1 .\" $NetBSD: d2i_X509.3,v 1.14 2015/06/12 17:01:14 christos Exp $
3 .\" Automatically generated by Pod::Man 2.28 (Pod::Simple 3.28)
6 .\" ========================================================================
7 .de Sp \" Vertical space (when we can't use .PP)
11 .de Vb \" Begin verbatim text
16 .de Ve \" End verbatim text
20 .\" Set up some character translations and predefined strings. \*(-- will
21 .\" give an unbreakable dash, \*(PI will give pi, \*(L" will give a left
22 .\" double quote, and \*(R" will give a right double quote. \*(C+ will
23 .\" give a nicer C++. Capital omega is used to do unbreakable dashes and
24 .\" therefore won't be available. \*(C` and \*(C' expand to `' in nroff,
25 .\" nothing in troff, for use with C<>.
27 .ds C+ C\v'-.1v'\h'-1p'\s-2+\h'-1p'+\s0\v'.1v'\h'-1p'
31 . if (\n(.H=4u)&(1m=24u) .ds -- \(*W\h'-12u'\(*W\h'-12u'-\" diablo 10 pitch
32 . if (\n(.H=4u)&(1m=20u) .ds -- \(*W\h'-12u'\(*W\h'-8u'-\" diablo 12 pitch
47 .\" Escape single quotes in literal strings from groff's Unicode transform.
51 .\" If the F register is turned on, we'll generate index entries on stderr for
52 .\" titles (.TH), headers (.SH), subsections (.SS), items (.Ip), and index
53 .\" entries marked with X<> in POD. Of course, you'll have to process the
54 .\" output yourself in some meaningful fashion.
56 .\" Avoid warning from groff about undefined register 'F'.
60 .if \n(.g .if rF .nr rF 1
61 .if (\n(rF:(\n(.g==0)) \{
64 . tm Index:\\$1\t\\n%\t"\\$2"
74 .\" Accent mark definitions (@(#)ms.acc 1.5 88/02/08 SMI; from UCB 4.2).
75 .\" Fear. Run. Save yourself. No user-serviceable parts.
76 . \" fudge factors for nroff and troff
85 . ds #H ((1u-(\\\\n(.fu%2u))*.13m)
91 . \" simple accents for nroff and troff
101 . ds ' \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*8/10-\*(#H)'\'\h"|\\n:u"
102 . ds ` \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*8/10-\*(#H)'\`\h'|\\n:u'
103 . ds ^ \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*10/11-\*(#H)'^\h'|\\n:u'
104 . ds , \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*8/10)',\h'|\\n:u'
105 . ds ~ \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu-\*(#H-.1m)'~\h'|\\n:u'
106 . ds / \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*8/10-\*(#H)'\z\(sl\h'|\\n:u'
108 . \" troff and (daisy-wheel) nroff accents
109 .ds : \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*8/10-\*(#H+.1m+\*(#F)'\v'-\*(#V'\z.\h'.2m+\*(#F'.\h'|\\n:u'\v'\*(#V'
110 .ds 8 \h'\*(#H'\(*b\h'-\*(#H'
111 .ds o \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu+\w'\(de'u-\*(#H)/2u'\v'-.3n'\*(#[\z\(de\v'.3n'\h'|\\n:u'\*(#]
112 .ds d- \h'\*(#H'\(pd\h'-\w'~'u'\v'-.25m'\f2\(hy\fP\v'.25m'\h'-\*(#H'
113 .ds D- D\\k:\h'-\w'D'u'\v'-.11m'\z\(hy\v'.11m'\h'|\\n:u'
114 .ds th \*(#[\v'.3m'\s+1I\s-1\v'-.3m'\h'-(\w'I'u*2/3)'\s-1o\s+1\*(#]
115 .ds Th \*(#[\s+2I\s-2\h'-\w'I'u*3/5'\v'-.3m'o\v'.3m'\*(#]
116 .ds ae a\h'-(\w'a'u*4/10)'e
117 .ds Ae A\h'-(\w'A'u*4/10)'E
118 . \" corrections for vroff
119 .if v .ds ~ \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*9/10-\*(#H)'\s-2\u~\d\s+2\h'|\\n:u'
120 .if v .ds ^ \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*10/11-\*(#H)'\v'-.4m'^\v'.4m'\h'|\\n:u'
121 . \" for low resolution devices (crt and lpr)
122 .if \n(.H>23 .if \n(.V>19 \
135 .\" ========================================================================
137 .IX Title "d2i_X509 3"
138 .TH d2i_X509 3 "2015-03-23" "1.0.1n" "OpenSSL"
139 .\" For nroff, turn off justification. Always turn off hyphenation; it makes
140 .\" way too many mistakes in technical documents.
