ssl — TLS/SSL wrapper for socket objects¶

Socket creation¶

Instances of SSLSocket must be created using the SSLContext.wrap_socket() method. The helper function create_default_context() returns a new context with secure default settings.

Client socket example with default context and IPv4/IPv6 dual stack:

import socket
import ssl

hostname = 'www.python.org'
context = ssl.create_default_context()

with socket.create_connection((hostname, 443)) as sock:
    with context.wrap_socket(sock, server_hostname=hostname) as ssock:
        print(ssock.version())

Client socket example with custom context and IPv4:

hostname = 'www.python.org'
# PROTOCOL_TLS_CLIENT requires valid cert chain and hostname
context = ssl.SSLContext(ssl.PROTOCOL_TLS_CLIENT)
context.load_verify_locations('path/to/cabundle.pem')

with socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM, 0) as sock:
    with context.wrap_socket(sock, server_hostname=hostname) as ssock:
        print(ssock.version())

Server socket example listening on localhost IPv4:

context = ssl.SSLContext(ssl.PROTOCOL_TLS_SERVER)
context.load_cert_chain('/path/to/certchain.pem', '/path/to/private.key')

with socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM, 0) as sock:
    sock.bind(('127.0.0.1', 8443))
    sock.listen(5)
    with context.wrap_socket(sock, server_side=True) as ssock:
        conn, addr = ssock.accept()
        ...

Context creation¶

A convenience function helps create SSLContext objects for common purposes.

ssl.create_default_context(purpose=Purpose.SERVER_AUTH, *, cafile=None, capath=None, cadata=None)¶

Return a new SSLContext object with default settings for the given purpose. The settings are chosen by the ssl module, and usually represent a higher security level than when calling the SSLContext constructor directly.

cafile, capath, cadata represent optional CA certificates to trust for certificate verification, as in SSLContext.load_verify_locations(). If all three are None, this function can choose to trust the system’s default CA certificates instead.

The settings are: PROTOCOL_TLS_CLIENT or PROTOCOL_TLS_SERVER, OP_NO_SSLv2, and OP_NO_SSLv3 with high encryption cipher suites without RC4 and without unauthenticated cipher suites. Passing SERVER_AUTH as purpose sets verify_mode to CERT_REQUIRED and either loads CA certificates (when at least one of cafile, capath or cadata is given) or uses SSLContext.load_default_certs() to load default CA certificates.

When the environment variable SSLKEYLOGFILE is set, create_default_context() enables key logging by setting keylog_filename to the variable’s value.

The default settings for this context include VERIFY_X509_PARTIAL_CHAIN and VERIFY_X509_STRICT. These make the underlying OpenSSL implementation behave more like a conforming implementation of RFC 5280, in exchange for a small amount of incompatibility with older X.509 certificates.

Note

The protocol, options, cipher and other settings may change to more restrictive values anytime without prior deprecation. The values represent a fair balance between compatibility and security.

If your application needs specific settings, you should create a SSLContext and apply the settings yourself.

Note

If you find that when certain older clients or servers attempt to connect with a SSLContext created by this function that they get an error stating “Protocol or cipher suite mismatch”, it may be that they only support SSL3.0 which this function excludes using the OP_NO_SSLv3. SSL3.0 is widely considered to be completely broken. If you still wish to continue to use this function but still allow SSL 3.0 connections you can re-enable them using:

ctx = ssl.create_default_context(Purpose.CLIENT_AUTH)
ctx.options &= ~ssl.OP_NO_SSLv3

Note

This context enables VERIFY_X509_STRICT by default, which may reject pre-RFC 5280 or malformed certificates that the underlying OpenSSL implementation otherwise would accept. While disabling this is not recommended, you can do so using:

ctx = ssl.create_default_context()
ctx.verify_flags &= ~ssl.VERIFY_X509_STRICT

Added in version 3.4.

Changed in version 3.4.4: RC4 was dropped from the default cipher string.

Changed in version 3.6: ChaCha20/Poly1305 was added to the default cipher string.

3DES was dropped from the default cipher string.

Changed in version 3.8: Support for key logging to SSLKEYLOGFILE was added.

Changed in version 3.10: The context now uses PROTOCOL_TLS_CLIENT or PROTOCOL_TLS_SERVER protocol instead of generic PROTOCOL_TLS.

Changed in version 3.13: The context now uses VERIFY_X509_PARTIAL_CHAIN and VERIFY_X509_STRICT in its default verify flags.

Signature algorithms¶

ssl.get_sigalgs()¶

Return a list of available TLS signature algorithm names used by servers to complete the TLS handshake or clients requesting certificate-based authentication. For example:

>>> ssl.get_sigalgs()
['ecdsa_secp256r1_sha256', 'ecdsa_secp384r1_sha384', ...]

These names can be used when building string values to pass to the SSLContext.set_client_sigalgs() and SSLContext.set_server_sigalgs() methods.

Added in version 3.15.

Exceptions¶

exception ssl.SSLError¶

Raised to signal an error from the underlying SSL implementation (currently provided by the OpenSSL library). This signifies some problem in the higher-level encryption and authentication layer that’s superimposed on the underlying network connection. This error is a subtype of OSError. The error code and message of SSLError instances are provided by the OpenSSL library.

Changed in version 3.3: SSLError used to be a subtype of socket.error.

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