libcrypto/man/crypto.3

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.Dd $Mdocdate: December 7 2024 $
.Dt CRYPTO 3
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm crypto
.Nd OpenSSL cryptographic library
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The OpenSSL crypto library implements a wide range of cryptographic
algorithms used in various Internet standards.
The services provided by this library are used by the OpenSSL
implementations of TLS and S/MIME, and they have also been used to
implement SSH, OpenPGP, and other cryptographic standards.
.Pp
.Sy Symmetric ciphers
including AES, Blowfish, CAST, ChaCha20, IDEA, DES, RC2, and RC4
are provided by the generic interface
.Xr EVP_EncryptInit 3 .
Low-level stand-alone interfaces include
.Xr AES_encrypt 3 ,
.Xr BF_set_key 3 ,
.Xr ChaCha 3 ,
.Xr DES_set_key 3 ,
.Xr RC2_encrypt 3 ,
and
.Xr RC4 3 .
.Pp
.Sy Public key cryptography and key agreement
are provided by
.Xr DH_new 3 ,
.Xr ECDH_compute_key 3 ,
.Xr X25519 3 ,
.Xr DSA_new 3 ,
.Xr ECDSA_SIG_new 3 ,
.Xr RSA_new 3 ,
and
.Xr EVP_PKEY_new 3 .
.Pp
.Sy Certificates
are handled by
.Xr X509_new 3
and
.Xr X509v3_add_ext 3 .
.Pp
.Sy Authentication codes and hash functions
offered include
.Xr EVP_DigestInit 3 ,
.Xr CMAC_Init 3 ,
.Xr HMAC 3 ,
.Xr MD4 3 ,
.Xr MD5 3 ,
.Xr RIPEMD160 3 ,
.Xr SHA1 3 ,
and
.Xr SHA256 3 .
.Pp
.Sy Input, output, and data encoding
facilities include
.Xr ASN1_TYPE_get 3 ,
.Xr BIO_new 3 ,
.Xr CMS_ContentInfo_new 3 ,
.Xr evp 3 ,
.Xr EVP_EncodeInit 3 ,
.Xr PEM_read 3 ,
.Xr PKCS7_encrypt 3 ,
.Xr PKCS7_sign 3 ,
.Xr PKCS12_create 3 ,
and
.Xr SMIME_write_PKCS7 3 .
.Pp
.Sy Auxiliary features include:
.Bl -dash -compact
.It
configuration file handling: see
.Xr OPENSSL_config 3
.It
error reporting: see
.Xr ERR 3
.It
.Xr OCSP_REQUEST_new 3
.It
.Xr UI_new 3
.El
.Pp
.Sy Internal utilities
include
.Xr BIO_f_buffer 3 ,
.Xr BN_new 3 ,
.Xr EC_GROUP_new 3 ,
.Xr lh_new 3 ,
and
.Xr STACK_OF 3 .
.Sh NAMING CONVENTIONS
Elements used in the names of API functions include the following:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It add0
See
.Dq set0
below.
.It add1
See
.Dq set1
below.
.It BIO
basic input and/or output abstraction:
The function manipulates objects of the idiosyncratic OpenSSL
.Vt BIO
object type.
See
.Xr BIO_new 3 .
.It bio
The function uses a
.Vt BIO
object for input or output.
In many cases, simpler variants of the function are available
that operate directly on
.In stdio.h
.Vt FILE
objects or directly in RAM, usually using byte arrays.
.It BIO_f_
filter BIO:
The function returns a pointer to a static built-in object that,
when passed to
.Xr BIO_new 3 ,
results in the creation of a BIO object that can write data to
and/or read data from another
.Vt BIO
object.
.It BIO_s_
source and/or sink BIO:
The function returns a pointer to a static built-in object that,
when passed to
.Xr BIO_new 3 ,
results in the creation of a BIO object
that can write data to an external destination
and/or read data from an external source,
for example a file descriptor or object, a memory buffer, or the network.
.It BN
big number:
The function operates on
.Vt BIGNUM
objects representing integer numbers of variable, almost unlimited size.
See
.Xr BN_new 3 .
.It cb
callback:
The function takes or returns a function pointer
that is called by API functions from inside the library.
The function pointed to may be defined by the application program.
In some cases, API functions with
.Dq cb
in their name may return function pointers to internal functions
defined inside the library that are not API functions.
The element
.Dq cb
is also used in the names of some function pointer datatypes
declared with
.Sy typedef .
In a small number of cases, the all caps form
.Dq CB
is used with the same meaning.
.It CTX
context:
The function operates on a wrapper object around another object.
The purposes and properties of such
.Dq CTX
wrapper objects vary wildly depending on the objects in question.
A few function names use the lower case form
.Dq ctx
in the same sense.
.It d2i
DER to internal:
The function decodes input conforming to ASN.1 basic encoding rules (BER)
and either stores the result in an existing object
or in a newly allocated object.
