* Why aren't tools like 'autoconf' and 'libtool' used?
* What is an 'engine' version?
* How do I check the authenticity of the OpenSSL distribution?
+* How does the versioning scheme work?
[LEGAL] Legal questions
* What is a "128 bit certificate"? Can I create one with OpenSSL?
* Why does OpenSSL set the authority key identifier extension incorrectly?
* How can I set up a bundle of commercial root CA certificates?
+* Some secure servers 'hang' with OpenSSL 1.0.1, is this a bug?
[BUILD] Questions about building and testing OpenSSL
* Why does Valgrind complain about the use of uninitialized data?
* Why doesn't a memory BIO work when a file does?
* Where are the declarations and implementations of d2i_X509() etc?
+* When debugging I observe SIGILL during OpenSSL initialization: why?
===============================================================================
* Which is the current version of OpenSSL?
The current version is available from <URL: http://www.openssl.org>.
-OpenSSL 1.0.0 was released on Mar 29th, 2010.
In addition to the current stable release, you can also access daily
snapshots of the OpenSSL development version at <URL:
-ftp://ftp.openssl.org/snapshot/>, or get it by anonymous CVS access.
+ftp://ftp.openssl.org/snapshot/>, or get it by anonymous Git access.
* Where is the documentation?
<URL: http://www.openssl.org/docs/>. Note that the online documents refer
to the very latest development versions of OpenSSL and may include features
not present in released versions. If in doubt refer to the documentation
-that came with the version of OpenSSL you are using.
-
-For information on parts of libcrypto that are not yet documented, you
-might want to read Ariel Glenn's documentation on SSLeay 0.9, OpenSSL's
-predecessor, at <URL: http://www.columbia.edu/~ariel/ssleay/>. Much
-of this still applies to OpenSSL.
+that came with the version of OpenSSL you are using. The pod format
+documentation is included in each OpenSSL distribution under the docs
+directory.
There is some documentation about certificate extensions and PKCS#12
in doc/openssl.txt
* Where can I get a compiled version of OpenSSL?
You can finder pointers to binary distributions in
-<URL: http://www.openssl.org/related/binaries.html> .
+<URL: http://www.openssl.org/about/binaries.html> .
Some applications that use OpenSSL are distributed in binary form.
When using such an application, you don't need to install OpenSSL
pgp TARBALL.asc
+* How does the versioning scheme work?
+
+After the release of OpenSSL 1.0.0 the versioning scheme changed. Letter
+releases (e.g. 1.0.1a) can only contain bug and security fixes and no
+new features. Minor releases change the last number (e.g. 1.0.2) and
+can contain new features that retain binary compatibility. Changes to
+the middle number are considered major releases and neither source nor
+binary compatibility is guaranteed.
+
+Therefore the answer to the common question "when will feature X be
+backported to OpenSSL 1.0.0/0.9.8?" is "never" but it could appear
+in the next minor release.
+
+* What happens when the letter release reaches z?
+
+It was decided after the release of OpenSSL 0.9.8y the next version should
+be 0.9.8za then 0.9.8zb and so on.
+
+
[LEGAL] =======================================================================
* Do I need patent licenses to use OpenSSL?
-The patents section of the README file lists patents that may apply to
-you if you want to use OpenSSL. For information on intellectual
-property rights, please consult a lawyer. The OpenSSL team does not
-offer legal advice.
+For information on intellectual property rights, please consult a lawyer.
+The OpenSSL team does not offer legal advice.
You can configure OpenSSL so as not to use IDEA, MDC2 and RC5 by using
./config no-idea no-mdc2 no-rc5
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).
+extensions documentation (in ca(1), req(1), x509v3_config(5) )
* Why can't I create certificate requests?
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
+page of the "openssl x509" command line tool for details. The old behaviour
has however been left as default for the sake of compatibility.
* What is a "128 bit certificate"? Can I create one with OpenSSL?
inadequate. A relaxation of the rules allowed the use of strong encryption but
only to an authorised server.
-Two slighly different techniques were developed to support this, one used by
+Two slightly different techniques were developed to support this, one used by
Netscape was called "step up", the other used by MSIE was called "Server Gated
Cryptography" (SGC). When a browser initially connected to a server it would
check to see if the certificate contained certain extensions and was issued by
<URL: http://www.mail-archive.com/modssl-users@modssl.org/msg16980.html>
+* Some secure servers 'hang' with OpenSSL 1.0.1, is this a bug?
+
+OpenSSL 1.0.1 is the first release to support TLS 1.2, among other things,
+this increases the size of the default ClientHello message to more than
+255 bytes in length. Some software cannot handle this and hangs. For more
+details and workarounds see:
+
+ <URL: http://rt.openssl.org/Ticket/Display.html?user=guest&pass=guest&id=2771>
+
+
[BUILD] =======================================================================
* Why does the linker complain about undefined symbols?
