CURLOPT_PINNEDPUBLICKEY(3) Library Functions Manual CURLOPT_PINNEDPUBLICKEY(3) NAME CURLOPT_PINNEDPUBLICKEY - pinned public key SYNOPSIS #include <curl/curl.h> CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_PINNEDPUBLICKEY, char *pinnedpubkey); DESCRIPTION Pass a pointer to a null-terminated string as parameter. The string can be the filename of your pinned public key. The file format expected is PEM or DER. The string can also be any number of base64 encoded sha256 hashes pre- ceded by sha256// and separated by ;. When negotiating a TLS or SSL connection, the server sends a certificate indicating its identity. A public key is extracted from this certificate and if it does not exactly match the public key provided to this option, curl aborts the connection before sending or receiving any data. This option is independent of option CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER(3). If you turn off that option then the peer is still verified by public key. On mismatch, CURLE_SSL_PINNEDPUBKEYNOTMATCH is returned. The application does not have to keep the string around after setting this option. The pinned public key is used to verify the initial origin used in a trans- fer. If the transfer is set to follow redirects to other origins, they are not checked against this key. This option has no effect on LDAP connections when libcurl uses the legacy LDAP backend. That backend manages TLS independently of curl's TLS layer. When libcurl is built with USE_OPENLDAP, the OpenLDAP backend routes TLS through curl's layer and this option is honored. DEFAULT NULL PROTOCOLS This functionality affects all TLS based protocols: HTTPS, FTPS, IMAPS, POP3S, SMTPS etc. only This option works only with the following TLS backends: GnuTLS, OpenSSL, Schannel, mbedTLS and wolfSSL EXAMPLE int main(void) { CURL *curl = curl_easy_init(); if(curl) { CURLcode result; curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, "https://example.com"); curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_PINNEDPUBLICKEY, "/etc/publickey.der"); /* OR curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_PINNEDPUBLICKEY, "sha256//YhKJKSzoTt2b5FP18fvpHo7fJYqQCjAa3HWY3" "tvRMwE=;sha256//t62CeU2tQiqkexU74Gxa2eg7fRbEg" "oChTociMee9wno="); */ /* Perform the request */ result = curl_easy_perform(curl); curl_easy_cleanup(curl); } } PUBLIC KEY EXTRACTION If you do not have the server's public key file you can extract it from the server's certificate. # retrieve the server's certificate if you do not already have it # # be sure to examine the certificate to see if it is what you expected # # Windows-specific: # - Use NUL instead of /dev/null. # - OpenSSL may wait for input instead of disconnecting. Hit enter. # - If you do not have sed, then copy the certificate into a file: # Lines from -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- to -----END CERTIFICATE-----. # openssl s_client -servername www.example.com -connect www.example.com:443 \ < /dev/null | sed -n "/-----BEGIN/,/-----END/p" > www.example.com.pem # extract public key in pem format from certificate openssl x509 -in www.example.com.pem -pubkey -noout > www.example.com.pubkey.pem # convert public key from pem to der openssl asn1parse -noout -inform pem -in www.example.com.pubkey.pem \ -out www.example.com.pubkey.der # sha256 hash and base64 encode der to string for use openssl dgst -sha256 -binary www.example.com.pubkey.der | openssl base64 The public key in PEM format contains a header, base64 data and a footer: -----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY----- [BASE 64 DATA] -----END PUBLIC KEY----- HISTORY PEM/DER support 7.39.0: OpenSSL, GnuTLS 7.43.0: wolfSSL 7.47.0: mbedTLS 7.58.1: Schannel sha256 support 7.44.0: OpenSSL, GnuTLS and wolfSSL 7.47.0: mbedTLS 7.58.1: Schannel Other SSL backends not supported. AVAILABILITY Added in curl 7.39.0 RETURN VALUE curl_easy_setopt(3) returns a CURLcode indicating success or error. CURLE_OK (0) means everything was OK, non-zero means an error occurred, see libcurl-errors(3). SEE ALSO CURLOPT_CAINFO(3), CURLOPT_CAPATH(3), CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST(3), CUR- LOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER(3) libcurl 2026-08-27 CURLOPT_PINNEDPUBLICKEY(3)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | DEFAULT | PROTOCOLS | EXAMPLE | PUBLIC KEY EXTRACTION | HISTORY | AVAILABILITY | RETURN VALUE | SEE ALSO
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