source: trunk/third/openssl/README @ 15530

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2 OpenSSL 0.9.6 24 Sep 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 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/.
105
106 RC4 is a trademark of RSA Security, so use of this label should perhaps
107 only be used with RSA Security's permission.
108
109 The IDEA algorithm is patented by Ascom in Austria, France, Germany, Italy,
110 Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the USA.  They should
111 be contacted if that algorithm is to be used, their web page is
112 http://www.ascom.ch/.
113
114 INSTALLATION
115 ------------
116
117 To install this package under a Unix derivative, read the INSTALL file.  For
118 a Win32 platform, read the INSTALL.W32 file.  For OpenVMS systems, read
119 INSTALL.VMS.
120
121 Read the documentation in the doc/ directory.  It is quite rough, but it
122 lists the functions, you will probably have to look at the code to work out
123 how to used them. Look at the example programs.
124
125 SUPPORT
126 -------
127
128 If you have any problems with OpenSSL then please take the following steps
129 first:
130
131    - Download the current snapshot from ftp://ftp.openssl.org/snapshot/
132      to see if the problem has already been addressed
133    - Remove ASM versions of libraries
134    - Remove compiler optimisation flags
135
136 If you wish to report a bug then please include the following information in
137 any bug report:
138
139    - On Unix systems:
140        Self-test report generated by 'make report'
141    - On other systems:
142        OpenSSL version: output of 'openssl version -a'
143        OS Name, Version, Hardware platform
144        Compiler Details (name, version)
145    - Application Details (name, version)
146    - Problem Description (steps that will reproduce the problem, if known)
147    - Stack Traceback (if the application dumps core)
148
149 Report the bug to the OpenSSL project at:
150
151    openssl-bugs@openssl.org
152
153 Note that mail to openssl-bugs@openssl.org is forwarded to a public
154 mailing list. Confidential mail may be sent to openssl-security@openssl.org
155 (PGP key available from the key servers).
156
157 HOW TO CONTRIBUTE TO OpenSSL
158 ----------------------------
159
160 Development is coordinated on the openssl-dev mailing list (see
161 http://www.openssl.org for information on subscribing). If you
162 would like to submit a patch, send it to openssl-dev@openssl.org with
163 the string "[PATCH]" in the subject. Please be sure to include a
164 textual explanation of what your patch does.
165
166 Note: For legal reasons, contributions from the US can be accepted only
167 if a copy of the patch is sent to crypt@bxa.doc.gov
168
169 The preferred format for changes is "diff -u" output. You might
170 generate it like this:
171
172 # cd openssl-work
173 # [your changes]
174 # ./Configure dist; make clean
175 # cd ..
176 # diff -ur openssl-orig openssl-work > mydiffs.patch
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