xref: /freebsd/crypto/openssl/doc/man3/SSL_shutdown.pod (revision cc68614da8232d8baaca0ae0d0dd8f890f06623e)
1=pod
2
3=head1 NAME
4
5SSL_shutdown - shut down a TLS/SSL connection
6
7=head1 SYNOPSIS
8
9 #include <openssl/ssl.h>
10
11 int SSL_shutdown(SSL *ssl);
12
13=head1 DESCRIPTION
14
15SSL_shutdown() shuts down an active TLS/SSL connection. It sends the
16close_notify shutdown alert to the peer.
17
18=head1 NOTES
19
20SSL_shutdown() tries to send the close_notify shutdown alert to the peer.
21Whether the operation succeeds or not, the SSL_SENT_SHUTDOWN flag is set and
22a currently open session is considered closed and good and will be kept in the
23session cache for further reuse.
24
25Note that SSL_shutdown() must not be called if a previous fatal error has
26occurred on a connection i.e. if SSL_get_error() has returned SSL_ERROR_SYSCALL
27or SSL_ERROR_SSL.
28
29The shutdown procedure consists of two steps: sending of the close_notify
30shutdown alert, and reception of the peer's close_notify shutdown alert.
31The order of those two steps depends on the application.
32
33It is acceptable for an application to only send its shutdown alert and
34then close the underlying connection without waiting for the peer's response.
35This way resources can be saved, as the process can already terminate or
36serve another connection.
37This should only be done when it is known that the other side will not send more
38data, otherwise there is a risk of a truncation attack.
39
40When a client only writes and never reads from the connection, and the server
41has sent a session ticket to establish a session, the client might not be able
42to resume the session because it did not received and process the session ticket
43from the server.
44In case the application wants to be able to resume the session, it is recommended to
45do a complete shutdown procedure (bidirectional close_notify alerts).
46
47When the underlying connection shall be used for more communications, the
48complete shutdown procedure must be performed, so that the peers stay
49synchronized.
50
51SSL_shutdown() only closes the write direction.
52It is not possible to call SSL_write() after calling SSL_shutdown().
53The read direction is closed by the peer.
54
55=head2 First to close the connection
56
57When the application is the first party to send the close_notify
58alert, SSL_shutdown() will only send the alert and then set the
59SSL_SENT_SHUTDOWN flag (so that the session is considered good and will
60be kept in the cache).
61If successful, SSL_shutdown() will return 0.
62
63If a unidirectional shutdown is enough (the underlying connection shall be
64closed anyway), this first successful call to SSL_shutdown() is sufficient.
65
66In order to complete the bidirectional shutdown handshake, the peer needs
67to send back a close_notify alert.
68The SSL_RECEIVED_SHUTDOWN flag will be set after receiving and processing
69it.
70
71The peer is still allowed to send data after receiving the close_notify
72event.
73When it is done sending data, it will send the close_notify alert.
74SSL_read() should be called until all data is received.
75SSL_read() will indicate the end of the peer data by returning <= 0
76and SSL_get_error() returning SSL_ERROR_ZERO_RETURN.
77
78=head2 Peer closes the connection
79
80If the peer already sent the close_notify alert B<and> it was
81already processed implicitly inside another function
82(L<SSL_read(3)>), the SSL_RECEIVED_SHUTDOWN flag is set.
83SSL_read() will return <= 0 in that case, and SSL_get_error() will return
84SSL_ERROR_ZERO_RETURN.
85SSL_shutdown() will send the close_notify alert, set the SSL_SENT_SHUTDOWN
86flag.
87If successful, SSL_shutdown() will return 1.
88
89Whether SSL_RECEIVED_SHUTDOWN is already set can be checked using the
90SSL_get_shutdown() (see also L<SSL_set_shutdown(3)> call.
91
92=head1 NOTES
93
94The behaviour of SSL_shutdown() additionally depends on the underlying BIO.
95If the underlying BIO is B<blocking>, SSL_shutdown() will only return once the
96handshake step has been finished or an error occurred.
97
98If the underlying BIO is B<nonblocking>, SSL_shutdown() will also return
99when the underlying BIO could not satisfy the needs of SSL_shutdown()
100to continue the handshake. In this case a call to SSL_get_error() with the
101return value of SSL_shutdown() will yield B<SSL_ERROR_WANT_READ> or
102B<SSL_ERROR_WANT_WRITE>. The calling process then must repeat the call after
103taking appropriate action to satisfy the needs of SSL_shutdown().
104The action depends on the underlying BIO. When using a nonblocking socket,
105nothing is to be done, but select() can be used to check for the required
106condition. When using a buffering BIO, like a BIO pair, data must be written
107into or retrieved out of the BIO before being able to continue.
108
109After SSL_shutdown() returned 0, it is possible to call SSL_shutdown() again
110to wait for the peer's close_notify alert.
111SSL_shutdown() will return 1 in that case.
112However, it is recommended to wait for it using SSL_read() instead.
113
114SSL_shutdown() can be modified to only set the connection to "shutdown"
115state but not actually send the close_notify alert messages,
116see L<SSL_CTX_set_quiet_shutdown(3)>.
117When "quiet shutdown" is enabled, SSL_shutdown() will always succeed
118and return 1.
119Note that this is not standard compliant behaviour.
120It should only be done when the peer has a way to make sure all
121data has been received and doesn't wait for the close_notify alert
122message, otherwise an unexpected EOF will be reported.
123
124There are implementations that do not send the required close_notify alert.
125If there is a need to communicate with such an implementation, and it's clear
126that all data has been received, do not wait for the peer's close_notify alert.
127Waiting for the close_notify alert when the peer just closes the connection will
128result in an error being generated.
129
130=head1 RETURN VALUES
131
132The following return values can occur:
133
134=over 4
135
136=item Z<>0
137
138The shutdown is not yet finished: the close_notify was sent but the peer
139did not send it back yet.
140Call SSL_read() to do a bidirectional shutdown.
141
142Unlike most other function, returning 0 does not indicate an error.
143L<SSL_get_error(3)> should not get called, it may misleadingly
144indicate an error even though no error occurred.
145
146=item Z<>1
147
148The shutdown was successfully completed. The close_notify alert was sent
149and the peer's close_notify alert was received.
150
151=item E<lt>0
152
153The shutdown was not successful.
154Call L<SSL_get_error(3)> with the return value B<ret> to find out the reason.
155It can occur if an action is needed to continue the operation for nonblocking
156BIOs.
157
158It can also occur when not all data was read using SSL_read().
159
160=back
161
162=head1 SEE ALSO
163
164L<SSL_get_error(3)>, L<SSL_connect(3)>,
165L<SSL_accept(3)>, L<SSL_set_shutdown(3)>,
166L<SSL_CTX_set_quiet_shutdown(3)>,
167L<SSL_clear(3)>, L<SSL_free(3)>,
168L<ssl(7)>, L<bio(7)>
169
170=head1 COPYRIGHT
171
172Copyright 2000-2020 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
173
174Licensed under the OpenSSL license (the "License").  You may not use
175this file except in compliance with the License.  You can obtain a copy
176in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
177L<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.
178
179=cut
180