up readable).
([The gpgconf tool might be helpful for frontends as it enables
editing this configuration file using percent-escaped strings.])
--ldapserver spec
This is an alternative way to specify LDAP servers for CRL and
X.509 certificate retrieval. If this option is used the servers
configured in ‘dirmngr_ldapservers.conf’ (or the file given by
--ldapserverlist-file) are cleared. Note that ‘dirm-
ngr_ldapservers.conf’ is not read again by a reload signal. How-
ever, --ldapserver options are read again.
spec is either a proper LDAP URL or a colon delimited list of the
form
hostname:port:username:password:base_dn:flags:
with an optional prefix of ldap: (but without the two slashes
which would turn this into a proper LDAP URL). flags is a list
of one or more comma delimited keywords:
plain The default: Do not use a TLS secured connection at all;
the default port is 389.
starttls
Use STARTTLS to secure the connection; the default port is
389.
ldaptls
Tunnel LDAP through a TLS connection; the default port is
636.
ntds On Windows authenticate the LDAP connection using the Ac-
tive Directory with the current user.
areconly
On Windows use only the A or AAAA record when resolving
the LDAP server name.
Note that in an URL style specification the scheme ldaps:// refers to
STARTTLS and _not_ to LDAP-over-TLS.
--ldaptimeout secs
Specify the number of seconds to wait for an LDAP query before
timing out. The default are 15 seconds. 0 will never timeout.
--add-servers
This option makes dirmngr add any servers it discovers when vali-
dating certificates against CRLs to the internal list of servers
to consult for certificates and CRLs. This option should in gen-
eral not be used.
This option might be useful when trying to validate a certificate
that has a CRL distribution point that points to a server that is
not already listed in the ldapserverlist. Dirmngr will always go
to this server and try to download the CRL, but chances are high
that the certificate used to sign the CRL is located on the same
server. So if dirmngr doesn't add that new server to list, it
will often not be able to verify the signature of the CRL unless
the --add-servers option is used.
Caveat emptor: Using this option may enable denial-of-service at-
tacks and leak search requests to unknown third parties. This is
because arbitrary servers are added to the internal list of LDAP
servers which in turn is used for all unspecific LDAP queries as
well as a fallback for queries which did not return a result.
--allow-ocsp
This option enables OCSP support if requested by the client.
OCSP requests are rejected by default because they may violate
the privacy of the user; for example it is possible to track the
time when a user is reading a mail.
--ocsp-responder url
Use url as the default OCSP Responder if the certificate does not
contain information about an assigned responder. Note, that
--ocsp-signer must also be set to a valid certificate.
--ocsp-signer fpr|file
Use the certificate with the fingerprint fpr to check the re-
sponses of the default OCSP Responder. Alternatively a filename
can be given in which case the response is expected to be signed
by one of the certificates described in that file. Any argument
which contains a slash, dot or tilde is considered a filename.
Usual filename expansion takes place: A tilde at the start fol-
lowed by a slash is replaced by the content of ‘HOME’, no slash
at start describes a relative filename which will be searched at
the home directory. To make sure that the file is searched in
the home directory, either prepend the name with "./" or use a
name which contains a dot.
If a response has been signed by a certificate described by these
fingerprints no further check upon the validity of this certifi-
cate is done.
The format of the FILE is a list of SHA-1 fingerprint, one per
line with optional colons between the bytes. Empty lines and
lines prefix with a hash mark are ignored.
--ocsp-max-clock-skew n
The number of seconds a skew between the OCSP responder and them
local clock is accepted. Default is 600 (10 minutes).
--ocsp-max-period n
Seconds a response is at maximum considered valid after the time
given in the thisUpdate field. Default is 7776000 (90 days).
--ocsp-current-period n
The number of seconds an OCSP response is considered valid after
the time given in the NEXT_UPDATE datum. Default is 10800 (3
hours).
--max-replies n
Do not return more that n items in one query. The default is 10.
--ignore-cert-extension oid
Add oid to the list of ignored certificate extensions. The oid
is expected to be in dotted decimal form, like 2.5.29.3. This
option may be used more than once. Critical flagged certificate
extensions matching one of the OIDs in the list are treated as if
they are actually handled and thus the certificate won't be re-
jected due to an unknown critical extension. Use this option
with care because extensions are usually flagged as critical for
a reason.
--ignore-crl-extension oid
Add oid to the list of ignored CRL extensions. The oid is ex-
pected to be in dotted decimal form. Critical flagged CRL exten-
sions matching one of the OIDs in the list are treated as if they
are actually handled and thus the certificate won't be rejected
due to an unknown critical extension. Use this option with care
because extensions are usually flagged as critical for a reason.
--ignore-cert fpr|file
Entirely ignore certificates with the fingerprint fpr. As an al-
ternative to the fingerprint a filename can be given in which
case all certificates described in that file are ignored. Any
argument which contains a slash, dot or tilde is considered a
filename. Usual filename expansion takes place: A tilde at the
start followed by a slash is replaced by the content of ‘HOME’,
no slash at start describes a relative filename which will be
searched at the home directory. To make sure that the file is
searched in the home directory, either prepend the name with "./"
or use a name which contains a dot. The format of such a file is
a list of SHA-1 fingerprint, one per line with optional colons
between the bytes. Empty lines and lines prefixed with a hash
mark are ignored.
This option is useful as a quick workaround to exclude certain
certificates from the system store.
--hkp-cacert file
Use the root certificates in file for verification of the TLS
certificates used with hkps (keyserver access over TLS). If the
file is in PEM format a suffix of .pem is expected for file.
