ASN1 ==== Abstract Syntax Notation One (or ASN1) is a standard by ITU-T and ISO/IEC and used as a description language for defining data structure in an independent manner. Any data described in ASN1 notation can be serialized (or encoded) and de-serialized (or decoded) with well-defined encoding rules. A combination of ASN1 compiler and ASN1 decoder library function will provide a function interface for parsing encoded binary into specific data structure: 1) define data structure in a text file (*.asn1) 2) define "action" routines for specific "tags" defined in (1) 3) generate bytecode as a C file (*.asn1.[ch]) from *.asn1 file with ASN1 compiler (tools/asn1_compiler) 4) call a ASN1 decoder (asn1_ber_decoder()) with bytecode and data Usage of ASN1 compiler ---------------------- asn1_compiler [-v] [-d] : ASN1 input file : generated C file : generated include file Usage of ASN1 decoder --------------------- int asn1_ber_decoder(const struct asn1_decoder *decoder, void *context, const unsigned char *data, size_t datalen); @decoder: bytecode binary @context: context for decoder @data: data to be parsed @datalen: size of data As of writing this, ASN1 compiler and decoder are used to implement X509 certificate parser, pcks7 message parser and RSA public key parser for UEFI secure boot.