144 d2i_X509, i2d_X509, d2i_X509_bio, d2i_X509_fp, i2d_X509_bio,
145 i2d_X509_fp \- X509 encode and decode functions
149 .IX Header "SYNOPSIS"
151 \& #include <openssl/x509.h>
153 \& X509 *d2i_X509(X509 **px, const unsigned char **in, int len);
154 \& int i2d_X509(X509 *x, unsigned char **out);
156 \& X509 *d2i_X509_bio(BIO *bp, X509 **x);
157 \& X509 *d2i_X509_fp(FILE *fp, X509 **x);
159 \& int i2d_X509_bio(BIO *bp, X509 *x);
160 \& int i2d_X509_fp(FILE *fp, X509 *x);
163 .IX Header "DESCRIPTION"
164 The X509 encode and decode routines encode and parse an
165 \&\fBX509\fR structure, which represents an X509 certificate.
167 \&\fId2i_X509()\fR attempts to decode \fBlen\fR bytes at \fB*in\fR. If
168 successful a pointer to the \fBX509\fR structure is returned. If an error
169 occurred then \fB\s-1NULL\s0\fR is returned. If \fBpx\fR is not \fB\s-1NULL\s0\fR then the
170 returned structure is written to \fB*px\fR. If \fB*px\fR is not \fB\s-1NULL\s0\fR
171 then it is assumed that \fB*px\fR contains a valid \fBX509\fR
172 structure and an attempt is made to reuse it. This \*(L"reuse\*(R" capability is present
173 for historical compatibility but its use is \fBstrongly discouraged\fR (see \s-1BUGS\s0
174 below, and the discussion in the \s-1RETURN VALUES\s0 section).
176 If the call is successful \fB*in\fR is incremented to the byte following the
179 \&\fIi2d_X509()\fR encodes the structure pointed to by \fBx\fR into \s-1DER\s0 format.
180 If \fBout\fR is not \fB\s-1NULL\s0\fR is writes the \s-1DER\s0 encoded data to the buffer
181 at \fB*out\fR, and increments it to point after the data just written.
182 If the return value is negative an error occurred, otherwise it
183 returns the length of the encoded data.
185 For OpenSSL 0.9.7 and later if \fB*out\fR is \fB\s-1NULL\s0\fR memory will be
186 allocated for a buffer and the encoded data written to it. In this
187 case \fB*out\fR is not incremented and it points to the start of the
190 \&\fId2i_X509_bio()\fR is similar to \fId2i_X509()\fR except it attempts
191 to parse data from \s-1BIO \s0\fBbp\fR.
193 \&\fId2i_X509_fp()\fR is similar to \fId2i_X509()\fR except it attempts
194 to parse data from \s-1FILE\s0 pointer \fBfp\fR.
196 \&\fIi2d_X509_bio()\fR is similar to \fIi2d_X509()\fR except it writes
197 the encoding of the structure \fBx\fR to \s-1BIO \s0\fBbp\fR and it
198 returns 1 for success and 0 for failure.
200 \&\fIi2d_X509_fp()\fR is similar to \fIi2d_X509()\fR except it writes
201 the encoding of the structure \fBx\fR to \s-1BIO \s0\fBbp\fR and it
202 returns 1 for success and 0 for failure.
205 The letters \fBi\fR and \fBd\fR in for example \fBi2d_X509\fR stand for
206 \&\*(L"internal\*(R" (that is an internal C structure) and \*(L"\s-1DER\*(R".\s0 So that
207 \&\fBi2d_X509\fR converts from internal to \s-1DER.\s0
209 The functions can also understand \fB\s-1BER\s0\fR forms.
211 The actual X509 structure passed to \fIi2d_X509()\fR must be a valid
212 populated \fBX509\fR structure it can \fBnot\fR simply be fed with an
213 empty structure such as that returned by \fIX509_new()\fR.
215 The encoded data is in binary form and may contain embedded zeroes.
216 Therefore any \s-1FILE\s0 pointers or BIOs should be opened in binary mode.
217 Functions such as \fB\f(BIstrlen()\fB\fR will \fBnot\fR return the correct length
218 of the encoded structure.
