gnutls-serv(1) User Commands gnutls-serv(1)
NAME
gnutls-serv - GnuTLS server
SYNOPSIS
gnutls-serv [-flags] [-flag [value]] [--option-name[[=| ]value]]
All arguments must be options.
DESCRIPTION
Server program that listens to incoming TLS connections.
OPTIONS
-d num, --debug=num Enable debugging. This option takes an integer num-
ber as its argument. The value of num is constrained to being:
in the range 0 through 9999
Specifies the debug level.
--sni-hostname=str Server's hostname for server name extension.
Server name of type host_name that the server will recognise as its own.
If the server receives client hello with different name, it will send a
warning-level unrecognized_name alert.
--sni-hostname-fatal Send fatal alert on sni-hostname mismatch.
--alpn=str Specify ALPN protocol to be enabled by the server. This op-
tion may appear an unlimited number of times.
Specify the (textual) ALPN protocol for the server to use.
--alpn-fatal Send fatal alert on non-matching ALPN name.
--noticket Don't accept session tickets.
--earlydata Accept early data.
--maxearlydata=num The maximum early data size to accept. This option
takes an integer number as its argument. The value of num is con-
strained to being:
in the range 1 through 2147483648
--nocookie Don't require cookie on DTLS sessions.
-g, --generate Generate Diffie-Hellman parameters.
-q, --quiet Suppress some messages.
--nodb Do not use a resumption database.
--http Act as an HTTP server.
--echo Act as an Echo server.
--crlf Do not replace CRLF by LF in Echo server mode.
-u, --udp Use DTLS (datagram TLS) over UDP.
--mtu=num Set MTU for datagram TLS. This option takes an integer number
as its argument. The value of num is constrained to being:
in the range 0 through 17000
--srtp-profiles=str Offer SRTP profiles.
-a, --disable-client-cert Do not request a client certificate. This op-
tion must not appear in combination with any of the following options:
require-client-cert.
-r, --require-client-cert Require a client certificate.
This option before 3.6.0 used to imply --verify-client-cert. Since
3.6.0 it will no longer verify the certificate by default.
--verify-client-cert If a client certificate is sent then verify it.
Do not require, but if a client certificate is sent then verify it and
close the connection if invalid.
--compress-cert=str Compress certificate. This option may appear an un-
limited number of times.
This option sets a supported compression method for certificate compres-
sion.
-b, --heartbeat Activate heartbeat support.
Regularly ping client via heartbeat extension messages
--x509fmtder Use DER format for certificates to read from.
--priority=str Priorities string.
TLS algorithms and protocols to enable. You can use predefined sets of
ciphersuites such as PERFORMANCE, NORMAL, SECURE128, SECURE256. The de-
fault is NORMAL.
Check the GnuTLS manual on section “Priority strings” for more in-
formation on allowed keywords
--dhparams=file DH params file to use.
--x509cafile=str Certificate file or PKCS #11 URL to use.
--x509crlfile=file CRL file to use.
--pgpkeyfile=file PGP Key file to use.
NOTE: THIS OPTION IS DEPRECATED
--x509keyfile=str X.509 key file or PKCS #11 URL to use. This option
may appear an unlimited number of times.
Specify the private key file or URI to use; it must correspond to the
certificate specified in --x509certfile. Multiple keys and certificates
can be specified with this option and in that case each occurrence of
keyfile must be followed by the corresponding x509certfile or
vice-versa.
--x509certfile=str X.509 Certificate file or PKCS #11 URL to use. This
option may appear an unlimited number of times.
Specify the certificate file or URI to use; it must correspond to the
key specified in --x509keyfile. Multiple keys and certificates can be
specified with this option and in that case each occurrence of keyfile
must be followed by the corresponding x509certfile or vice-versa.
--x509dsakeyfile This is an alias for the --x509keyfile option.
NOTE: THIS OPTION IS DEPRECATED
--x509dsacertfile This is an alias for the --x509certfile option.
NOTE: THIS OPTION IS DEPRECATED
--x509ecckeyfile This is an alias for the --x509keyfile option.
NOTE: THIS OPTION IS DEPRECATED
--x509ecccertfile This is an alias for the --x509certfile option.
NOTE: THIS OPTION IS DEPRECATED
--rawpkkeyfile=str Private key file (PKCS #8 or PKCS #12) or PKCS #11
URL to use. This option may appear an unlimited number of times.
