---
c: Copyright (C) Daniel Stenberg, <daniel@haxx.se>, et al.
SPDX-License-Identifier: curl
Title: CURLINFO_TLS_SSL_PTR
Section: 3
Source: libcurl
See-also:
  - CURLINFO_TLS_SESSION (3)
  - curl_easy_getinfo (3)
  - curl_easy_setopt (3)
Protocol:
  - TLS
TLS-backend:
  - GnuTLS
  - mbedTLS
  - OpenSSL
  - Schannel
  - wolfSSL
Added-in: 7.48.0
---

# NAME

CURLINFO_TLS_SSL_PTR - TLS session info

# SYNOPSIS

~~~c
#include <curl/curl.h>

CURLcode curl_easy_getinfo(CURL *handle, CURLINFO_TLS_SSL_PTR,
                           struct curl_tlssessioninfo **session);
~~~

# DESCRIPTION

Pass a pointer to a *struct curl_tlssessioninfo **. The pointer is initialized
to refer to a *struct curl_tlssessioninfo ** that contains an enum indicating
the SSL library used for the handshake and a pointer to the respective
internal TLS session structure of this underlying SSL library.

This option may be useful for example to extract certificate information in a
format convenient for further processing, such as manual validation. Refer to
the **LIMITATIONS** section.

~~~c
struct curl_tlssessioninfo {
  curl_sslbackend backend;
  void *internals;
};
~~~

The *backend* struct member is one of these defines: CURLSSLBACKEND_NONE (when
built without TLS support), CURLSSLBACKEND_WOLFSSL,
CURLSSLBACKEND_SECURETRANSPORT, CURLSSLBACKEND_GNUTLS, CURLSSLBACKEND_MBEDTLS,
CURLSSLBACKEND_NSS, CURLSSLBACKEND_OPENSSL or CURLSSLBACKEND_SCHANNEL. (Note
that the OpenSSL forks are all reported as OpenSSL here.)

The *internals* struct member points to a TLS library specific pointer for
the active ("in use") SSL connection, with the following underlying types:

## GnuTLS

**gnutls_session_t**

## OpenSSL

CURLINFO_TLS_SESSION(3): **SSL_CTX ***

CURLINFO_TLS_SSL_PTR(3): **SSL ***

## mbedTLS

**mbedTLS_ssl_context ***

## Secure Channel

**CtxtHandle ***

## wolfSSL

**SSL ***

##

If the *internals* pointer is NULL then either the SSL backend is not
supported, an SSL session has not yet been established or the connection is no
longer associated with the easy handle (e.g. curl_easy_perform(3) has
returned).

# LIMITATIONS

This option has some limitations that could make it unsafe when it comes to
the manual verification of certificates.

This option only retrieves the first in-use SSL session pointer for your easy
handle, however your easy handle may have more than one in-use SSL session if
using FTP over SSL. That is because the FTP protocol has a control channel and
a data channel and one or both may be over SSL. Currently there is no way to
retrieve a second in-use SSL session associated with an easy handle.

This option has not been thoroughly tested with clear text protocols that can
be upgraded/downgraded to/from SSL: FTP, SMTP, POP3, IMAP when used with
CURLOPT_USE_SSL(3). Though you can to retrieve the SSL pointer, it is possible
that before you can do that, data (including auth) may have already been sent
over a connection after it was upgraded.

Renegotiation. If unsafe renegotiation or renegotiation in a way that the
certificate is allowed to change is allowed by your SSL library this may occur
and the certificate may change, and data may continue to be sent or received
after renegotiation but before you are able to get the (possibly) changed SSL
pointer, with the (possibly) changed certificate information.

Instead of using this option to poll for certificate changes use
CURLOPT_SSL_CTX_FUNCTION(3) to set a verification callback, if supported.
That is safer and does not suffer from any of the problems above.

How are you using this option? Are you affected by any of these limitations?
Please let us know by making a comment at
https://github.com/curl/curl/issues/685

# %PROTOCOLS%

# EXAMPLE

~~~c
#include <curl/curl.h>
#include <openssl/ssl.h>

CURL *curl;
static size_t wf(void *ptr, size_t size, size_t nmemb, void *stream)
{
  const struct curl_tlssessioninfo *info = NULL;
  CURLcode result = curl_easy_getinfo(curl, CURLINFO_TLS_SSL_PTR, &info);
  if(info && !result) {
    if(CURLSSLBACKEND_OPENSSL == info->backend) {
      printf("OpenSSL ver. %s\n", SSL_get_version((SSL*)info->internals));
    }
  }
  return size * nmemb;
}

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
  CURLcode result;
  curl = curl_easy_init();
  if(curl) {
    curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, "https://example.com");
    curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_WRITEFUNCTION, wf);
    result = curl_easy_perform(curl);
    curl_easy_cleanup(curl);
  }
  return result;
}
~~~

# HISTORY

This option supersedes CURLINFO_TLS_SESSION(3) which was added in 7.34.0.
This option is exactly the same as that option except in the case of OpenSSL.

Non-OpenSSL support was added in 7.48.0.

# %AVAILABILITY%

# RETURN VALUE

curl_easy_getinfo(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).
