manpagez: man pages & more
man dirmngr(8)
Home | html | info | man
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
              default 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
              general 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
              dirmngr.


       --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
              requests 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
              directory 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
              seeing what the agent actually does.  Use `socket://' to log to
              socket.


       --compatibility-flags flags
              Set compatibility flags to work around certain problems or to
              emulate 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
       specified and may change with newer releases of this program. They are
       however 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 behavior 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
              attach 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
              network).  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 together with enabled Tor mode returns the error ``Not
              Enabled''.


       --recursive-resolver
              When possible use a recursive resolver instead of a stub
              resolver.


       --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
              timeout.  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.  If this option is
              enabled the list is retrieved in case the local copy does not
              exist or is older than 5 to 7 days.  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
              communicates 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 compatible) 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 options may be
              provided.  These are the same as the --keyserver-options of gpg,
              but apply only to this particular keyserver.

              Some keyservers synchronize with each other, so there is not
              always 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
              depending 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 https://keyserver.ubuntu.com.  To avoid the
              use of a default keyserver the value none can be used.

              Windows users with a keyserver running on their Active Directory
              may use the short form ldap:/// for name to access this
              directory.

              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
              complicated 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
              certificate usually contains so called CRL Distribution Point
              (DP) entries 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
              omitted, 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
              certificates from file instead of the default per-user ldap
              server list file. The default value for file is
              `dirmngr_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
              solution 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
              `dirmngr_ldapservers.conf' is not read again by a reload signal.
              However, --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
                     Active 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
              validating certificates against CRLs to the internal list of
              servers to consult for certificates and CRLs.  This option
              should in general 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
              attacks 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
              responses 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 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.

              If a response has been signed by a certificate described by
              these fingerprints no further check upon the validity of this
              certificate 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
              rejected 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
              expected to be in dotted decimal form.  Critical flagged CRL
              extensions 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
              alternative 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
              certificates.  Tilde expansion is supported.

              If no hkp-cacert directive is present, dirmngr will use the
              system 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
              applications 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 certificate are ignored; see the log file for details.

              Applications using dirmngr (e.g. gpgsm) can request these
              certificates 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
              requests.


       /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
              intermediate CA certificates or certificates usually used to
              sign OCSP responses.  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
       certificates:


       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
              `/opt/local/share/gnupg/gnupg/sks-keyservers.netCA.pem'.  If
              this certificate 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
       followed by a command name to get help on that command.






SIGNALS

       A running dirmngr may be controlled by signals, i.e. using the kill
       command 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 2.4.5                       2024-03-04                        dirmngr(8)

gnupg 2.4.5 - Generated Sat Mar 16 18:52:19 CDT 2024
© manpagez.com 2000-2024
Individual documents may contain additional copyright information.