Specify the private key file or URI to use; it must correspond to the
raw public-key specified in --rawpkfile. Multiple key pairs can be spec-
ified with this option and in that case each occurrence of keyfile must
be followed by the corresponding rawpkfile or vice-versa.
In order to instruct the application to negotiate raw public keys one
must enable the respective certificate types via the priority strings
(i.e. CTYPE-CLI-* and CTYPE-SRV-* flags).
Check the GnuTLS manual on section “Priority strings” for more in-
formation on how to set certificate types.
--rawpkfile=str Raw public-key file to use. This option may appear an
unlimited number of times. This option must appear in combination with
the following options: rawpkkeyfile.
Specify the raw public-key file to use; it must correspond to the pri-
vate key specified in --rawpkkeyfile. Multiple key pairs can be speci-
fied with this option and in that case each occurrence of keyfile must
be followed by the corresponding rawpkfile or vice-versa.
In order to instruct the application to negotiate raw public keys one
must enable the respective certificate types via the priority strings
(i.e. CTYPE-CLI-* and CTYPE-SRV-* flags).
Check the GnuTLS manual on section “Priority strings” for more in-
formation on how to set certificate types.
--srppasswd=file SRP password file to use.
--srppasswdconf=file SRP password configuration file to use.
--pskpasswd=file PSK password file to use.
--pskhint=str PSK identity hint to use.
--ocsp-response=str The OCSP response to send to client. This option
may appear an unlimited number of times.
If the client requested an OCSP response, return data from this file to
the client.
--ignore-ocsp-response-errors Ignore any errors when setting the OCSP
response.
That option instructs gnutls to not attempt to match the provided OCSP
responses with the certificates.
-p num, --port=num The port to connect to. This option takes an integer
number as its argument.
-l, --list Print a list of the supported algorithms and modes.
Print a list of the supported algorithms and modes. If a priority string
is given then only the enabled ciphersuites are shown.
--provider=file Specify the PKCS #11 provider library.
This will override the default options in /etc/gnutls/pkcs11.conf
--keymatexport=str Label used for exporting keying material.
--keymatexportsize=num Size of the exported keying material. This op-
tion takes an integer number as its argument.
--recordsize=num The maximum record size to advertise. This option
takes an integer number as its argument. The value of num is con-
strained to being:
in the range 0 through 16384
--httpdata=file The data used as HTTP response.
--timeout=num The timeout period for server. This option takes an inte-
ger number as its argument.
--attime=timestamp Perform validation at the timestamp instead of the
system time.
timestamp is an instance in time encoded as Unix time or in a human
readable timestring such as "29 Feb 2004", "2004-02-29". Full documen-
tation available at <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/man-
ual/html_node/Date-input-formats.html> or locally via info '(coreutils)
date invocation'.
-v arg, --version=arg Output version of program and exit. The default
mode is `v', a simple version. The `c' mode will print copyright infor-
mation and `n' will print the full copyright notice.
-h, --help Display usage information and exit.
-!, --more-help Pass the extended usage information through a pager.
EXAMPLES
Running your own TLS server based on GnuTLS can be useful when
debugging clients and/or GnuTLS itself. This section describes
how to use gnutls-serv as a simple HTTPS server.
The most basic server can be started as:
gnutls-serv --http --priority "NORMAL:+ANON-ECDH:+ANON-DH"
It will only support anonymous ciphersuites, which many TLS
clients refuse to use.
The next step is to add support for X.509. First we generate a
CA:
$ certtool --generate-privkey > x509-ca-key.pem
$ echo 'cn = GnuTLS test CA' > ca.tmpl
$ echo 'ca' >> ca.tmpl
$ echo 'cert_signing_key' >> ca.tmpl
$ certtool --generate-self-signed --load-privkey x509-ca-key.pem --template ca.tmpl --outfile x509-ca.pem
Then generate a server certificate. Remember to change the
dns_name value to the name of your server host, or skip that com-
mand to avoid the field.
$ certtool --generate-privkey > x509-server-key.pem
$ echo 'organization = GnuTLS test server' > server.tmpl
$ echo 'cn = test.gnutls.org' >> server.tmpl
$ echo 'tls_www_server' >> server.tmpl
$ echo 'encryption_key' >> server.tmpl
$ echo 'signing_key' >> server.tmpl
$ echo 'dns_name = test.gnutls.org' >> server.tmpl
$ certtool --generate-certificate --load-privkey x509-server-key.pem --load-ca-certificate x509-ca.pem --load-ca-privkey x509-ca-key.pem --template server.tmpl --outfile x509-server.pem
For use in the client, you may want to generate a client certifi-
cate as well.
