GH528: "cipher -v" output is confusing.

[thirdparty/openssl.git] / doc / ssl / SSL_CIPHER_get_name.pod

=pod

=head1 NAME

SSL_CIPHER_get_name, SSL_CIPHER_get_bits, SSL_CIPHER_get_version, SSL_CIPHER_description - get SSL_CIPHER properties

=head1 SYNOPSIS

 #include <openssl/ssl.h>

 const char *SSL_CIPHER_get_name(const SSL_CIPHER *cipher);
 int SSL_CIPHER_get_bits(const SSL_CIPHER *cipher, int *alg_bits);
 char *SSL_CIPHER_get_version(const SSL_CIPHER *cipher);
 char *SSL_CIPHER_description(const SSL_CIPHER *cipher, char *buf, int size);
 int SSL_CIPHER_get_cipher_nid(const SSL_CIPHER *c);
 int SSL_CIPHER_get_digest_nid(const SSL_CIPHER *c);

=head1 DESCRIPTION

SSL_CIPHER_get_name() returns a pointer to the name of B<cipher>. If the
B<cipher> is NULL, it returns "(NONE)".

SSL_CIPHER_get_bits() returns the number of secret bits used for B<cipher>.
If B<cipher> is NULL, 0 is returned.

SSL_CIPHER_get_version() returns string which indicates the SSL/TLS protocol
version that first defined the cipher.  It returns "(NONE)" if B<cipher> is NULL.

SSL_CIPHER_get_cipher_nid() returns the cipher NID corresponding to B<c>.
If there is no cipher (e.g. for ciphersuites with no encryption) then
B<NID_undef> is returned.

SSL_CIPHER_get_digest_nid() returns the digest NID corresponding to the MAC
used by B<c>. If there is no digest (e.g. for AEAD ciphersuites) then
B<NID_undef> is returned.

SSL_CIPHER_description() returns a textual description of the cipher used
into the buffer B<buf> of length B<len> provided.  If B<buf> is provided, it
must be at least 128 bytes, otherwise a buffer will be allocated using
OPENSSL_malloc().  If the provided buffer is too small, or the allocation fails,
B<NULL> is returned.

The string returned by SSL_CIPHER_description() consists of several fields
separated by whitespace:

=over 4

=item <ciphername>

Textual representation of the cipher name.

=item <protocol version>

Protocol version, such as B<TLSv1.2>, when the cipher was first defined.

=item Kx=<key exchange>

Key exchange method such as B<RSA>, B<ECDHE>, etc.

=item Au=<authentication>

Authentication method such as B<RSA>, B<None>, etc.. None is the
representation of anonymous ciphers.

=item Enc=<symmetric encryption method>

Encryption method, with number of secret bits, such as B<AESGCM(128)>.

=item Mac=<message authentication code>

Message digest, such as B<SHA256>.

=back

Some examples for the output of SSL_CIPHER_description():

 ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA256 TLSv1.2 Kx=ECDH     Au=RSA  Enc=AESGCM(256) Mac=AEAD
 RSA-PSK-AES256-CBC-SHA384 TLSv1.0 Kx=RSAPSK   Au=RSA  Enc=AES(256)  Mac=SHA384

=head1 HISTORY

SSL_CIPHER_get_version() was updated to always return the correct protocol
string in OpenSSL 1.1.

SSL_CIPHER_description() was changed to return B<NULL> on error,
rather than a fixed string, in OpenSSL 1.1

=head1 SEE ALSO

L<ssl(3)>, L<SSL_get_current_cipher(3)>,
L<SSL_get_ciphers(3)>, L<ciphers(1)>

=cut