7.3.2 Simple Client Example with X.509 Certificate Support

Let's assume now that we want to create a TCP client which communicates with servers that use X.509 or OpenPGP certificate authentication. The following client is a very simple TLS client, it does not support session resuming, not even certificate verification. The TCP functions defined in this example are used in most of the other examples below, without redefining them.

/* Copyright 2007 Free Software Foundation
 *
 * Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
 * are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
 * notice and this notice are preserved.
 */

#if HAVE_CONFIG_H
# include <config.h>
#endif

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <arpa/inet.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <gnutls/gnutls.h>

/* A very basic TLS client, with X.509 authentication.
 */

#define MAX_BUF 1024
#define CAFILE "ca.pem"
#define MSG "GET / HTTP/1.0\r\n\r\n"

extern int tcp_connect (void);
extern void tcp_close (int sd);

int
main (void)
{
  int ret, sd, ii;
  gnutls_session_t session;
  char buffer[MAX_BUF + 1];
  const char *err;
  gnutls_certificate_credentials_t xcred;

  gnutls_global_init ();

  /* X509 stuff */
  gnutls_certificate_allocate_credentials (&xcred);

  /* sets the trusted cas file
   */
  gnutls_certificate_set_x509_trust_file (xcred, CAFILE, GNUTLS_X509_FMT_PEM);

  /* Initialize TLS session 
   */
  gnutls_init (&session, GNUTLS_CLIENT);

  /* Use default priorities */
  ret = gnutls_priority_set_direct (session, "PERFORMANCE", &err);
  if (ret < 0) {
    if (ret == GNUTLS_E_INVALID_REQUEST) {
      fprintf(stderr, "Syntax error at: %s\n", err);
    }
    exit(1);
  }

  /* put the x509 credentials to the current session
   */
  gnutls_credentials_set (session, GNUTLS_CRD_CERTIFICATE, xcred);

  /* connect to the peer
   */
  sd = tcp_connect ();

  gnutls_transport_set_ptr (session, (gnutls_transport_ptr_t) sd);

  /* Perform the TLS handshake
   */
  ret = gnutls_handshake (session);

  if (ret < 0)
    {
      fprintf (stderr, "*** Handshake failed\n");
      gnutls_perror (ret);
      goto end;
    }
  else
    {
      printf ("- Handshake was completed\n");
    }

  gnutls_record_send (session, MSG, strlen (MSG));

  ret = gnutls_record_recv (session, buffer, MAX_BUF);
  if (ret == 0)
    {
      printf ("- Peer has closed the TLS connection\n");
      goto end;
    }
  else if (ret < 0)
    {
      fprintf (stderr, "*** Error: %s\n", gnutls_strerror (ret));
      goto end;
    }

  printf ("- Received %d bytes: ", ret);
  for (ii = 0; ii < ret; ii++)
    {
      fputc (buffer[ii], stdout);
    }
  fputs ("\n", stdout);

  gnutls_bye (session, GNUTLS_SHUT_RDWR);

end:

  tcp_close (sd);

  gnutls_deinit (session);

  gnutls_certificate_free_credentials (xcred);

  gnutls_global_deinit ();

  return 0;
}