The latter is usually preferable because
creating a new object is more robust and less error prone.
In spite of the name, the input usually does not need to conform to ASN.1
distinguished encoding rules (DER), which are more restrictive than BER.
.It EVP
digital EnVeloPe library:
See
.Xr evp 3 .
.It ex
This name element is used for two completely unrelated purposes.
.Pp
extended version:
The function is similar to an older function without the
.Dq ex
in its name, but takes one or more additional arguments
in order to make it more versatile.
In several cases, the older version is now deprecated.
.Pp
extra data:
Some object types support storing additional, application-specific data
inside objects in addition to the data the object is designed to hold.
The function sets, retrieves, or prepares for using such extra data.
Related function names usually contain
.Dq ex_data
or
.Dq ex_new_index .
See
.Xr CRYPTO_set_ex_data 3 .
.It fp
file pointer:
The function takes a
.Vt FILE *
argument.
Usually, the function is a variant of another function taking a
.Vt BIO *
argument instead.
.It i2d
internal to DER:
The function encodes an object passed as an argument
according to ASN.1 distinguished encoding rules (DER).
There are a few rare exceptions of functions that have
.Dq i2d
in their name but produce output anyway
that only conforms to ASN.1 basic encoding rules (BER) and not to DER.
.It get0
The function returns an internal pointer
owned by the object passed as an argument.
The returned pointer must not be freed by the calling code.
It will be freed automatically
when the object owning the pointer will be freed.
.It get1
The function returns a copy of a sub-object
of an object passed as an argument.
The caller is responsible for freeing the returned object
when it is no longer needed.
.Pp
If the object type is reference counted, usually the reference count
is incremented instead of copying the object.
Consequently, modifying the returned object may still impact all
objects containing references to it.
The caller is responsible for freeing the returned object
when it is no longer needed; for reference-counted objects still
referenced elsewhere, this will merely decrement the reference count.
.It get
Functions containing
.Dq get
in their name without a following digit may behave in
.Dq get0
or, more rarely, in
.Dq get1
style.
To find out which is the case, refer to the individual manual pages.
.It lh
linear hash:
The function manipulates a dynamic hash table.
See
.Xr lh_new 3 .
.It md
message digest.
Some function names use the all caps form
.Dq MD
in the same sense.
.It meth
The function manipulates an object holding a function table.
Usually, such function tables allow the application program
to implement additional cryptographic or I/O algorithms
and to use them with the same high-level API functions as the
algorithms provided by the library itself, or to replace the
implementations of algorithms provided by the library with
custom implementations provided by the application program.
Some API functions use the name elements
.Dq method
or
.Dq METHOD
in the same sense.
See also the
.Dq cb
entry in the present list.
.It nid
numerical identifier:
A non-standard, LibreSSL-specific
.Vt int
number associated with an ASN.1 object identifier.
In several cases, the all caps form
.Dq NID
is used in the same sense.
See
.Xr OBJ_nid2obj 3 .
.It obj
This name element and its all caps form
.Dq OBJ
usually refer to ASN.1 object identifiers represented by the
.Vt ASN1_OBJECT
data type.
See
.Xr ASN1_OBJECT_new 3 .
.It PKEY
In most cases, this name element and its lower case form
.Dq pkey
mean
.Dq private key ,
but for both forms, there are some cases where they mean
.Dq public key
instead.
.It set0
The function transfers ownership of a pointer passed as an argument
to an object passed as another argument,
by storing the pointer inside the object.
The transferred pointer must not be freed by the calling code.
It will be freed automatically
when the object now owning the pointer will be freed.
.It set1
The function copies the content of one object passed as an argument
into another object also passed as an argument.
When the calling code no longer needs the copied object,
it can free that object.
.Pp
In some cases, if the object to be copied is reference counted,
the function does not actually copy the object but merely increments
its reference count and stores the pointer to it in the other object.
When the calling code no longer needs its original pointer to
the now inner object, it can free the original pointer, thus
decrementing the reference count of the inner object
and transferring ownership of the inner object to the outer object.
The inner object will then be freed automatically
when the outer object is freed later on.
.It set
Functions containing
.Dq set
in their name without a following digit may behave in
.Dq set0
or, more rarely, in
.Dq set1
style.
To find out which is the case, refer to the individual manual pages.
.It sk
stack:
The function manipulates a variable-sized array of pointers
in the idiosyncratic style described in
.Xr OPENSSL_sk_new 3 .
.It TS
X.509 time-stamp protocol:
See
.Xr TS_REQ_new 3 .
.It up_ref
The function increments the reference count of the argument by one.
Only a minority of object types support reference counting.
For those that do, if the reference count is greater than one,
the corresponding
.Dq free
function reverses the effect of one call to the
.Dq up_ref
function rather than freeing the object.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr openssl 1 ,
.Xr ssl 3