openssl_x509_parse

(PHP 4 >= 4.0.6, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

openssl_x509_parse — Parse an X509 certificate and return the information as an array

Description

openssl_x509_parse(OpenSSLCertificate|string $certificate, bool $short_names = true): array|false

openssl_x509_parse() returns information about the supplied certificate, including fields such as subject name, issuer name, purposes, valid from and valid to dates etc.

Parameters

certificate: X509 certificate. See Key/Certificate parameters for a list of valid values.
short_names: short_names controls how the data is indexed in the array - if short_names is true (the default) then fields will be indexed with the short name form, otherwise, the long name form will be used - e.g.: CN is the shortname form of commonName.

Return Values

The structure of the returned data is (deliberately) not yet documented, as it is still subject to change.

Changelog

Version	Description
8.4.0	Parsing certificate with no seconds in UTCTime is no longer allowed for any OpenSSL version. It was already disallowed for OpenSSL version 3.3+.
8.0.0	`certificate` accepts an OpenSSLCertificate instance now; previously, a resource of type `OpenSSL X.509` was accepted.

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User Contributed Notes 7 notes

down

nathanael at dihedral dot de ¶

18 years ago

When dealing with the purposes of a x509 crt file
the output of openssl_x509_parse gives an array with following for the purposes:
each new array ([purposes][1], [purposes][2] for example) is a new purpose check
I compared this output with the output of the command
# openssl x509 -purpose -in <x509crt_file>
the result i got was that
[purposes][x][2] quite obviously is the name of the purpose checked 
[purposes][x][1] corresponds to the tested purpose (as named in [purposes][x][2]) acting as CA
[purposes][x][0] corresponds to the general availability of the purpose

[purposes] => Array
    (
        [1] => Array
            (
                [0] => 1
                [1] => 1
                [2] => sslclient
            )

        [2] => Array
            (
                [0] => 1
                [1] => 1
                [2] => sslserver
            )

        [3] => Array
            (
                [0] => 1
                [1] => 1
                [2] => nssslserver
            )

        [4] => Array
            (
                [0] => 1
                [1] => 1
                [2] => smimesign
            )

        [5] => Array
            (
                [0] => 1
                [1] => 1
                [2] => smimeencrypt
            )

        [6] => Array
            (
                [0] => 1
                [1] => 1
                [2] => crlsign
            )

        [7] => Array
            (
                [0] => 1
                [1] => 1
                [2] => any
            )

        [8] => Array
            (
                [0] => 1
                [1] => 1
                [2] => ocsphelper
            )

    )

down

maarten at xolphin dot nl ¶

19 years ago

At this time very useful X509 oids (like streetAddress, postalCode and others) are missing. You can find a list of them at http://www.alvestrand.no/objectid/2.5.4.html, I hope they get included to openssl-x509-parse soon.

Until then you can get these oids anyway like this:

<?
  function getOID($OID, $ssl)
  {
    preg_match('/\/' . $OID  . '=([^\/]+)/', $ssl, $matches);
    return $matches[1];
  }

  $cert = file_get_contents('test.crt');
  $ssl = openssl_x509_parse($cert);
  $Address = getOID('2.5.4.9', $ssl['name']);
  $ZipCode = getOID('2.5.4.17', $ssl['name']);
  $Postbox = getOID('2.5.4.18', $ssl['name']);
?>

The parseCert function from the Horde framework can be usefull for this too.

down

Stilez ¶

8 years ago

The valid from/to info is returned twice, in two different formats. They can be converted to normal datetime objects like this:

$x509_data = openssl_x509_parse($cert);
date_create_from_format('ymdHise', $x509_data['validFrom'])->format('c');
date_create( '@' .  $x509_data['validFrom_time_t'])->format('c');
/* these give the same result */

To get a human-readable format directly (or any other formatted string) instead of a datetime object, use this:

date_create_from_format('ymdHise', $x509_data['validFrom'])->format('c');
or
date_create( '@' .  $x509_data['validFrom_time_t'])->format('c');

The same applies to validTo and validTo_time_t

down

smgallo at buffalo dot edu ¶

20 years ago

The identifier for the email portion of certificates in the name and subject array have changed since PHP4.  In PHP 4.3.0 the following array was returned (displayed my print_r())

[name] => /O=Grid/O=Globus/O=CCR Grid Portal/OU=Portal User/CN=Test User/Email=test@nospam.buffalo.edu
[subject] => Array
(
   [O] => Grid/O=Globus/O=CCR Grid Portal
   [OU] => Portal User
   [CN] => Test User
   [Email] => test@nospam.buffalo.edu
...

The result in PHP5 is (note Email -> emailAddress):

[name] => /O=Grid/O=Globus/O=CCR Grid Portal/OU=Portal User/CN=Test User/emailAddress=test@nospam.buffalo.edu
[subject] => Array
(
   [O] => Grid/O=Globus/O=CCR Grid Portal
   [OU] => Portal User
   [CN] => Test User
   [emailAddress] => test@nospam.buffalo.edu
...

Of course, the manual DOES say this could happen.  :)

down

s dot stok at rollerscapes dot net ¶

15 years ago

Alternative subjects can read as extensions.

[extensions]
            [subjectAltName] => DNS:*.cacert.org, DNS:cacert.org, DNS:*.cacert.net, DNS:cacert.net, DNS:*.cacert.com, DNS:cacert.com

down

koukopoulos at gmail dot com ¶

16 years ago

Re: the previous note: support for the x509v3 extensions was added in PHP 5.2. Also in PHP5 prior to 5.2.4 the values of the x509v3 extensions were not decoded and were returned in the DER binary representation. Therefore in order to read the contents of the v3 extensions you have to parse the relevant ASN.1 structures yourself.

For example if one needs to read an IA5STRING value in a private extension with the OID 1.3.6.1.4.1.7782.3.3 one can do :

<?php

/* parse a DER encoded representation 
   of a IA5STRING of length < 127 */
function asn1der_ia5string($str)
{
    $len=strlen($str)-2;
    if ($len < 0 && $len > 127) {
        return false;
    }

    /* check tag and len */
    if (22 != (ord($str[$pos++]) & 0x1f) && 
    ord($str[$pos++]) != $len) {
    /* not a valid DER encoding of an IA5STRING */
    return false;
    }

    return substr($str, 2,  $len);
}
$cert = openssl_x509_parse($pemcert);
print (asn1der_ia5string($cert['extensions']['1.3.6.1.4.1.7782.3.3'])); // prints decoded ascii string

?>

In newer versions (>5.2.3) the extensions are returned in a 'readable format'. For example:

<?php print_r(openssl_x509_parse(...)); ?>
will result in
<?
Array
(
    [name] => /C=GR/O=SOMETHING/CN=ME/
    ...
    [extensions] => Array
        (
            [basicConstraints] => CA:FALSE
            [keyUsage] => Digital Signature, Non Repudiation, Key Encipherment
            [extendedKeyUsage] => E-mail Protection, TLS Web Client Authentication
            [nsCertType] => SSL Client, S/MIME
            ....
?>

down

-4

zioproto at gmail dot com ¶

16 years ago

To read an extension from a X.509 certificate, you can proceed like this if you know the OID

//Read the certificate from file
$cert = file_get_contents('test.crt');
$ssl = openssl_x509_parse($cert);

$ext_value =  $ssl['extensions']['1.2.3.4.5.6'];
echo $ext_value

--------------------------------

Because the $ssl array is not documented, you can easily see its contents like this:

  //To print out all the array!
  print_r(array_values($ssl)); 
  print_r(array_keys($ssl));

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