+correctly. OpenSSL 0.9.5 and later make the error visible by refusing
+to perform potentially insecure encryption.
+
+On systems without /dev/urandom and /dev/random, it is a good idea to
+use the Entropy Gathering Demon (EGD); see the RAND_egd() manpage for
+details. Starting with version 0.9.7, OpenSSL will automatically look
+for an EGD socket at /var/run/egd-pool, /dev/egd-pool, /etc/egd-pool and
+/etc/entropy.
+
+Most components of the openssl command line utility automatically try
+to seed the random number generator from a file. The name of the
+default seeding file is determined as follows: If environment variable
+RANDFILE is set, then it names the seeding file. Otherwise if
+environment variable HOME is set, then the seeding file is $HOME/.rnd.
+If neither RANDFILE nor HOME is set, versions up to OpenSSL 0.9.6 will
+use file .rnd in the current directory while OpenSSL 0.9.6a uses no
+default seeding file at all. OpenSSL 0.9.6b and later will behave
+similarly to 0.9.6a, but will use a default of "C:\" for HOME on
+Windows systems if the environment variable has not been set.
+
+If the default seeding file does not exist or is too short, the "PRNG
+not seeded" error message may occur.
+
+The openssl command line utility will write back a new state to the
+default seeding file (and create this file if necessary) unless
+there was no sufficient seeding.
+
+Pointing $RANDFILE to an Entropy Gathering Daemon socket does not work.
+Use the "-rand" option of the OpenSSL command line tools instead.
+The $RANDFILE environment variable and $HOME/.rnd are only used by the
+OpenSSL command line tools. Applications using the OpenSSL library
+provide their own configuration options to specify the entropy source,
+please check out the documentation coming the with application.
+
+For Solaris 2.6, Tim Nibbe <tnibbe@sprint.net> and others have suggested
+installing the SUNski package from Sun patch 105710-01 (Sparc) which
+adds a /dev/random device and make sure it gets used, usually through
+$RANDFILE. There are probably similar patches for the other Solaris
+versions. An official statement from Sun with respect to /dev/random
+support can be found at
+ http://sunsolve.sun.com/pub-cgi/retrieve.pl?doc=fsrdb/27606&zone_32=SUNWski
+However, be warned that /dev/random is usually a blocking device, which
+may have some effects on OpenSSL.
+
+
+* Why do I get an "unable to write 'random state'" error message?
+
+
+Sometimes the openssl command line utility does not abort with
+a "PRNG not seeded" error message, but complains that it is
+"unable to write 'random state'". This message refers to the
+default seeding file (see previous answer). A possible reason
+is that no default filename is known because neither RANDFILE
+nor HOME is set. (Versions up to 0.9.6 used file ".rnd" in the
+current directory in this case, but this has changed with 0.9.6a.)
+
+
+* How do I create certificates or certificate requests?
+
+Check out the CA.pl(1) manual page. This provides a simple wrapper round
+the 'req', 'verify', 'ca' and 'pkcs12' utilities. For finer control check
+out the manual pages for the individual utilities and the certificate
+extensions documentation (currently in doc/openssl.txt).
+
+
+* Why can't I create certificate requests?
+
+You typically get the error:
+
+ unable to find 'distinguished_name' in config
+ problems making Certificate Request
+
+This is because it can't find the configuration file. Check out the
+DIAGNOSTICS section of req(1) for more information.
+
+
+* Why does <SSL program> fail with a certificate verify error?
+
+This problem is usually indicated by log messages saying something like
+"unable to get local issuer certificate" or "self signed certificate".
+When a certificate is verified its root CA must be "trusted" by OpenSSL
+this typically means that the CA certificate must be placed in a directory
+or file and the relevant program configured to read it. The OpenSSL program
+'verify' behaves in a similar way and issues similar error messages: check
+the verify(1) program manual page for more information.
+
+
+* Why can I only use weak ciphers when I connect to a server using OpenSSL?
+
+This is almost certainly because you are using an old "export grade" browser
+which only supports weak encryption. Upgrade your browser to support 128 bit
+ciphers.
+
+
+* How can I create DSA certificates?
+
+Check the CA.pl(1) manual page for a DSA certificate example.
