From 26a75cf76442d66030e1053cbb2ae788fa776417 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Eric Gu Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2026 21:49:03 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 1/2] Improve handling of short-lived certificates (#3097) Certificates with a short validity period (e.g. Let's Encrypt's 6-day "shortlived" profile, now GA) always tripped the days2warn expiry thresholds and were shown in red on the "Certificate Validity (UTC)" line, even seconds after issuance. That red is misleading for a cert that is intentionally short-lived. Detect short-lived certificates by their validity period (notAfter - notBefore) using a new DAYS_VALID_SHORTLIVED threshold (default 10 days, per the CA/Browser Forum BR 1.6.1 "Short-lived Subscriber Certificate" definition, which also covers the LE 6-day profile). For such certs: - show them as good (not red) with a "short-lived cert (N days)" remark so the short lifespan reads as intended rather than as an error, and - warn (HIGH) only when less than 24h of validity is left, and only for certificates whose total lifetime exceeds 24h (a cert whose whole life is under 24h stays good until it expires rather than being flagged the entire time). Regular certificates are unaffected and keep the existing days2warn behaviour. The threshold is overridable via the DAYS_VALID_SHORTLIVED env var (documented in doc/testssl.1.md next to DAYS2WARN1/2) and added to CHANGELOG.md. Verified end-to-end with local openssl s_server: 5-day fresh (green), 5-day with <24h left (red, "expires < 24h"), 12h fresh (green), 12h nearly expired (green), and 90-day (unchanged ">= days"). --- CHANGELOG.md | 1 + doc/testssl.1.md | 1 + testssl.sh | 23 +++++++++++++++++++++++ 3 files changed, 25 insertions(+) diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md index 66f1d9d..20ee574 100644 --- a/CHANGELOG.md +++ b/CHANGELOG.md @@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ * Detect and show DNS HTTPS RR (RFC 9460) * Provide an FAQ * Security fix: HTML-escape URLs in the HTML report to prevent stored XSS from a server-controlled `Location:` header (#3090) +* Detect short-lived certificates (validity period <= `DAYS_VALID_SHORTLIVED`, default 10 days) and no longer flag them red merely for their short lifespan; warn only when less than 24h is left (#3097) ### Features implemented / improvements in 3.2 diff --git a/doc/testssl.1.md b/doc/testssl.1.md index 6470786..8e11409 100644 --- a/doc/testssl.1.md +++ b/doc/testssl.1.md @@ -407,6 +407,7 @@ Except the environment variables mentioned above which can replace command line * HPKP_MIN is preset to 30 (days). If you want warnings sooner or later for HTTP Public Key Pinning you can change this * DAYS2WARN1 is the first threshold when you'll be warning of a certificate expiration of a host, preset to 60 (days). For Let's Encrypt this value will be divided internally by 2. * DAYS2WARN2 is the second threshold when you'll be warning of a certificate expiration of a host, preset to 30 (days). For Let's Encrypt this value will be divided internally by 2. +* DAYS_VALID_SHORTLIVED is preset to 10 (days). Certificates with a total validity period (notAfter - notBefore) of this many days or fewer are treated as intentionally short-lived (see "Short-lived Subscriber Certificate" in the CA/Browser Forum Baseline Requirements, e.g. Let's Encrypt's 6-day profile). They are not being warned of for their short lifespan. A warning is issued only when less than 24 hours of validity are left, and only for certificates whose total validity period is more than 24 hours. * TESTSSL_INSTALL_DIR is the derived installation directory of testssl.sh. Relatively to that the `bin` and mandatory `etc` directory will be looked for. * CA_BUNDLES_PATH: If you have an own set of CA bundles or you want to point testssl.sh to a specific location of a CA bundle, you can use this variable to set the directory which testssl.sh will use. Please note that it overrides completely the builtin path of testssl.sh which means that you will only test against the bundles you point to. Also you might want to use `~/utils/create_ca_hashes.sh` to create the hashes for HPKP. * MAX_SOCKET_FAIL: A number which tells testssl.sh how often a TCP socket connection may fail before the program gives up and terminates. The default is 2. You can increase it to a higher value if you frequently see a message like *Fatal error: repeated TCP connect problems, giving up*. diff --git a/testssl.sh b/testssl.sh index b27b1ad..7487734 100755 --- a/testssl.sh +++ b/testssl.sh @@ -220,6 +220,7 @@ HPKP_MIN=${HPKP_MIN:-30} # >=30 days should be ok for HPKP_MIN, p HPKP_MIN=$((HPKP_MIN * 86400)) # correct to seconds DAYS2WARN1=${DAYS2WARN1:-60} # days to warn before cert expires, threshold 1 DAYS2WARN2=${DAYS2WARN2:-30} # days to warn before cert expires, threshold 2 +DAYS_VALID_SHORTLIVED=${DAYS_VALID_SHORTLIVED:-10} # validity period (notAfter-notBefore) <= this many days => "short-lived", see CA/Browser Forum BR 1.6.1 and #3097 UNBRACKTD_IPV6=${UNBRACKTD_IPV6:-false} # some