Tribblix: manual page: dirmngr.8

DIRMNGR(8) GNU Privacy Guard 2.2 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 is useful when running under systemd
or other similar process supervision schemes. This option is
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 to start over with an empty list.
To get a list of available flags the sole word "help" can be
used.

--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 debugging flags. This option is only useful for debugging
and its behavior may change with a new release. All flags are
or-ed and 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.

--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 available of Tor is done by trying to connects 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,
"ldap" for the LDAP keyservers, or "mailto" for the Graff
email keyserver. 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 [http://]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 is 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.

Note: The current version of dirmngr has this option disabled
by default.

--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 whih 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.

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.