README

   1
   2  OpenSSL 0.9.5a  1 Apr 2000
   3
   4  Copyright (c) 1998-2000 The OpenSSL Project
   5  Copyright (c) 1995-1998 Eric A. Young, Tim J. Hudson
   6  All rights reserved.
   7
   8  DESCRIPTION
   9  -----------
  10
  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 as well as a full-strength general purpose cryptography library.
  15  The project is managed by a worldwide community of volunteers that use the
  16  Internet to communicate, plan, and develop the OpenSSL toolkit and its
  17  related documentation.
  18
  19  OpenSSL is based on the excellent SSLeay library developed from Eric A. Young
  20  and Tim J. Hudson.  The OpenSSL toolkit is licensed under a dual-license (the
  21  OpenSSL license plus the SSLeay license) situation, which basically means
  22  that you are free to get and use it for commercial and non-commercial
  23  purposes as long as you fulfill the conditions of both licenses.
  24
  25  OVERVIEW
  26  --------
  27
  28  The OpenSSL toolkit includes:
  29
  30  libssl.a:
  31      Implementation of SSLv2, SSLv3, TLSv1 and the required code to support
  32      both SSLv2, SSLv3 and TLSv1 in the one server and client.
  33
  34  libcrypto.a:
  35      General encryption and X.509 v1/v3 stuff needed by SSL/TLS but not
  36      actually logically part of it. It includes routines for the following:
  37
  38      Ciphers
  39         libdes - EAY's libdes DES encryption package which has been floating
  40                  around the net for a few years.  It includes 15
  41                  'modes/variations' of DES (1, 2 and 3 key versions of ecb,
  42                  cbc, cfb and ofb; pcbc and a more general form of cfb and
  43                  ofb) including desx in cbc mode, a fast crypt(3), and
  44                  routines to read passwords from the keyboard.
  45         RC4 encryption,
  46         RC2 encryption      - 4 different modes, ecb, cbc, cfb and ofb.
  47         Blowfish encryption - 4 different modes, ecb, cbc, cfb and ofb.
  48         IDEA encryption     - 4 different modes, ecb, cbc, cfb and ofb.
  49
  50      Digests
  51         MD5 and MD2 message digest algorithms, fast implementations,
  52         SHA (SHA-0) and SHA-1 message digest algorithms,
  53         MDC2 message digest. A DES based hash that is popular on smart cards.
  54
  55      Public Key
  56         RSA encryption/decryption/generation.
  57             There is no limit on the number of bits.
  58         DSA encryption/decryption/generation.
  59             There is no limit on the number of bits.
  60         Diffie-Hellman key-exchange/key generation.
  61             There is no limit on the number of bits.
  62
  63      X.509v3 certificates
  64         X509 encoding/decoding into/from binary ASN1 and a PEM
  65              based ascii-binary encoding which supports encryption with a
  66              private key.  Program to generate RSA and DSA certificate
  67              requests and to generate RSA and DSA certificates.
  68
  69      Systems
  70         The normal digital envelope routines and base64 encoding.  Higher
  71         level access to ciphers and digests by name.  New ciphers can be
  72         loaded at run time.  The BIO io system which is a simple non-blocking
  73         IO abstraction.  Current methods supported are file descriptors,
  74         sockets, socket accept, socket connect, memory buffer, buffering, SSL
  75         client/server, file pointer, encryption, digest, non-blocking testing
  76         and null.
  77
  78      Data structures
  79         A dynamically growing hashing system
  80         A simple stack.
  81         A Configuration loader that uses a format similar to MS .ini files.
  82
  83  openssl:
  84      A command line tool that can be used for:
  85         Creation of RSA, DH and DSA key parameters
  86         Creation of X.509 certificates, CSRs and CRLs
  87         Calculation of Message Digests
  88         Encryption and Decryption with Ciphers
  89         SSL/TLS Client and Server Tests
  90         Handling of S/MIME signed or encrypted mail
  91
  92
  93  PATENTS
  94  -------
  95
  96  Various companies hold various patents for various algorithms in various
  97  locations around the world. _YOU_ are responsible for ensuring that your use
  98  of any algorithms is legal by checking if there are any patents in your
  99  country.  The file contains some of the patents that we know about or are
 100  rumoured to exist. This is not a definitive list.
 101
 102  RSA Data Security holds software patents on the RSA and RC5 algorithms.  If
 103  their ciphers are used used inside the USA (and Japan?), you must contact RSA
 104  Data Security for licensing conditions. Their web page is
 105  http://www.rsa.com/.
 106
 107  RC4 is a trademark of RSA Data Security, so use of this label should perhaps
 108  only be used with RSA Data Security's permission.
 109
 110  The IDEA algorithm is patented by Ascom in Austria, France, Germany, Italy,
 111  Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the USA.  They should
 112  be contacted if that algorithm is to be used, their web page is
 113  http://www.ascom.ch/.
 114
 115  INSTALLATION
 116  ------------
 117
 118  To install this package under a Unix derivative, read the INSTALL file.  For
 119  a Win32 platform, read the INSTALL.W32 file.  For OpenVMS systems, read
 120  INSTALL.VMS.
 121
 122  For people in the USA, it is possible to compile OpenSSL to use RSA Inc.'s
 123  public key library, RSAREF, by configuring OpenSSL with the option "rsaref".
 124
 125  Read the documentation in the doc/ directory.  It is quite rough, but it
 126  lists the functions, you will probably have to look at the code to work out
 127  how to used them. Look at the example programs.
 128
 129  SUPPORT
 130  -------
 131
 132  If you have any problems with OpenSSL then please take the following steps
 133  first:
 134
 135     - Download the current snapshot from ftp://ftp.openssl.org/snapshot/
 136       to see if the problem has already been addressed
 137     - Remove ASM versions of libraries
 138     - Remove compiler optimisation flags
 139
 140  If you wish to report a bug then please include the following information in
 141  any bug report:
 142
 143     - On Unix systems:
 144         Self-test report generated by 'make report'
 145     - On other systems:
 146         OpenSSL version: output of 'openssl version -a'
 147         OS Name, Version, Hardware platform
 148         Compiler Details (name, version)
 149     - Application Details (name, version)
 150     - Problem Description (steps that will reproduce the problem, if known)
 151     - Stack Traceback (if the application dumps core)
 152
 153  Report the bug to the OpenSSL project at:
 154
 155     openssl-bugs@openssl.org
 156
 157  Note that mail to openssl-bugs@openssl.org is forwarded to a public
 158  mailing list. Confidential mail may be sent to openssl-security@openssl.org
 159  (PGP key available from the key servers).
 160
 161  HOW TO CONTRIBUTE TO OpenSSL
 162  ----------------------------
 163
 164  Development is coordinated on the openssl-dev mailing list (see
 165  http://www.openssl.org for information on subscribing). If you
 166  would like to submit a patch, send it to openssl-dev@openssl.org with
 167  the string "[PATCH]" in the subject. Please be sure to include a
 168  textual explanation of what your patch does.
 169
 170  The preferred format for changes is "diff -u" output. You might
 171  generate it like this:
 172
 173  # cd openssl-work
 174  # [your changes]
 175  # ./Configure dist; make clean
 176  # cd ..
 177  # diff -urN openssl-orig openssl-work > mydiffs.patch