- OpenSSL 0.9.6-beta1 11 Sep 2000
+ OpenSSL 1.0.2e-dev
- Copyright (c) 1998-2000 The OpenSSL Project
+ Copyright (c) 1998-2015 The OpenSSL Project
Copyright (c) 1995-1998 Eric A. Young, Tim J. Hudson
All rights reserved.
The OpenSSL Project is a collaborative effort to develop a robust,
commercial-grade, fully featured, and Open Source toolkit implementing the
- Secure Sockets Layer (SSL v2/v3) and Transport Layer Security (TLS v1)
- protocols as well as a full-strength general purpose cryptography library.
- The project is managed by a worldwide community of volunteers that use the
- Internet to communicate, plan, and develop the OpenSSL toolkit and its
- related documentation.
+ Secure Sockets Layer (SSLv3) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols as
+ well as a full-strength general purpose cryptograpic library. The project is
+ managed by a worldwide community of volunteers that use the Internet to
+ communicate, plan, and develop the OpenSSL toolkit and its related
+ documentation.
- OpenSSL is based on the excellent SSLeay library developed from Eric A. Young
+ OpenSSL is descended from the SSLeay library developed by Eric A. Young
and Tim J. Hudson. The OpenSSL toolkit is licensed under a dual-license (the
- OpenSSL license plus the SSLeay license) situation, which basically means
- that you are free to get and use it for commercial and non-commercial
- purposes as long as you fulfill the conditions of both licenses.
+ OpenSSL license plus the SSLeay license), which means that you are free to
+ get and use it for commercial and non-commercial purposes as long as you
+ fulfill the conditions of both licenses.
OVERVIEW
--------
The OpenSSL toolkit includes:
libssl.a:
- Implementation of SSLv2, SSLv3, TLSv1 and the required code to support
- both SSLv2, SSLv3 and TLSv1 in the one server and client.
+ Provides the client and server-side implementations for SSLv3 and TLS.
libcrypto.a:
- General encryption and X.509 v1/v3 stuff needed by SSL/TLS but not
- actually logically part of it. It includes routines for the following:
-
- Ciphers
- libdes - EAY's libdes DES encryption package which has been floating
- around the net for a few years. It includes 15
- 'modes/variations' of DES (1, 2 and 3 key versions of ecb,
- cbc, cfb and ofb; pcbc and a more general form of cfb and
- ofb) including desx in cbc mode, a fast crypt(3), and
- routines to read passwords from the keyboard.
- RC4 encryption,
- RC2 encryption - 4 different modes, ecb, cbc, cfb and ofb.
- Blowfish encryption - 4 different modes, ecb, cbc, cfb and ofb.
- IDEA encryption - 4 different modes, ecb, cbc, cfb and ofb.
-
- Digests
- MD5 and MD2 message digest algorithms, fast implementations,
- SHA (SHA-0) and SHA-1 message digest algorithms,
- MDC2 message digest. A DES based hash that is popular on smart cards.
-
- Public Key
- RSA encryption/decryption/generation.
- There is no limit on the number of bits.
- DSA encryption/decryption/generation.
- There is no limit on the number of bits.
- Diffie-Hellman key-exchange/key generation.
- There is no limit on the number of bits.
-
- X.509v3 certificates
- X509 encoding/decoding into/from binary ASN1 and a PEM
- based ascii-binary encoding which supports encryption with a
- private key. Program to generate RSA and DSA certificate
- requests and to generate RSA and DSA certificates.
-
- Systems
- The normal digital envelope routines and base64 encoding. Higher
- level access to ciphers and digests by name. New ciphers can be
- loaded at run time. The BIO io system which is a simple non-blocking
- IO abstraction. Current methods supported are file descriptors,
- sockets, socket accept, socket connect, memory buffer, buffering, SSL
- client/server, file pointer, encryption, digest, non-blocking testing
- and null.
-
- Data structures
- A dynamically growing hashing system
- A simple stack.
- A Configuration loader that uses a format similar to MS .ini files.
-
- openssl:
+ Provides general cryptographic and X.509 support needed by SSL/TLS but
+ not logically part of it.
