There is a learning curve to using the openssl tools, although it's
worthwhile if you wrestle with SSL often.  s_client does attempt to
validate certs unless told not to.  To wire up validation you'll need
to save the other certs in the chain as per here
<http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/test-ssl-certificates-diagnosis-ssl-certificate/>
and <http://monkey.org/openbsd/archive/tech/0308/msg00125.html>.

I'll try to do some checking to see if the Windows CAPI can be told to
generate a non-overwhelming amount of cert validation info.

In perspective, Michael Smith's suggestion to start with Fiddler /
Netmon / Wireshark is probably a more sensible place to begin if PKCS,
PEM and DER are unfamiliar acronyms.

--Steve

On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 12:42 PM, Mayo, Bill <[email protected]> wrote:
> Thanks for the response.  I was not familiar with OpenSSL, but I have gotten 
> that installed and am trying to do as you suggest.  I was able to connect to 
> the server using "openssl s_client -connect server.name:443" and see that it 
> connected very quickly.  Beyond that, I am having trouble figuring out the 
> proper command(s) to do the validation on/off as you said.  I see a "verify" 
> option, but that looks like something that has to be run against an exported 
> certificate, correct?
>
> Bill
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steve Kradel [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Monday, October 31, 2011 11:42 AM
> To: NT System Admin Issues
> Subject: Re: Speed up internal SSL?
>
> Five seconds is far too long for a (correctly configured) SSL negotiation and 
> you are probably on-track to suspect slow processing of the CRL or OCSP bits 
> of the certificate.
>
> I'd suggest testing it out with "openssl s_client", with certificate 
> validation on and off.  Also it would be helpful if you posted the
> X.509 cert details.
>
> --Steve
>
> On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 11:25 AM, Mayo, Bill <[email protected]> wrote:
>> I am not much of an IIS guy (know enough to get by), and I have a
>> request from one of our developers to investigate why SSL is slow.
>> What I can confirm is that the initial connection to SSL takes several
>> seconds (5 or more), but after that it is fine.  My research on the
>> topic suggests that it is normal for the initial connection to be
>> relatively slow, but it seems like it shouldn't take as long as it
>> does.  The one thing I ran across that I am not clear whether may be
>> at issue is the certificate revocation checks.  The connections in
>> question are certificates that are for internal web access and are
>> signed by our internal certification authority (domain controller).
>> Is there something I can do in regards to certificate revocation checks to 
>> speed the process up?  Any other suggestions?
>>
>>
>>
>> ~~~~~~~~~~
>>
>> Bill Mayo

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/>  ~

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