* 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.
+version of OpenSSL. Red Hat has chosen to disable support for IDEA, RC5 and
+MDC2 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
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
-
* Why does the OpenSSL compilation fail on MacOS X?
If the test program in question fails withs SIGILL, Illegal Instruction
exception, then you more than likely to run SSE2-capable CPU, such as
Intel P4, under control of kernel which does not support SSE2
-instruction extentions. See accompanying INSTALL file and
+instruction extensions. See accompanying INSTALL file and
OPENSSL_ia32cap(3) documentation page for further information.
* Why does compiler fail to compile sha512.c?
* Test suite still fails, what to do?
-Another common reason for failure to complete some particular test is
-simply bad code generated by a buggy component in toolchain or deficiency
-in run-time environment. There are few cases documented in PROBLEMS file,
-consult it for possible workaround before you beat the drum. Even if you
-don't find solution or even mention there, do reserve for possibility of
-a compiler bug. Compiler bugs might appear in rather bizarre ways, they
-never make sense, and tend to emerge when you least expect them. In order
-to identify one, drop optimization level, e.g. by editing CFLAG line in
-top-level Makefile, recompile and re-run the test.
+Another common reason for test failures is bugs in the toolchain
+or run-time environment. Known cases of this are documented in the
+PROBLEMS file, please review it before you beat the drum. Even if you
+don't find anything in that file, please do consider the possibility
+of a compiler bug. Compiler bugs often appear in rather bizarre ways,
+they never make sense, and tend to emerge when you least expect
+them. One thing to try is to reduce the level of optimization (such
+as by editing the CFLAG variable line in the top-level Makefile),
+and then recompile and re-run the test.
* I think I've found a bug, what should I do?
unsure whether it is a bug or not submit a query to the openssl-users mailing
list.
+If you think you have found a bug based on the output of static analysis tools
+then please manually check the issue is genuine. Such tools can produce a
+LOT of false positives.
+
* I'm SURE I've found a bug, how do I report it?
+To avoid duplicated reports check the mailing lists and release notes for the
+relevant version of OpenSSL to see if the problem has been reported already.
+
Bug reports with no security implications should be sent to the request
-tracker. This can be done my mailing the report to <rt@openssl.org> (or its
+tracker. This can be done by mailing the report to <rt@openssl.org> (or its
alias <openssl-bugs@openssl.org>), please note that messages sent to the
request tracker also appear in the public openssl-dev mailing list.
If you think your bug has security implications then please send it to
openssl-security@openssl.org if you don't get a prompt reply at least
acknowledging receipt then resend or mail it directly to one of the
-more active team members (e.g. Steve).
+more active team members (e.g. Steve). If you wish to use PGP to send
+in a report please use one or more of the keys of the team members listed
+at <URL: http://www.openssl.org/about/>
+
+Note that bugs only present in the openssl utility are not in general
+considered to be security issues.
[PROG] ========================================================================
p = buf;
p7 = d2i_PKCS7(NULL, &p, len);
-At this point p7 contains a valid PKCS7 structure of NULL if an error
+At this point p7 contains a valid PKCS7 structure or NULL if an error
occurred. If an error occurred ERR_print_errors(bio) should give more
information.
and attempts to free the buffer will have unpredictable results
because it no longer points to the same address.
+Memory allocation and encoding can also be combined in a single
+operation by the ASN1 routines:
+
+ unsigned char *buf = NULL; /* mandatory */
+ int len;
+ len = i2d_PKCS7(p7, &buf);
+ if (len < 0)
+ /* Error */
+ /* Do some things with 'buf' */
+ /* Finished with buf: free it */
+ OPENSSL_free(buf);
+
+In this special case the "buf" parameter is *not* incremented, it points
+to the start of the encoding.
+
* OpenSSL uses DER but I need BER format: does OpenSSL support BER?
The implementation passes an ASN1 "template" defining the structure into an
ASN1 interpreter using generalised functions such as ASN1_item_d2i().
+* When debugging I observe SIGILL during OpenSSL initialization: why?
+
+OpenSSL adapts to processor it executes on and for this reason has to
+query its capabilities. Unfortunately on some processors the only way
+to achieve this for non-privileged code is to attempt instructions
+that can cause Illegal Instruction exceptions. The initialization
+procedure is coded to handle these exceptions to manipulate corresponding
+bits in capabilities vector. This normally appears transparent, except
+when you execute it under debugger, which stops prior delivering signal
+to handler. Simply resuming execution does the trick, but when debugging
+a lot it might feel counterproductive. Two options. Either set explicit
+capability environment variable in order to bypass the capability query
+(see corresponding crypto/*cap.c for details). Or configure debugger not
+to stop upon SIGILL exception, e.g. in gdb case add 'handle SIGILL nostop'
+to your .gdbinit.
===============================================================================
projects / openssl.git / blobdiff