This option may be given multiple times to add more root certifi-
cates. Tilde expansion is supported.
If no hkp-cacert directive is present, dirmngr will use the sys-
tem CAs.
EXAMPLES
Here is an example on how to show dirmngr's internal table of OpenPGP
keyserver addresses. The output is intended for debugging purposes and
not part of a defined API.
gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr 'keyserver --hosttable' /bye
To inhibit the use of a particular host you have noticed in one of the
keyserver pools, you may use
gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr 'keyserver --dead pgpkeys.bnd.de' /bye
The description of the keyserver command can be printed using
gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr 'help keyserver' /bye
FILES
Dirmngr makes use of several directories when running in daemon mode:
There are a few configuration files to control the operation of dirmngr.
By default they may all be found in the current home directory (see:
[option --homedir]).
dirmngr.conf
This is the standard configuration file read by dirmngr on
startup. It may contain any valid long option; the leading two
dashes may not be entered and the option may not be abbreviated.
This file is also read after a SIGHUP however not all options
will actually have an effect. This default name may be changed
on the command line (see: [option --options]). You should backup
this file.
/etc/gnupg/trusted-certs
This directory should be filled with certificates of Root CAs you
are trusting in checking the CRLs and signing OCSP Responses.
Usually these are the same certificates you use with the applica-
tions making use of dirmngr. It is expected that each of these
certificate files contain exactly one DER encoded certificate in
a file with the suffix ‘.crt’ or ‘.der’. dirmngr reads those
certificates on startup and when given a SIGHUP. Certificates
which are not readable or do not make up a proper X.509 certifi-
cate are ignored; see the log file for details.
Applications using dirmngr (e.g. gpgsm) can request these cer-
tificates to complete a trust chain in the same way as with the
extra-certs directory (see below).
Note that for OCSP responses the certificate specified using the
option --ocsp-signer is always considered valid to sign OCSP re-
quests.
/etc/gnupg/extra-certs
This directory may contain extra certificates which are preloaded
into the internal cache on startup. Applications using dirmngr
(e.g. gpgsm) can request cached certificates to complete a trust
chain. This is convenient in cases you have a couple intermedi-
ate CA certificates or certificates usually used to sign OCSP re-
sponses. These certificates are first tried before going out to
the net to look for them. These certificates must also be DER
encoded and suffixed with ‘.crt’ or ‘.der’.
~/.gnupg/crls.d
This directory is used to store cached CRLs. The ‘crls.d’ part
will be created by dirmngr if it does not exists but you need to
make sure that the upper directory exists.
Several options control the use of trusted certificates for TLS and
CRLs. Here is an Overview on the use and origin of those Root CA cer-
tificates:
System
These System root certificates are used by: FIXME
The origin of the system provided certificates depends on the
platform. On Windows all certificates from the Windows System
Stores ROOT and CA are used.
On other platforms the certificates are read from the first file
found form this list: ‘/etc/ssl/ca-bundle.pem’,
‘/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt’, ‘/etc/pki/tls/cert.pem’,
‘/usr/local/share/certs/ca-root-nss.crt’, ‘/etc/ssl/cert.pem’.
GnuPG
The GnuPG specific certificates stored in the directory
‘/etc/gnupg/trusted-certs’ are only used to validate CRLs.
OpenPGP keyserver
For accessing the OpenPGP keyservers the only certificates used
are those set with the configuration option hkp-cacert.
OpenPGP keyserver pool
This is usually only one certificate read from the file
‘/usr/share/gnupg/gnupg/sks-keyservers.netCA.pem’. If this cer-
tificate exists it is used to access the special keyservers
hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net (or ‘hkps://keys.gnupg.net’).
Please note that gpgsm accepts Root CA certificates for its own purposes
only if they are listed in its file ‘trustlist.txt’. dirmngr does not
make use of this list - except FIXME.
NOTES
To be able to see diagnostics it is often useful to put at least the
following lines into the configuration file ‘~/gnupg/dirmngr.conf’:
log-file ~/dirmngr.log
verbose
You may want to check the log file to see whether all desired root CA
certificates are correctly loaded.
To be able to perform OCSP requests you probably want to add the line:
allow-ocsp
To make sure that new options are read or that after the installation of
a new GnuPG versions the right dirmngr version is running, you should
kill an existing dirmngr so that a new instance is started as needed by
the other components:
gpgconf --kill dirmngr
Direct interfaction with the dirmngr is possible by using the command
gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr
Enter HELP at the prompt to see a list of commands and enter HELP fol-
lowed by a command name to get help on that command.
SIGNALS
A running dirmngr may be controlled by signals, i.e. using the kill com-
mand to send a signal to the process.
Here is a list of supported signals:
SIGHUP This signal flushes all internally cached CRLs as well as any
cached certificates. Then the certificate cache is reinitialized
as on startup. Options are re-read from the configuration file.
Instead of sending this signal it is better to use
gpgconf --reload dirmngr
SIGTERM
Shuts down the process but waits until all current requests are
fulfilled. If the process has received 3 of these signals and
requests are still pending, a shutdown is forced. You may also
use
gpgconf --kill dirmngr
instead of this signal
SIGINT Shuts down the process immediately.
SIGUSR1
This prints some caching statistics to the log file.
SEE ALSO
gpgsm(1), dirmngr-client(1)
The full documentation for this tool is maintained as a Texinfo manual.
If GnuPG and the info program are properly installed at your site, the
command
info gnupg
should give you access to the complete manual including a menu structure
and an index.
GnuPG 2.4.7 2024-11-22 DIRMNGR(8)
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