+
+
+* Why can't I make an SSL connection to a server using a DSA certificate?
+
+Typically you'll see a message saying there are no shared ciphers when
+the same setup works fine with an RSA certificate. There are two possible
+causes. The client may not support connections to DSA servers most web
+browsers (including Netscape and MSIE) only support connections to servers
+supporting RSA cipher suites. The other cause is that a set of DH parameters
+has not been supplied to the server. DH parameters can be created with the
+dhparam(1) command and loaded using the SSL_CTX_set_tmp_dh() for example:
+check the source to s_server in apps/s_server.c for an example.
+
+
+* How can I remove the passphrase on a private key?
+
+Firstly you should be really *really* sure you want to do this. Leaving
+a private key unencrypted is a major security risk. If you decide that
+you do have to do this check the EXAMPLES sections of the rsa(1) and
+dsa(1) manual pages.
+
+
+* Why can't I use OpenSSL certificates with SSL client authentication?
+
+What will typically happen is that when a server requests authentication
+it will either not include your certificate or tell you that you have
+no client certificates (Netscape) or present you with an empty list box
+(MSIE). The reason for this is that when a server requests a client
+certificate it includes a list of CAs names which it will accept. Browsers
+will only let you select certificates from the list on the grounds that
+there is little point presenting a certificate which the server will
+reject.
+
+The solution is to add the relevant CA certificate to your servers "trusted
+CA list". How you do this depends on the server software in uses. You can
+print out the servers list of acceptable CAs using the OpenSSL s_client tool:
+
+openssl s_client -connect www.some.host:443 -prexit
+
+If your server only requests certificates on certain URLs then you may need
+to manually issue an HTTP GET command to get the list when s_client connects:
+
+GET /some/page/needing/a/certificate.html
+
+If your CA does not appear in the list then this confirms the problem.
+
+
+* Why does my browser give a warning about a mismatched hostname?
+
+Browsers expect the server's hostname to match the value in the commonName
+(CN) field of the certificate. If it does not then you get a warning.
+
+
+* How do I install a CA certificate into a browser?
+
+The usual way is to send the DER encoded certificate to the browser as
+MIME type application/x-x509-ca-cert, for example by clicking on an appropriate
+link. On MSIE certain extensions such as .der or .cacert may also work, or you
+can import the certificate using the certificate import wizard.
+
+You can convert a certificate to DER form using the command:
+
+openssl x509 -in ca.pem -outform DER -out ca.der
+
+Occasionally someone suggests using a command such as:
+
+openssl pkcs12 -export -out cacert.p12 -in cacert.pem -inkey cakey.pem
+
+DO NOT DO THIS! This command will give away your CAs private key and
+reduces its security to zero: allowing anyone to forge certificates in
+whatever name they choose.
+
+* Why is OpenSSL x509 DN output not conformant to RFC2253?
+
+The ways to print out the oneline format of the DN (Distinguished Name) have
+been extended in version 0.9.7 of OpenSSL. Using the new X509_NAME_print_ex()
+interface, the "-nameopt" option could be introduded. See the manual
+page of the "openssl x509" commandline tool for details. The old behaviour
+has however been left as default for the sake of compatibility.
+
+[BUILD] =======================================================================
+
+* Why does the linker complain about undefined symbols?
+
+Maybe the compilation was interrupted, and make doesn't notice that
+something is missing. Run "make clean; make".
+
+If you used ./Configure instead of ./config, make sure that you
+selected the right target. File formats may differ slightly between
+OS versions (for example sparcv8/sparcv9, or a.out/elf).
+
+In case you get errors about the following symbols, use the config
+option "no-asm", as described in INSTALL:
+
+ BF_cbc_encrypt, BF_decrypt, BF_encrypt, CAST_cbc_encrypt,
+ CAST_decrypt, CAST_encrypt, RC4, RC5_32_cbc_encrypt, RC5_32_decrypt,
+ RC5_32_encrypt, bn_add_words, bn_div_words, bn_mul_add_words,
+ bn_mul_comba4, bn_mul_comba8, bn_mul_words, bn_sqr_comba4,
+ bn_sqr_comba8, bn_sqr_words, bn_sub_words, des_decrypt3,
+ des_ede3_cbc_encrypt, des_encrypt, des_encrypt2, des_encrypt3,
+ des_ncbc_encrypt, md5_block_asm_host_order, sha1_block_asm_data_order
+
+If none of these helps, you may want to try using the current snapshot.
