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d02b48c6 1
241d2ba1 2 OpenSSL 0.9.8-dev XX xxx XXXX
651d0aff 3
aa16a286 4 Copyright (c) 1998-2005 The OpenSSL Project
058bf559 5 Copyright (c) 1995-1998 Eric A. Young, Tim J. Hudson
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6 All rights reserved.
7
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8 DESCRIPTION
9 -----------
10
f1c236f8 11 The OpenSSL Project is a collaborative effort to develop a robust,
651d0aff 12 commercial-grade, fully featured, and Open Source toolkit implementing the
1c308226 13 Secure Sockets Layer (SSL v2/v3) and Transport Layer Security (TLS v1)
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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
99efc0f5 17 related documentation.
651d0aff 18
f1c236f8 19 OpenSSL is based on the excellent SSLeay library developed from Eric A. Young
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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
99efc0f5 23 purposes as long as you fulfill the conditions of both licenses.
651d0aff 24
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25 OVERVIEW
26 --------
27
1c308226 28 The OpenSSL toolkit includes:
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29
30 libssl.a:
31 Implementation of SSLv2, SSLv3, TLSv1 and the required code to support
1c308226 32 both SSLv2, SSLv3 and TLSv1 in the one server and client.
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33
34 libcrypto.a:
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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:
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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,
62de8497 53 MDC2 message digest. A DES based hash that is popular on smart cards.
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54
55 Public Key
99efc0f5 56 RSA encryption/decryption/generation.
651d0aff 57 There is no limit on the number of bits.
99efc0f5 58 DSA encryption/decryption/generation.
651d0aff 59 There is no limit on the number of bits.
b22c7a1c 60 Diffie-Hellman key-exchange/key generation.
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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
3b80e3aa 65 based ASCII-binary encoding which supports encryption with a
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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
1c308226 83 openssl:
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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
651d0aff 92
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93 PATENTS
94 -------
95
96 Various companies hold various patents for various algorithms in various
eee591a4 97 locations around the world. _YOU_ are responsible for ensuring that your use
62de8497 98 of any algorithms is legal by checking if there are any patents in your
eee591a4 99 country. The file contains some of the patents that we know about or are
3b80e3aa 100 rumored to exist. This is not a definitive list.
dfca822f 101
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102 RSA Security holds software patents on the RC5 algorithm. If you
103 intend to use this cipher, you must contact RSA Security for
104 licensing conditions. Their web page is http://www.rsasecurity.com/.
dfca822f 105
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106 RC4 is a trademark of RSA Security, so use of this label should perhaps
107 only be used with RSA Security's permission.
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108
109 The IDEA algorithm is patented by Ascom in Austria, France, Germany, Italy,
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110 Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the USA. They
111 should be contacted if that algorithm is to be used; their web page is
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112 http://www.ascom.ch/.
113
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114 The MDC2 algorithm is patented by IBM.
115
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116 INSTALLATION
117 ------------
118
1c308226 119 To install this package under a Unix derivative, read the INSTALL file. For
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120 a Win32 platform, read the INSTALL.W32 file. For OpenVMS systems, read
121 INSTALL.VMS.
651d0aff 122
1c308226 123 Read the documentation in the doc/ directory. It is quite rough, but it
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124 lists the functions; you will probably have to look at the code to work out
125 how to use them. Look at the example programs.
d02b48c6 126
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127 PROBLEMS
128 --------
129
130 For some platforms, there are some known problems that may affect the user
131 or application author. We try to collect those in doc/PROBLEMS, with current
132 thoughts on how they should be solved in a future of OpenSSL.
133
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134 SUPPORT
135 -------
136
137 If you have any problems with OpenSSL then please take the following steps
138 first:
139
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140 - Download the current snapshot from ftp://ftp.openssl.org/snapshot/
141 to see if the problem has already been addressed
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142 - Remove ASM versions of libraries
143 - Remove compiler optimisation flags
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144
145 If you wish to report a bug then please include the following information in
146 any bug report:
147
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148 - On Unix systems:
149 Self-test report generated by 'make report'
150 - On other systems:
151 OpenSSL version: output of 'openssl version -a'
152 OS Name, Version, Hardware platform
153 Compiler Details (name, version)
154 - Application Details (name, version)
155 - Problem Description (steps that will reproduce the problem, if known)
156 - Stack Traceback (if the application dumps core)
dfca822f 157
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158 Report the bug to the OpenSSL project via the Request Tracker
159 (http://www.openssl.org/rt2.html) by mail to:
dfca822f 160
b282fdae 161 openssl-bugs@openssl.org
dfca822f 162
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163 Note that mail to openssl-bugs@openssl.org is recorded in the publicly
164 readable request tracker database and is forwarded to a public
a5ec86d1 165 mailing list. Confidential mail may be sent to openssl-security@openssl.org
d7f0ab5f 166 (PGP key available from the key servers).
a5ec86d1 167
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168 HOW TO CONTRIBUTE TO OpenSSL
169 ----------------------------
170
171 Development is coordinated on the openssl-dev mailing list (see
172 http://www.openssl.org for information on subscribing). If you
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173 would like to submit a patch, send it to openssl-dev@openssl.org with
174 the string "[PATCH]" in the subject. Please be sure to include a
175 textual explanation of what your patch does.
b282fdae 176
51012a09 177 Note: For legal reasons, contributions from the US can be accepted only
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178 if a TSU notification and a copy of the patch are sent to crypt@bis.doc.gov
179 (formerly BXA) with a copy to the ENC Encryption Request Coordinator;
180 please take some time to look at
181 http://www.bis.doc.gov/Encryption/PubAvailEncSourceCodeNofify.html [sic]
182 and
183 http://w3.access.gpo.gov/bis/ear/pdf/740.pdf (EAR Section 740.13(e))
184 for the details. If "your encryption source code is too large to serve as
ca74b76f 185 an email attachment", they are glad to receive it by fax instead; hope you
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186 have a cheap long-distance plan.
187
188 Our preferred format for changes is "diff -u" output. You might
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189 generate it like this:
190
191 # cd openssl-work
192 # [your changes]
193 # ./Configure dist; make clean
194 # cd ..
5b774c67 195 # diff -ur openssl-orig openssl-work > mydiffs.patch
d979d09c 196