2 OpenSSL 0.9.5-dev xx XXX 2000
4 Copyright (c) 1998-2000 The OpenSSL Project
5 Copyright (c) 1995-1998 Eric A. Young, Tim J. Hudson
11 The OpenSSL Project is a collaborative effort to develop a robust,
12 commercial-grade, fully featured, and Open Source toolkit implementing the
13 Secure Sockets Layer (SSL v2/v3) and Transport Layer Security (TLS v1)
14 protocols with full-strength cryptography world-wide. The project is managed
15 by a worldwide community of volunteers that use the Internet to communicate,
16 plan, and develop the OpenSSL toolkit and its related documentation.
18 OpenSSL is based on the excellent SSLeay library developed from Eric A. Young
19 and Tim J. Hudson. The OpenSSL toolkit is licensed under a dual-license (the
20 OpenSSL license plus the SSLeay license) situation, which basically means
21 that you are free to get and use it for commercial and non-commercial
22 purposes as long as you fulfill the conditions of both licenses.
27 The OpenSSL toolkit includes:
30 Implementation of SSLv2, SSLv3, TLSv1 and the required code to support
31 both SSLv2, SSLv3 and TLSv1 in the one server and client.
34 General encryption and X.509 v1/v3 stuff needed by SSL/TLS but not
35 actually logically part of it. It includes routines for the following:
38 libdes - EAY's libdes DES encryption package which has been floating
39 around the net for a few years. It includes 15
40 'modes/variations' of DES (1, 2 and 3 key versions of ecb,
41 cbc, cfb and ofb; pcbc and a more general form of cfb and
42 ofb) including desx in cbc mode, a fast crypt(3), and
43 routines to read passwords from the keyboard.
45 RC2 encryption - 4 different modes, ecb, cbc, cfb and ofb.
46 Blowfish encryption - 4 different modes, ecb, cbc, cfb and ofb.
47 IDEA encryption - 4 different modes, ecb, cbc, cfb and ofb.
50 MD5 and MD2 message digest algorithms, fast implementations,
51 SHA (SHA-0) and SHA-1 message digest algorithms,
52 MDC2 message digest. A DES based hash that is popular on smart cards.
55 RSA encryption/decryption/generation.
56 There is no limit on the number of bits.
57 DSA encryption/decryption/generation.
58 There is no limit on the number of bits.
59 Diffie-Hellman key-exchange/key generation.
60 There is no limit on the number of bits.
63 X509 encoding/decoding into/from binary ASN1 and a PEM
64 based ascii-binary encoding which supports encryption with a
65 private key. Program to generate RSA and DSA certificate
66 requests and to generate RSA and DSA certificates.
69 The normal digital envelope routines and base64 encoding. Higher
70 level access to ciphers and digests by name. New ciphers can be
71 loaded at run time. The BIO io system which is a simple non-blocking
72 IO abstraction. Current methods supported are file descriptors,
73 sockets, socket accept, socket connect, memory buffer, buffering, SSL
74 client/server, file pointer, encryption, digest, non-blocking testing
78 A dynamically growing hashing system
80 A Configuration loader that uses a format similar to MS .ini files.
83 A command line tool that can be used for:
84 Creation of RSA, DH and DSA key parameters
85 Creation of X.509 certificates, CSRs and CRLs
86 Calculation of Message Digests
87 Encryption and Decryption with Ciphers
88 SSL/TLS Client and Server Tests
89 Handling of S/MIME signed or encrypted mail
95 Various companies hold various patents for various algorithms in various
96 locations around the world. _YOU_ are responsible for ensuring that your use
97 of any algorithms is legal by checking if there are any patents in your
98 country. The file contains some of the patents that we know about or are
99 rumoured to exist. This is not a definitive list.
101 RSA Data Security holds software patents on the RSA and RC5 algorithms. If
102 their ciphers are used used inside the USA (and Japan?), you must contact RSA
103 Data Security for licensing conditions. Their web page is
106 RC4 is a trademark of RSA Data Security, so use of this label should perhaps
107 only be used with RSA Data Security's permission.
109 The IDEA algorithm is patented by Ascom in Austria, France, Germany, Italy,
110 Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the USA. They should
111 be contacted if that algorithm is to be used, their web page is
112 http://www.ascom.ch/.
117 To install this package under a Unix derivative, read the INSTALL file. For
118 a Win32 platform, read the INSTALL.W32 file. For OpenVMS systems, read
121 For people in the USA, it is possible to compile OpenSSL to use RSA Inc.'s
122 public key library, RSAREF, by configuring OpenSSL with the option "rsaref".
124 Read the documentation in the doc/ directory. It is quite rough, but it
125 lists the functions, you will probably have to look at the code to work out
126 how to used them. Look at the example programs.
131 If you have any problems with OpenSSL then please take the following steps
134 - Download the current snapshot from ftp://ftp.openssl.org/snapshot/
135 to see if the problem has already been addressed
136 - Remove ASM versions of libraries
137 - Remove compiler optimisation flags
139 If you wish to report a bug then please include the following information in
143 Self-test report generated by 'make report'
145 OpenSSL version: output of 'openssl version -a'
146 OS Name, Version, Hardware platform
147 Compiler Details (name, version)
148 - Application Details (name, version)
149 - Problem Description (steps that will reproduce the problem, if known)
150 - Stack Traceback (if the application dumps core)
152 Report the bug to the OpenSSL project at:
154 openssl-bugs@openssl.org
156 Note that mail to openssl-bugs@openssl.org is forwarded to a public
157 mailing list. Confidential mail may be sent to openssl-security@openssl.org
158 (PGP key available from the key servers).
160 HOW TO CONTRIBUTE TO OpenSSL
161 ----------------------------
163 Development is coordinated on the openssl-dev mailing list (see
164 http://www.openssl.org for information on subscribing). If you
165 would like to submit a patch, send it to openssl-dev@openssl.org with
166 the string "[PATCH]" in the subject. Please be sure to include a
167 textual explanation of what your patch does.
169 The preferred format for changes is "diff -u" output. You might
170 generate it like this:
174 # ./Configure dist; make clean
176 # diff -urN openssl-orig openssl-work > mydiffs.patch