README

   1
   2  OpenSSL 0.9.7n-dev xx XXX xxxx
   3
   4  Copyright (c) 1998-2007 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 was floating
  40                  around the net for a few years, and was then relicensed by
  41                  him as part of SSLeay.  It includes 15 'modes/variations'
  42                  of DES (1, 2 and 3 key versions of ecb, cbc, cfb and ofb;
  43                  pcbc and a more general form of cfb and ofb) including desx
  44                  in cbc mode, a fast crypt(3), and routines to read
  45                  passwords from the keyboard.
  46         RC4 encryption,
  47         RC2 encryption      - 4 different modes, ecb, cbc, cfb and ofb.
  48         Blowfish encryption - 4 different modes, ecb, cbc, cfb and ofb.
  49         IDEA encryption     - 4 different modes, ecb, cbc, cfb and ofb.
  50
  51      Digests
  52         MD5 and MD2 message digest algorithms, fast implementations,
  53         SHA (SHA-0) and SHA-1 message digest algorithms,
  54         MDC2 message digest. A DES based hash that is popular on smart cards.
  55
  56      Public Key
  57         RSA encryption/decryption/generation.
  58             There is no limit on the number of bits.
  59         DSA encryption/decryption/generation.
  60             There is no limit on the number of bits.
  61         Diffie-Hellman key-exchange/key generation.
  62             There is no limit on the number of bits.
  63
  64      X.509v3 certificates
  65         X509 encoding/decoding into/from binary ASN1 and a PEM
  66              based ASCII-binary encoding which supports encryption with a
  67              private key.  Program to generate RSA and DSA certificate
  68              requests and to generate RSA and DSA certificates.
  69
  70      Systems
  71         The normal digital envelope routines and base64 encoding.  Higher
  72         level access to ciphers and digests by name.  New ciphers can be
  73         loaded at run time.  The BIO io system which is a simple non-blocking
  74         IO abstraction.  Current methods supported are file descriptors,
  75         sockets, socket accept, socket connect, memory buffer, buffering, SSL
  76         client/server, file pointer, encryption, digest, non-blocking testing
  77         and null.
  78
  79      Data structures
  80         A dynamically growing hashing system
  81         A simple stack.
  82         A Configuration loader that uses a format similar to MS .ini files.
  83
  84  openssl:
  85      A command line tool that can be used for:
  86         Creation of RSA, DH and DSA key parameters
  87         Creation of X.509 certificates, CSRs and CRLs
  88         Calculation of Message Digests
  89         Encryption and Decryption with Ciphers
  90         SSL/TLS Client and Server Tests
  91         Handling of S/MIME signed or encrypted mail
  92
  93
  94  PATENTS
  95  -------
  96
  97  Various companies hold various patents for various algorithms in various
  98  locations around the world. _YOU_ are responsible for ensuring that your use
  99  of any algorithms is legal by checking if there are any patents in your
 100  country.  The file contains some of the patents that we know about or are
 101  rumored to exist. This is not a definitive list.
 102
 103  RSA Security holds software patents on the RC5 algorithm.  If you
 104  intend to use this cipher, you must contact RSA Security for
 105  licensing conditions. Their web page is http://www.rsasecurity.com/.
 106
 107  RC4 is a trademark of RSA Security, so use of this label should perhaps
 108  only be used with RSA Security's permission.
 109
 110  The IDEA algorithm is patented by Ascom in Austria, France, Germany, Italy,
 111  Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the USA.  They
 112  should be contacted if that algorithm is to be used; their web page is
 113  http://www.ascom.ch/.
 114
 115  The MDC2 algorithm is patented by IBM.
 116
 117  INSTALLATION
 118  ------------
 119
 120  To install this package under a Unix derivative, read the INSTALL file.  For
 121  a Win32 platform, read the INSTALL.W32 file.  For OpenVMS systems, read
 122  INSTALL.VMS.
 123
 124  Read the documentation in the doc/ directory.  It is quite rough, but it
 125  lists the functions; you will probably have to look at the code to work out
 126  how to use them. Look at the example programs.
 127
 128  PROBLEMS
 129  --------
 130
 131  For some platforms, there are some known problems that may affect the user
 132  or application author.  We try to collect those in doc/PROBLEMS, with current
 133  thoughts on how they should be solved in a future of OpenSSL.
 134
 135  SUPPORT
 136  -------
 137
 138  If you have any problems with OpenSSL then please take the following steps
 139  first:
 140
 141     - Download the current snapshot from ftp://ftp.openssl.org/snapshot/
 142       to see if the problem has already been addressed
 143     - Remove ASM versions of libraries
 144     - Remove compiler optimisation flags
 145
 146  If you wish to report a bug then please include the following information in
 147  any bug report:
 148
 149     - On Unix systems:
 150         Self-test report generated by 'make report'
 151     - On other systems:
 152         OpenSSL version: output of 'openssl version -a'
 153         OS Name, Version, Hardware platform
 154         Compiler Details (name, version)
 155     - Application Details (name, version)
 156     - Problem Description (steps that will reproduce the problem, if known)
 157     - Stack Traceback (if the application dumps core)
 158
 159  Report the bug to the OpenSSL project via the Request Tracker
 160  (http://www.openssl.org/support/rt.html) by mail to:
 161
 162     openssl-bugs@openssl.org
 163
 164  Note that mail to openssl-bugs@openssl.org is recorded in the publicly
 165  readable request tracker database and is forwarded to a public
 166  mailing list. Confidential mail may be sent to openssl-security@openssl.org
 167  (PGP key available from the key servers).
 168
 169  HOW TO CONTRIBUTE TO OpenSSL
 170  ----------------------------
 171
 172  Development is coordinated on the openssl-dev mailing list (see
 173  http://www.openssl.org for information on subscribing). If you
 174  would like to submit a patch, send it to openssl-dev@openssl.org with
 175  the string "[PATCH]" in the subject. Please be sure to include a
 176  textual explanation of what your patch does.
 177
 178  Note: For legal reasons, contributions from the US can be accepted only
 179  if a TSU notification and a copy of the patch are sent to crypt@bis.doc.gov
 180  (formerly BXA) with a copy to the ENC Encryption Request Coordinator;
 181  please take some time to look at
 182     http://www.bis.doc.gov/Encryption/PubAvailEncSourceCodeNofify.html [sic]
 183  and
 184     http://w3.access.gpo.gov/bis/ear/pdf/740.pdf (EAR Section 740.13(e))
 185  for the details. If "your encryption source code is too large to serve as
 186  an email attachment", they are glad to receive it by fax instead; hope you
 187  have a cheap long-distance plan.
 188
 189  Our preferred format for changes is "diff -u" output. You might
 190  generate it like this:
 191
 192  # cd openssl-work
 193  # [your changes]
 194  # ./Configure dist; make clean
 195  # cd ..
 196  # diff -ur openssl-orig openssl-work > mydiffs.patch
 197