---
id: openssl-ocsp-responder
version: "1.0.1"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: abandoned
---

# openssl-ocsp-responder — Simple wrapper for OpenSSL OCSP server

License: permissive · Maintenance: abandoned · Downloads: 112.7K/mo

## What it is and what it does

This package is a Python wrapper around OpenSSL's OCSP responder command-line tool, allowing you to programmatically manage an OCSP (Online Certificate Status Protocol) server. It lets you start a responder, register certificates it should approve, and revoke certificates as needed. The package depends on PyOpenSSL for certificate parsing and requires OpenSSL itself to be installed on your machine.

The project is in alpha stage and has been abandoned since 2021-12-30, with no updates or maintenance activity since then. It targets Python 2.7 according to its classifiers. No documentation is available, and the repository has zero stars, suggesting minimal adoption or community validation.

Use it for:

- Running a local OCSP responder for testing certificate validation workflows in development environments.
- Automating OCSP server setup in integration tests that need to verify certificate revocation status.
- Building a simple OCSP infrastructure for internal PKI testing without deploying a full certificate authority.
- Prototyping OCSP-based certificate validation logic before integrating with production responders.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Wraps OpenSSL's command-line OCSP responder to let you programmatically start an OCSP server, add certificates for it to approve, and revoke certificates.

No. The package is abandoned (last update 2021-12-30), targets only Python 2.7, has high install friction (requires system OpenSSL), and shows no adoption (zero repository stars). The lack of documentation and maintenance history makes it unsuitable for production or reliable development use. Consider using established OCSP libraries or managing OpenSSL directly instead.

## Install

pip install openssl-ocsp-responder
uv add openssl-ocsp-responder
poetry add openssl-ocsp-responder

## Installing openssl-ocsp-responder

Before you install: High install friction: requires OpenSSL to be installed on your system. Maintenance is abandoned—last release was 2021-12-30, with no repository activity since then and zero stars.

License in practice: MIT license is permissive and places no restrictions on use, modification, or redistribution in your own projects.

Quickstart:

pip install openssl-ocsp-responder

from openssl_ocsp_responder import OCSPResponder

responder = OCSPResponder()

OpenSSL must be installed and available on your system; the package is a wrapper around the OpenSSL command-line tool.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package actually works with modern Python versions (classifiers list only Python 2.7).
- Whether PyOpenSSL is a runtime dependency or only used during development.
- Current state of the repository and whether it accepts pull requests or is truly unmaintained.

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: unspecified
- Install friction: high
- Maintenance: abandoned
- Downloads: 112.7K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

ocsp responder python, openssl ocsp server wrapper, certificate ocsp validation, python ocsp responder, certificate revocation checking, ocsp certificate approval, ocsp, certificate-management, abandoned

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