+If the problem persists, please submit a bug report.
+
+
+* Why does the OpenSSL test fail with "bc: command not found"?
+
+You didn't install "bc", the Unix calculator. If you want to run the
+tests, get GNU bc from ftp://ftp.gnu.org or from your OS distributor.
+
+
+* Why does the OpenSSL test fail with "bc: 1 no implemented"?
+
+On some SCO installations or versions, bc has a bug that gets triggered
+when you run the test suite (using "make test"). The message returned is
+"bc: 1 not implemented".
+
+The best way to deal with this is to find another implementation of bc
+and compile/install it. GNU bc (see http://www.gnu.org/software/software.html
+for download instructions) can be safely used, for example.
+
+
+* Why does the OpenSSL compilation fail on Alpha Tru64 Unix?
+
+On some Alpha installations running Tru64 Unix and Compaq C, the compilation
+of crypto/sha/sha_dgst.c fails with the message 'Fatal: Insufficient virtual
+memory to continue compilation.' As far as the tests have shown, this may be
+a compiler bug. What happens is that it eats up a lot of resident memory
+to build something, probably a table. The problem is clearly in the
+optimization code, because if one eliminates optimization completely (-O0),
+the compilation goes through (and the compiler consumes about 2MB of resident
+memory instead of 240MB or whatever one's limit is currently).
+
+There are three options to solve this problem:
+
+1. set your current data segment size soft limit higher. Experience shows
+that about 241000 kbytes seems to be enough on an AlphaServer DS10. You do
+this with the command 'ulimit -Sd nnnnnn', where 'nnnnnn' is the number of
+kbytes to set the limit to.
+
+2. If you have a hard limit that is lower than what you need and you can't
+get it changed, you can compile all of OpenSSL with -O0 as optimization
+level. This is however not a very nice thing to do for those who expect to
+get the best result from OpenSSL. A bit more complicated solution is the
+following:
+
+----- snip:start -----
+ make DIRS=crypto SDIRS=sha "`grep '^CFLAG=' Makefile.ssl | \
+ sed -e 's/ -O[0-9] / -O0 /'`"
+ rm `ls crypto/*.o crypto/sha/*.o | grep -v 'sha_dgst\.o'`
+ make
+----- snip:end -----
+
+This will only compile sha_dgst.c with -O0, the rest with the optimization
+level chosen by the configuration process. When the above is done, do the
+test and installation and you're set.
+
+
+* Why does the OpenSSL compilation fail with "ar: command not found"?
+
+Getting this message is quite usual on Solaris 2, because Sun has hidden
+away 'ar' and other development commands in directories that aren't in
+$PATH by default. One of those directories is '/usr/ccs/bin'. The
+quickest way to fix this is to do the following (it assumes you use sh
+or any sh-compatible shell):
+
+----- snip:start -----
+ PATH=${PATH}:/usr/ccs/bin; export PATH
+----- snip:end -----
+
+and then redo the compilation. What you should really do is make sure
+'/usr/ccs/bin' is permanently in your $PATH, for example through your
+'.profile' (again, assuming you use a sh-compatible shell).
+
+
+* Why does the OpenSSL compilation fail on Win32 with VC++?
+
+Sometimes, you may get reports from VC++ command line (cl) that it
+can't find standard include files like stdio.h and other weirdnesses.
+One possible cause is that the environment isn't correctly set up.
+To solve that problem, one should run VCVARS32.BAT which is found in
+the 'bin' subdirectory of the VC++ installation directory (somewhere
+under 'Program Files'). This needs to be done prior to running NMAKE,
+and the changes are only valid for the current DOS session.
+
+
+* What is special about OpenSSL on Redhat?
+
+Red Hat Linux (release 7.0 and later) include a preinstalled limited
+version of OpenSSL. For patent reasons, support for IDEA, RC5 and MDC2
+is disabled in this version. The same may apply to other Linux distributions.
