OPENSSL-SESS_ID(1ossl)

🌸 NAME 🌸

okay so bestie, this page is OPENSSL-SESS_ID(1ossl), and it's all about openssl-sess_id — the SSL/TLS session handling command. Lowkey specialist diagnostic energy, but we're gonna get through it together 🫶.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

openssl sess_id [-help] [-inform DER|PEM] [-outform DER|PEM|NSS] [-in
filename] [-out filename] [-text] [-cert] [-noout] [-context ID]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

This command processes the encoded version of the SSL session structure and optionally prints out SSL session details (for example the SSL session master key) in human readable format. It's a diagnostic tool, and it needs some knowledge of the SSL protocol to use properly, so most users will not need to use it. Not me being dramatic, that's just the vibe.

The precise format of the data can vary across OpenSSL versions and is not documented. So yeah, it's giving "trust me, I'm a diagnostic tool" 💅.

💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -help — Print out a usage message. Cute, helpful, iconic.
• -inform DER|PEM, -outform DER|PEM|NSS — These set the input and output formats; the default is PEM. See openssl-format-options(1) for details. For NSS output, the session ID and master key are reported in NSS "keylog" format.
• -in filename — This specifies the input filename to read session information from, or standard input by default.
• -out filename — This specifies the output filename to write session information to, or standard output if this option is not specified.
• -text — Prints out the various public or private key components in plain text in addition to the encoded version.
• -cert — If a certificate is present in the session it will be output using this option; if the -text option is also present then it will be printed out in text form.
• -noout — This option prevents output of the encoded version of the session.
• -context ID — This option can set the session id so the output session information uses the supplied ID. The ID can be any string of characters. This option won't normally be used.

🎀 OUTPUT 🎀

Typical output:

SSL-Session:
    Protocol  : TLSv1
    Cipher    : 0016
    Session-ID: 871E62626C554CE95488823752CBD5F3673A3EF3DCE9C67BD916C809914B40ED
    Session-ID-ctx: 01000000
    Master-Key: A7CEFC571974BE02CAC305269DC59F76EA9F0B180CB6642697A68251F2D2BB57E51DBBB4C7885573192AE9AEE220FACD
    Key-Arg   : None
    Start Time: 948459261
    Timeout   : 300 (sec)
    Verify return code 0 (ok)

These are described below in more detail.

• Protocol — This is the protocol in use: TLSv1.3, TLSv1.2, TLSv1.1, TLSv1 or SSLv3.
• Cipher — The cipher used; this is the actual raw SSL or TLS cipher code, see the SSL or TLS specifications for more information.
• Session-ID — The SSL session ID in hex format.
• Session-ID-ctx — The session ID context in hex format.
• Master-Key — This is the SSL session master key.
• Start Time — This is the session start time represented as an integer in standard Unix format.
• Timeout — The timeout in seconds.
• Verify return code — This is the return code when an SSL client certificate is verified.

🚨 NOTES 🚨

Okay, warning time: since the SSL session output contains the master key, it is possible to read the contents of an encrypted session using this information. Therefore, appropriate security precautions should be taken if the information is being output by a "real" application. This is however strongly discouraged and should only be used for debugging purposes. Periodt — do not make this a whole lifestyle 💀.

💀 BUGS 💀

The cipher and start time should be printed out in human readable form. Yeah, that's the bug note, bestie.

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

• openssl(1)
• openssl-ciphers(1)
• openssl-s_server(1)

👑 COPYRIGHT 👑

Copyright 2000-2020 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.

Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License").  You may not use
this file except in compliance with the License.  You can obtain a copy
in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.

and that's the whole page, bestie — OpenSSL source/version 3.5.9, dated 2026-09-29, manual OPENSSL-SESS_ID(1ossl) 💖✨🫶