Verifying a certificate with Verisign OCSP Server

Question

I'm attempting to use Verisign's OCSP server to verify a certificate that it has issued, for example, amazon.com

I have the issuer certificate (which was rather hard to find). As well as the amazon 0 certificate. I'm using openSSL but I don't seem to be able to get the right OCSP responder certificate to verify the response.

openssl ocsp -issuer test4-May2009Oc2010.cer -CAfile veri-ssp-intermediate-ca.crt -nonce -cert amazon0.crt -url http://ocsp.verisign.com

And this is the response:

WARNING: no nonce in response
Response Verify Failure
140735084268796:error:27069065:OCSP routines:OCSP_basic_verify:certificate verify error:ocsp_vfy.c:122:Verify error:unable to get local issuer certificate
amazon0.crt: good
    This Update: Jan 19 00:24:56 2011 GMT
    Next Update: Jan 26 00:24:56 2011 GMT

Any suggestions as to where the correct certificate for the OCSP responder might actually be?

Answer 1

You don't need the OCSP responder cert. Your OCSP request worked and you got back your answer: the cert (amazon0.crt) is good, not revoked. The line "no nonce in response" is due to the fact that VeriSign's OCSP responder doesn't send back nonces (due to the large volume of certs it must handle, VeriSign pre-signs the responses and therefore cannot include nonces - it adheres to RFC 5019). You can use -no_nonce to avoid sending a nonce.

To get rid of the "Response Verify Failure" error message, I added the intermediate CA to my CAfile (in your case it's called veri-ssp-intermediate-ca.crt). Here's what I added:

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIGLDCCBZWgAwIBAgIQbk/6s8XmacTRZ8mSq+hYxDANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQUFADCB
wTELMAkGA1UEBhMCVVMxFzAVBgNVBAoTDlZlcmlTaWduLCBJbmMuMTwwOgYDVQQL
EzNDbGFzcyAzIFB1YmxpYyBQcmltYXJ5IENlcnRpZmljYXRpb24gQXV0aG9yaXR5
IC0gRzIxOjA4BgNVBAsTMShjKSAxOTk4IFZlcmlTaWduLCBJbmMuIC0gRm9yIGF1
dGhvcml6ZWQgdXNlIG9ubHkxHzAdBgNVBAsTFlZlcmlTaWduIFRydXN0IE5ldHdv
cmswHhcNMDkwMzI1MDAwMDAwWhcNMTkwMzI0MjM1OTU5WjCBtTELMAkGA1UEBhMC 
VVMxFzAVBgNVBAoTDlZlcmlTaWduLCBJbmMuMR8wHQYDVQQLExZWZXJpU2lnbiBU 
cnVzdCBOZXR3b3JrMTswOQYDVQQLEzJUZXJtcyBvZiB1c2UgYXQgaHR0cHM6Ly93 
d3cudmVyaXNpZ24uY29tL3JwYSAoYykwOTEvMC0GA1UEAxMmVmVyaVNpZ24gQ2xh 
c3MgMyBTZWN1cmUgU2VydmVyIENBIC0gRzIwggEiMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4IB 
DwAwggEKAoIBAQDUVo9XOzcopkBj0pXVBXTatRlqltZxVy/iwDSMoJWzjOE3JPMu 
7UNFBY6J1/raSrX4Po1Ox/lJUEU3QJ90qqBRVWHxYISJpZ6AjS+wIapFgsTPtBR/ 
RxUgKIKwaBLArlwH1/ZZzMtiVlxNSf8miKtUUTovStoOmOKJcrn892g8xB85essX 
gfMMrQ/cYWIbEAsEHikYcV5iy0PevjG6cQIZTiapUdqMZGkD3pz9ff17Ybz8hHyI 
XLTDe+1fK0YS8f0AAZqLW+mjBS6PLlve8xt4+GaRCMBeztWwNsrUqHugffkwer/4 
3RlRKyC6/qfPoU6wZ/WAqiuDLtKOVImOHikLAgMBAAGjggKpMIICpTA0BggrBgEF 
BQcBAQQoMCYwJAYIKwYBBQUHMAGGGGh0dHA6Ly9vY3NwLnZlcmlzaWduLmNvbTAS 
BgNVHRMBAf8ECDAGAQH/AgEAMHAGA1UdIARpMGcwZQYLYIZIAYb4RQEHFwMwVjAo 
BggrBgEFBQcCARYcaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudmVyaXNpZ24uY29tL2NwczAqBggrBgEF 
BQcCAjAeGhxodHRwczovL3d3dy52ZXJpc2lnbi5jb20vcnBhMDQGA1UdHwQtMCsw 
KaAnoCWGI2h0dHA6Ly9jcmwudmVyaXNpZ24uY29tL3BjYTMtZzIuY3JsMA4GA1Ud 
DwEB/wQEAwIBBjBtBggrBgEFBQcBDARhMF+hXaBbMFkwVzBVFglpbWFnZS9naWYw 
ITAfMAcGBSsOAwIaBBSP5dMahqyNjmvDz4Bq1EgYLHsZLjAlFiNodHRwOi8vbG9n 
by52ZXJpc2lnbi5jb20vdnNsb2dvLmdpZjApBgNVHREEIjAgpB4wHDEaMBgGA1UE 
AxMRQ2xhc3MzQ0EyMDQ4LTEtNTIwHQYDVR0OBBYEFKXvCxHOwEEDo0plkEiyHOBX 
LX1HMIHnBgNVHSMEgd8wgdyhgcekgcQwgcExCzAJBgNVBAYTAlVTMRcwFQYDVQQK 
Ew5WZXJpU2lnbiwgSW5jLjE8MDoGA1UECxMzQ2xhc3MgMyBQdWJsaWMgUHJpbWFy 
eSBDZXJ0aWZpY2F0aW9uIEF1dGhvcml0eSAtIEcyMTowOAYDVQQLEzEoYykgMTk5 
OCBWZXJpU2lnbiwgSW5jLiAtIEZvciBhdXRob3JpemVkIHVzZSBvbmx5MR8wHQYD 
VQQLExZWZXJpU2lnbiBUcnVzdCBOZXR3b3JrghB92f4Hz6getxB5Z/uniTTGMA0G 
CSqGSIb3DQEBBQUAA4GBAGN0Lz1Tqi+X7CYRZhr+8d5BJxnSf9jBHPniOFY6H5Cu 
OcUgdav4bC1nHynCIdcUiGNLsJsnY5H48KMBJLb7j+M9AgtvVP7UzNvWhb98lR5e 
YhHB2QmcQrmy1KotmDojYMyimvFu6M+O0Ro8XhnF15s1sAIjJOUFuNWI4+D6ufRf
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

Once I did that, I got:

Response verify OK
0x25F5D12D5E6F0BD4EAF2A2C966F3B4CE: good
        This Update: Jan 19 00:24:56 2011 GMT
        Next Update: Jan 26 00:24:56 2011 GMT