220 The ways that \fB*in\fR and \fB*out\fR are incremented after the operation
221 can trap the unwary. See the \fB\s-1WARNINGS\s0\fR section for some common
224 The reason for the auto increment behaviour is to reflect a typical
225 usage of \s-1ASN1\s0 functions: after one structure is encoded or decoded
226 another will processed after it.
228 .IX Header "EXAMPLES"
229 Allocate and encode the \s-1DER\s0 encoding of an X509 structure:
233 \& unsigned char *buf, *p;
235 \& len = i2d_X509(x, NULL);
237 \& buf = OPENSSL_malloc(len);
247 If you are using OpenSSL 0.9.7 or later then this can be
252 \& unsigned char *buf;
256 \& len = i2d_X509(x, &buf);
262 Attempt to decode a buffer:
267 \& unsigned char *buf, *p;
271 \& /* Something to setup buf and len */
275 \& x = d2i_X509(NULL, &p, len);
281 Alternative technique:
286 \& unsigned char *buf, *p;
290 \& /* Something to setup buf and len */
296 \& if(!d2i_X509(&x, &p, len))
300 .IX Header "WARNINGS"
301 The use of temporary variable is mandatory. A common
302 mistake is to attempt to use a buffer directly as follows:
306 \& unsigned char *buf;
308 \& len = i2d_X509(x, NULL);
310 \& buf = OPENSSL_malloc(len);
315 \& i2d_X509(x, &buf);
317 \& /* Other stuff ... */
319 \& OPENSSL_free(buf);
322 This code will result in \fBbuf\fR apparently containing garbage because
323 it was incremented after the call to point after the data just written.
324 Also \fBbuf\fR will no longer contain the pointer allocated by \fB\f(BIOPENSSL_malloc()\fB\fR
325 and the subsequent call to \fB\f(BIOPENSSL_free()\fB\fR may well crash.
327 The auto allocation feature (setting buf to \s-1NULL\s0) only works on OpenSSL
328 0.9.7 and later. Attempts to use it on earlier versions will typically
329 cause a segmentation violation.
331 Another trap to avoid is misuse of the \fBxp\fR argument to \fB\f(BId2i_X509()\fB\fR:
336 \& if (!d2i_X509(&x, &p, len))
340 This will probably crash somewhere in \fB\f(BId2i_X509()\fB\fR. The reason for this
341 is that the variable \fBx\fR is uninitialized and an attempt will be made to
342 interpret its (invalid) value as an \fBX509\fR structure, typically causing
343 a segmentation violation. If \fBx\fR is set to \s-1NULL\s0 first then this will not
347 In some versions of OpenSSL the \*(L"reuse\*(R" behaviour of \fId2i_X509()\fR when
348 \&\fB*px\fR is valid is broken and some parts of the reused structure may
349 persist if they are not present in the new one. As a result the use
350 of this \*(L"reuse\*(R" behaviour is strongly discouraged.
352 \&\fIi2d_X509()\fR will not return an error in many versions of OpenSSL,
353 if mandatory fields are not initialized due to a programming error
354 then the encoded structure may contain invalid data or omit the
355 fields entirely and will not be parsed by \fId2i_X509()\fR. This may be
356 fixed in future so code should not assume that \fIi2d_X509()\fR will
359 .IX Header "RETURN VALUES"
360 \&\fId2i_X509()\fR, \fId2i_X509_bio()\fR and \fId2i_X509_fp()\fR return a valid \fBX509\fR structure
361 or \fB\s-1NULL\s0\fR if an error occurs. The error code that can be obtained by
362 \&\fIERR_get_error\fR\|(3). If the \*(L"reuse\*(R" capability has been used
363 with a valid X509 structure being passed in via \fBpx\fR then the object is not
364 freed in the event of error but may be in a potentially invalid or inconsistent
367 \&\fIi2d_X509()\fR returns the number of bytes successfully encoded or a negative
368 value if an error occurs. The error code can be obtained by
369 \&\fIERR_get_error\fR\|(3).
371 \&\fIi2d_X509_bio()\fR and \fIi2d_X509_fp()\fR return 1 for success and 0 if an error
372 occurs The error code can be obtained by \fIERR_get_error\fR\|(3).
374 .IX Header "SEE ALSO"
375 \&\fIERR_get_error\fR\|(3)
378 d2i_X509, i2d_X509, d2i_X509_bio, d2i_X509_fp, i2d_X509_bio and i2d_X509_fp
379 are available in all versions of SSLeay and OpenSSL.