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SSL_shutdown(3)

NAME

SSL_shutdown - Shut down a TLS/SSL connection

SYNOPSIS

#include <openssl/ssl.h> int SSL_shutdown( SSL *ssl );

DESCRIPTION

The SSL_shutdown() function shuts down an active TLS/SSL connection. It sends the "lose notify" shutdown alert to the peer.

NOTES

The SSL_shutdown() function tries to send the "close notify" shutdown alert to the peer. Whether the operation succeeds or not, the SSL_SENT_SHUTDOWN flag is set and a currently open session is considered closed and good and will be kept in the session cache for further reuse. The shutdown procedure consists of two steps: the sending of the "close notify" shutdown alert and the reception of the peer's "close notify" shutdown alert. According to the TLS standard, it is acceptable for an application to only send its shutdown alert and then close the underlying connection without waiting for the peer's response. (This way resources can be saved as the process can already terminate or serve another connection.) When the underlying connection is used for more communications, the complete shutdown procedure (bidirectional "close notify" alerts) must be performed, so that the peers stay synchronized. The SSL_shutdown() function supports both unidirectional and bidirectional shutdown by its two-step behavior. When the application is the first party to send the "close notify" alert, SSL_shutdown will only send the alert and then set the SSL_SENT_SHUTDOWN flag (so that the session is considered good and will be kept in cache). The SSL_shutdown() function will then return with 0. If a unidirectional shutdown is enough (the underlying connection shall be closed anyway), this first call to SSL_shutdown() is sufficient. In order to complete the bidirectional shutdown handshake, SSL_shutdown() must be called again. The second call will make SSL_shutdown() wait for the peer's "close notify" shutdown alert. On success, the second call to SSL_shutdown() will return with 1. If the peer already sent the "close notify" alert and it was already processed implicitly inside another function (SSL_read()), the SSL_RECEIVED_SHUTDOWN flag is set. The SSL_shutdown() function will send the "close notify" alert, set the SSL_SENT_SHUTDOWN flag and immediately return with 1. Whether SSL_RECEIVED_SHUTDOWN is already set can be checked using the SSL_get_shutdown() function. We recommend checking the return value of SSL_shutdown() and call SSL_shutdown() again if the bidirectional shutdown is not complete (return value of the first call is 0). Since the shutdown is not specially handled in the SSLv2 protocol, SSL_shutdown() will succeed on the first call. The behavior of the SSL_shutdown() function also depends on the underlying BIO. If the underlying BIO is blocking, the SSL_shutdown() function will only return once the handshake step has been finished or an error occurred. If the underlying BIO is non-blocking, the SSL_shutdown() function will also return when the underlying BIO could not satisfy the needs of the SSL_shutdown() function to continue the handshake. In this case, a call to SSL_get_error() with the return value of SSL_shutdown() will yield SSL_ERROR_WANT_READ or SSL_ERROR_WANT_WRITE. The calling process must then repeat the call after taking appropriate action to satisfy the needs of SSL_shutdown(). The action depends on the underlying BIO. When using a non-blocking socket, nothing is to be done, but the select() function can be used to check for the required condition. When using a buffering BIO, like a BIO pair, data must be written into or retrieved out of the BIO before being able to continue. The SSL_shutdown() function can be modified to only set the connection to ``shutdown'' state but not actually send the ``close notify'' alert messages. See SSL_CTX_set_quiet_shutdown(). When ``quiet shutdown'' is enabled, the SSL_shutdown() function will always succeed and return 1.

RETURN VALUES

The following return values can occur: 1 The shutdown was successfully completed. The ``close notify'' alert was sent and the peer's ``close notify'' alert was received. 0 The shutdown is not finished. Call SSL_shutdown() for a second time if a bidirectional shutdown will be performed. The output of SSL_get_error() may be misleading, as an erroneous SSL_ERROR_SYSCALL may be flagged even though no error occurred. --1 The shutdown was not successful because a fatal error occurred either at the protocol level or a connection failure occurred. It can also occur if action is needed to continue the operation for non-blocking BIOs. Call SSL_get_error() with the return value ret to find the reason.

SEE ALSO

Functions: SSL_get_error(3), SSL_connect(3), SSL_accept(3), SSL_set_shutdown(3), SSL_CTX_set_quiet_shutdown(3) SSL_clear(3), SSL_free(3) ssl(3), bio(3)

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