+
+ openssl:
A command line tool that can be used for:
- Creation of RSA, DH and DSA key parameters
- Creation of X.509 certificates, CSRs and CRLs
- Calculation of Message Digests
- Encryption and Decryption with Ciphers
- SSL/TLS Client and Server Tests
+ Creation of key parameters
+ Creation of X.509 certificates, CSRs and CRLs
+ Calculation of message digests
+ Encryption and decryption
+ SSL/TLS client and server tests
Handling of S/MIME signed or encrypted mail
-
-
- PATENTS
- -------
-
- Various companies hold various patents for various algorithms in various
- locations around the world. _YOU_ are responsible for ensuring that your use
- of any algorithms is legal by checking if there are any patents in your
- country. The file contains some of the patents that we know about or are
- rumoured to exist. This is not a definitive list.
-
- RSA Security holds software patents on the RC5 algorithm. If you
- intend to use this cipher, you must contact RSA Security for
- licensing conditions. Their web page is http://www.rsasecurity.com/.
-
- RC4 is a trademark of RSA Security, so use of this label should perhaps
- only be used with RSA Security's permission.
-
- The IDEA algorithm is patented by Ascom in Austria, France, Germany, Italy,
- Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the USA. They should
- be contacted if that algorithm is to be used, their web page is
- http://www.ascom.ch/.
+ And more...
INSTALLATION
------------
- To install this package under a Unix derivative, read the INSTALL file. For
- a Win32 platform, read the INSTALL.W32 file. For OpenVMS systems, read
- INSTALL.VMS.
-
- Read the documentation in the doc/ directory. It is quite rough, but it
- lists the functions, you will probably have to look at the code to work out
- how to used them. Look at the example programs.
-
- SUPPORT
+ See the appropriate file:
+ INSTALL Linux, Unix, etc.
+ INSTALL.DJGPP DOS platform with DJGPP
+ INSTALL.NW Netware
+ INSTALL.OS2 OS/2
+ INSTALL.VMS VMS
+ INSTALL.W32 Windows (32bit)
+ INSTALL.W64 Windows (64bit)
+ INSTALL.WCE Windows CE
+
+ SUPPORT
-------
+ See the OpenSSL website www.openssl.org for details on how to obtain
+ commercial technical support.
+
If you have any problems with OpenSSL then please take the following steps
first:
- Download the current snapshot from ftp://ftp.openssl.org/snapshot/
to see if the problem has already been addressed
- Remove ASM versions of libraries
- - Remove compiler optimisation flags
+ - Remove compiler optimisation flags
If you wish to report a bug then please include the following information in
any bug report:
- Problem Description (steps that will reproduce the problem, if known)
- Stack Traceback (if the application dumps core)
- Report the bug to the OpenSSL project at:
+ Email the report to:
+
+ rt@openssl.org
+
+ In order to avoid spam, this is a moderated mailing list, and it might
+ take a day for the ticket to show up. (We also scan posts to make sure
+ that security disclosures aren't publically posted by mistake.) Mail to
+ this address is recorded in the public RT (request tracker) database (see
+ https://www.openssl.org/support/rt.html for details) and also forwarded
+ the public openssl-dev mailing list. Confidential mail may be sent to
+ openssl-security@openssl.org (PGP key available from the key servers).
- openssl-bugs@openssl.org
+ Please do NOT use this for general assistance or support queries.
+ Just because something doesn't work the way you expect does not mean it
+ is necessarily a bug in OpenSSL.
- Note that mail to openssl-bugs@openssl.org is forwarded to a public
- mailing list. Confidential mail may be sent to openssl-security@openssl.org
- (PGP key available from the key servers).
+ You can also make GitHub pull requests. If you do this, please also send
+ mail to rt@openssl.org with a link to the PR so that we can more easily
+ keep track of it.
HOW TO CONTRIBUTE TO OpenSSL
----------------------------
- Development is coordinated on the openssl-dev mailing list (see
- http://www.openssl.org for information on subscribing). If you
- would like to submit a patch, send it to openssl-dev@openssl.org with
- the string "[PATCH]" in the subject. Please be sure to include a
- textual explanation of what your patch does.
+ See CONTRIBUTING
- The preferred format for changes is "diff -u" output. You might
- generate it like this:
+ LEGALITIES
+ ----------
- # cd openssl-work
- # [your changes]
- # ./Configure dist; make clean
- # cd ..
- # diff -ur openssl-orig openssl-work > mydiffs.patch
+ A number of nations, in particular the U.S., restrict the use or export
+ of cryptography. If you are potentially subject to such restrictions
+ you should seek competent professional legal advice before attempting to
+ develop or distribute cryptographic code.