versions of OpenSSL (like Gentoo) don't support [bracketed] IPv6 addresses NO_ENGINE=${NO_ENGINE:-false} # if there are problems finding the (external) openssl engine set this to true declare -r CLIENT_MIN_FS=5 # number of ciphers needed to run a test for FS @@ -9590,6 +9591,7 @@ certificate_info() { local indent="" local days2warn2=$DAYS2WARN2 local days2warn1=$DAYS2WARN1 + local cert_is_shortlived=false local provides_stapling=false local caa_node="" all_caa="" caa_property_name="" caa_property_value="" local response="" @@ -10257,12 +10259,32 @@ certificate_info() { days2warn1=$((days2warn1 / 2)) fi + # A short-lived certificate has a validity period (notAfter - notBefore) at or below + # DAYS_VALID_SHORTLIVED. These (e.g. Let's Encrypt's 6-day "shortlived" profile) are + # intentionally short, so the normal days2warn thresholds would always flag them red. + # For those we only warn when the cert is nearly expired (< 24h left), see #3097. + [[ $diffseconds -gt 0 ]] && [[ $diffseconds -le $((secsaday*DAYS_VALID_SHORTLIVED)) ]] && cert_is_shortlived=true + debugme echo -n "(diffseconds: $diffseconds)" if ! [[ "$($OPENSSL x509 -checkend 1 2>>$ERRFILE <<< "$hostcert")" =~ \ not\ ]]; then pr_svrty_critical "expired" expfinding="expired" expok="CRITICAL" set_grade_cap "T" "Certificate expired" + elif "$cert_is_shortlived"; then + # An intentionally short-lived cert (e.g. Let's Encrypt's 6-day profile) shouldn't be + # flagged red just for its short lifespan. Warn only when it is about to expire (< 24h + # left) and only if its total lifetime is more than 24h -- otherwise the 24h rule would + # flag such a cert red for its whole life. The "short-lived cert" remark signals intent. + if [[ $diffseconds -gt $secsaday ]] && \ + ! [[ "$($OPENSSL x509 -checkend $secsaday 2>>$ERRFILE <<< "$hostcert")" =~ \ not\ ]]; then + pr_svrty_high "short-lived cert, expires < 24h" + expfinding+="short-lived cert, expires < 24h" + expok="HIGH" + else + pr_svrty_good "short-lived cert ($days2expire days)" + expfinding+="short-lived cert ($days2expire days)" + fi else # low threshold first if [[ "$($OPENSSL x509 -checkend $((secsaday*days2warn2)) 2>>$ERRFILE <<< "$hostcert")" =~ \ not\ ]]; then @@ -22101,6 +22123,7 @@ HPKP_MIN: $HPKP_MIN CLIENT_MIN_FS: $CLIENT_MIN_FS DAYS2WARN1: $DAYS2WARN1 DAYS2WARN2: $DAYS2WARN2 +DAYS_VALID_SHORTLIVED: $DAYS_VALID_SHORTLIVED IPv6_OK: $IPv6_OK MAX_WAITSOCK: $MAX_WAITSOCK From 500313dab1516d7139b282d6c132630d27c5dd66 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Eric Gu Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2026 07:45:21 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 2/2] Auto-generate docs from testssl.1.md --- doc/testssl.1 | 12 +++++++++++- doc/testssl.1.html | 9 +++++++++ 2 files changed, 20 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/doc/testssl.1 b/doc/testssl.1 index 1a7c5f2..3cd46b8 100644 --- a/doc/testssl.1 +++ b/doc/testssl.1 @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -.\" Automatically generated by Pandoc 3.7.0.2 +.\" Automatically generated by Pandoc 3.10 .\" .TH "" "" "" "" .SS NAME @@ -1147,6 +1147,16 @@ DAYS2WARN2 is the second threshold when you\(cqll be warning of a certificate expiration of a host, preset to 30 (days). For Let\(cqs Encrypt this value will be divided internally by 2. .IP \(bu 2 +DAYS_VALID_SHORTLIVED is preset to 10 (days). +Certificates with a total validity period (notAfter \- notBefore) of +this many days or fewer are treated as intentionally short\-lived (see +\(lqShort\-lived Subscriber Certificate\(rq in the CA/Browser Forum +Baseline Requirements, e.g.\ Let\(cqs Encrypt\(cqs 6\-day profile). +They are not being warned of for their short lifespan. +A warning is issued only when less than 24 hours of validity are left, +and only for certificates whose total validity period is more than 24 +hours. +.IP \(bu 2 TESTSSL_INSTALL_DIR is the derived installation directory of testssl.sh. Relatively to that the \f[CR]bin\f[R] and mandatory \f[CR]etc\f[R] directory will be looked for. diff --git a/doc/testssl.1.html b/doc/testssl.1.html index 06a0010..90dfde5 100644 --- a/doc/testssl.1.html +++ b/doc/testssl.1.html @@ -988,6 +988,15 @@
  • DAYS2WARN2 is the second threshold when you’ll be warning of a certificate expiration of a host, preset to 30 (days). For Let’s Encrypt this value will be divided internally by 2.
    • +
  • DAYS_VALID_SHORTLIVED is preset to 10 (days). Certificates + with a total validity period (notAfter - notBefore) of this many + days or fewer are treated as intentionally short-lived (see + “Short-lived Subscriber Certificate” in the CA/Browser Forum + Baseline Requirements, e.g. Let’s Encrypt’s 6-day profile). They + are not being warned of for their short lifespan. A warning is + issued only when less than 24 hours of validity are left, and + only for certificates whose total validity period is more than + 24 hours.
  • TESTSSL_INSTALL_DIR is the derived installation directory of testssl.sh. Relatively to that the bin and mandatory etc directory will be looked for.