$ certtool --generate-privkey > x509-client-key.pem
$ echo 'cn = GnuTLS test client' > client.tmpl
$ echo 'tls_www_client' >> client.tmpl
$ echo 'encryption_key' >> client.tmpl
$ echo 'signing_key' >> client.tmpl
$ certtool --generate-certificate --load-privkey x509-client-key.pem --load-ca-certificate x509-ca.pem --load-ca-privkey x509-ca-key.pem --template client.tmpl --outfile x509-client.pem
To be able to import the client key/certificate into some appli-
cations, you will need to convert them into a PKCS#12 structure.
This also encrypts the security sensitive key with a password.
$ certtool --to-p12 --load-ca-certificate x509-ca.pem --load-privkey x509-client-key.pem --load-certificate x509-client.pem --outder --outfile x509-client.p12
For icing, we'll create a proxy certificate for the client too.
$ certtool --generate-privkey > x509-proxy-key.pem
$ echo 'cn = GnuTLS test client proxy' > proxy.tmpl
$ certtool --generate-proxy --load-privkey x509-proxy-key.pem --load-ca-certificate x509-client.pem --load-ca-privkey x509-client-key.pem --load-certificate x509-client.pem --template proxy.tmpl --outfile x509-proxy.pem
Then start the server again:
$ gnutls-serv --http --x509cafile x509-ca.pem --x509keyfile x509-server-key.pem --x509certfile x509-server.pem
Try connecting to the server using your web browser. Note that
the server listens to port 5556 by default.
While you are at it, to allow connections using ECDSA, you can
also create a ECDSA key and certificate for the server. These
credentials will be used in the final example below.
$ certtool --generate-privkey --ecdsa > x509-server-key-ecc.pem
$ certtool --generate-certificate --load-privkey x509-server-key-ecc.pem --load-ca-certificate x509-ca.pem --load-ca-privkey x509-ca-key.pem --template server.tmpl --outfile x509-server-ecc.pem
The next step is to add support for SRP authentication. This re-
quires an SRP password file created with srptool. To start the
server with SRP support:
gnutls-serv --http --priority NORMAL:+SRP-RSA:+SRP --srppasswdconf srp-tpasswd.conf --srppasswd srp-passwd.txt
Let's also start a server with support for PSK. This would re-
quire a password file created with psktool.
gnutls-serv --http --priority NORMAL:+ECDHE-PSK:+PSK --pskpasswd psk-passwd.txt
If you want a server with support for raw public-keys we can also
add these credentials. Note however that there is no identity in-
formation linked to these keys as is the case with regular x509
certificates. Authentication must be done via different means.
Also we need to explicitly enable raw public-key certificates via
the priority strings.
gnutls-serv --http --priority NORMAL:+CTYPE-CLI-RAWPK:+CTYPE-SRV-RAWPK --rawpkfile srv.rawpk.pem --rawpkkeyfile srv.key.pem
Finally, we start the server with all the earlier parameters and
you get this command:
gnutls-serv --http --priority NORMAL:+PSK:+SRP:+CTYPE-CLI-RAWPK:+CTYPE-SRV-RAWPK --x509cafile x509-ca.pem --x509keyfile x509-server-key.pem --x509certfile x509-server.pem --x509keyfile x509-server-key-ecc.pem --x509certfile x509-server-ecc.pem --srppasswdconf srp-tpasswd.conf --srppasswd srp-passwd.txt --pskpasswd psk-passwd.txt --rawpkfile srv.rawpk.pem --rawpkkeyfile srv.key.pem
EXIT STATUS
One of the following exit values will be returned:
0 (EXIT_SUCCESS) Successful program execution.
1 (EXIT_FAILURE) The operation failed or the command syntax was not
valid.
SEE ALSO
gnutls-cli-debug(1), gnutls-cli(1)
AUTHORS
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2020-2023 Free Software Foundation, and others all rights
reserved. This program is released under the terms of the GNU General
Public License, version 3 or later
BUGS
Please send bug reports to: bugs@gnutls.org
3.8.9 08 Feb 2025 gnutls-serv(1)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Tue Dec 16 04:47:08 CET 2025.