+Users may therefore wish to install more or all of the features left out.
+
+To do this you MUST ensure that you do not overwrite the openssl that is in
+/usr/bin on your Red Hat machine. Several packages depend on this file,
+including sendmail and ssh. /usr/local/bin is a good alternative choice. The
+libraries that come with Red Hat 7.0 onwards have different names and so are
+not affected. (eg For Red Hat 7.2 they are /lib/libssl.so.0.9.6b and
+/lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.6b with symlinks /lib/libssl.so.2 and
+/lib/libcrypto.so.2 respectively).
+
+Please note that we have been advised by Red Hat attempting to recompile the
+openssl rpm with all the cryptography enabled will not work. All other
+packages depend on the original Red Hat supplied openssl package. It is also
+worth noting that due to the way Red Hat supplies its packages, updates to
+openssl on each distribution never change the package version, only the
+build number. For example, on Red Hat 7.1, the latest openssl package has
+version number 0.9.6 and build number 9 even though it contains all the
+relevant updates in packages up to and including 0.9.6b.
+
+A possible way around this is to persuade Red Hat to produce a non-US
+version of Red Hat Linux.
+
+FYI: Patent numbers and expiry dates of US patents:
+MDC-2: 4,908,861 13/03/2007
+IDEA: 5,214,703 25/05/2010
+RC5: 5,724,428 03/03/2015
+
+[PROG] ========================================================================
+
+* Is OpenSSL thread-safe?
+
+Yes (with limitations: an SSL connection may not concurrently be used
+by multiple threads). On Windows and many Unix systems, OpenSSL
+automatically uses the multi-threaded versions of the standard
+libraries. If your platform is not one of these, consult the INSTALL
+file.
+
+Multi-threaded applications must provide two callback functions to
+OpenSSL. This is described in the threads(3) manpage.
+
+
+* I've compiled a program under Windows and it crashes: why?
+
+This is usually because you've missed the comment in INSTALL.W32.
+Your application must link against the same version of the Win32
+C-Runtime against which your openssl libraries were linked. The
+default version for OpenSSL is /MD - "Multithreaded DLL".
+
+If you are using Microsoft Visual C++'s IDE (Visual Studio), in
+many cases, your new project most likely defaulted to "Debug
+Singlethreaded" - /ML. This is NOT interchangeable with /MD and your
+program will crash, typically on the first BIO related read or write
+operation.
+
+For each of the six possible link stage configurations within Win32,
+your application must link against the same by which OpenSSL was
+built. If you are using MS Visual C++ (Studio) this can be changed
+by:
+
+1. Select Settings... from the Project Menu.
+2. Select the C/C++ Tab.
+3. Select "Code Generation from the "Category" drop down list box
+4. Select the Appropriate library (see table below) from the "Use
+ run-time library" drop down list box. Perform this step for both
+ your debug and release versions of your application (look at the
+ top left of the settings panel to change between the two)
+
+ Single Threaded /ML - MS VC++ often defaults to
+ this for the release
+ version of a new project.
+ Debug Single Threaded /MLd - MS VC++ often defaults to
+ this for the debug version
+ of a new project.
+ Multithreaded /MT
+ Debug Multithreaded /MTd
+ Multithreaded DLL /MD - OpenSSL defaults to this.
+ Debug Multithreaded DLL /MDd
+
+Note that debug and release libraries are NOT interchangeable. If you
+built OpenSSL with /MD your application must use /MD and cannot use /MDd.
+
+
+* How do I read or write a DER encoded buffer using the ASN1 functions?
+
+You have two options. You can either use a memory BIO in conjunction
+with the i2d_XXX_bio() or d2i_XXX_bio() functions or you can use the
+i2d_XXX(), d2i_XXX() functions directly. Since these are often the
+cause of grief here are some code fragments using PKCS7 as an example:
+
+unsigned char *buf, *p;
+int len;
+
+len = i2d_PKCS7(p7, NULL);
+buf = OPENSSL_malloc(len); /* or Malloc, error checking omitted */
+p = buf;
+i2d_PKCS7(p7, &p);
+
+At this point buf contains the len bytes of the DER encoding of
+p7.
+
+The opposite assumes we already have len bytes in buf:
+
+unsigned char *p;
+p = buf;
+p7 = d2i_PKCS7(NULL, &p, len);
+
+At this point p7 contains a valid PKCS7 structure of NULL if an error
+occurred. If an error occurred ERR_print_errors(bio) should give more
+information.
+
+The reason for the temporary variable 'p' is that the ASN1 functions
+increment the passed pointer so it is ready to read or write the next
+structure. This is often a cause of problems: without the temporary
+variable the buffer pointer is changed to point just after the data
+that has been read or written. This may well be uninitialized data
+and attempts to free the buffer will have unpredictable results
+because it no longer points to the same address.
+
+
+* I've tried using <M_some_evil_pkcs12_macro> and I get errors why?
+
+This usually happens when you try compiling something using the PKCS#12
+macros with a C++ compiler. There is hardly ever any need to use the
+PKCS#12 macros in a program, it is much easier to parse and create
+PKCS#12 files using the PKCS12_parse() and PKCS12_create() functions
+documented in doc/openssl.txt and with examples in demos/pkcs12. The
+'pkcs12' application has to use the macros because it prints out
+debugging information.
+
+
+* I've called <some function> and it fails, why?
+
+Before submitting a report or asking in one of the mailing lists, you
+should try to determine the cause. In particular, you should call
+ERR_print_errors() or ERR_print_errors_fp() after the failed call
+and see if the message helps. Note that the problem may occur earlier
+than you think -- you should check for errors after every call where
+it is possible, otherwise the actual problem may be hidden because
+some OpenSSL functions clear the error state.
+
+
+* I just get a load of numbers for the error output, what do they mean?
+
+The actual format is described in the ERR_print_errors() manual page.
+You should call the function ERR_load_crypto_strings() before hand and
+the message will be output in text form. If you can't do this (for example
+it is a pre-compiled binary) you can use the errstr utility on the error
+code itself (the hex digits after the second colon).
+
+
+* Why do I get errors about unknown algorithms?
+
+This can happen under several circumstances such as reading in an
+encrypted private key or attempting to decrypt a PKCS#12 file. The cause
+is forgetting to load OpenSSL's table of algorithms with
+OpenSSL_add_all_algorithms(). See the manual page for more information.
+
+
+* Why can't the OpenSSH configure script detect OpenSSL?
+
+Several reasons for problems with the automatic detection exist.
+OpenSSH requires at least version 0.9.5a of the OpenSSL libraries.
+Sometimes the distribution has installed an older version in the system
+locations that is detected instead of a new one installed. The OpenSSL
+library might have been compiled for another CPU or another mode (32/64 bits).
+Permissions might be wrong.
+
+The general answer is to check the config.log file generated when running
+the OpenSSH configure script. It should contain the detailed information
+on why the OpenSSL library was not detected or considered incompatible.
+
+* Can I use OpenSSL's SSL library with non-blocking I/O?
+
+Yes; make sure to read the SSL_get_error(3) manual page!
+
+A pitfall to avoid: Don't assume that SSL_read() will just read from
+the underlying transport or that SSL_write() will just write to it --
+it is also possible that SSL_write() cannot do any useful work until
+there is data to read, or that SSL_read() cannot do anything until it
+is possible to send data. One reason for this is that the peer may
+request a new TLS/SSL handshake at any time during the protocol,
+requiring a bi-directional message exchange; both SSL_read() and
+SSL_write() will try to continue any pending handshake.
+
+
+* Why doesn't my server application receive a client certificate?
+
+Due to the TLS protocol definition, a client will only send a certificate,
+if explicitly asked by the server. Use the SSL_VERIFY_PEER flag of the
+SSL_CTX_set_verify() function to enable the use of client certificates.
+
+
+* Why does compilation fail due to an undefined symbol NID_uniqueIdentifier?
+
+For OpenSSL 0.9.7 the OID table was extended and corrected. In earlier
+versions, uniqueIdentifier was incorrectly used for X.509 certificates.
+The correct name according to RFC2256 (LDAP) is x500UniqueIdentifier.
+Change your code to use the new name when compiling against OpenSSL 0.9.7.
+
+
+===============================================================================
+