5 ecparam - EC parameter manipulation and generation
29 This command is used to manipulate or generate EC parameter files.
35 =item B<-inform DER|PEM>
37 This specifies the input format. The B<DER> option uses an ASN.1 DER encoded
38 form compatible with RFC 3279 EcpkParameters. The PEM form is the default
39 format: it consists of the B<DER> format base64 encoded with additional
40 header and footer lines.
42 =item B<-outform DER|PEM>
44 This specifies the output format, the options have the same meaning as the
49 This specifies the input filename to read parameters from or standard input if
50 this option is not specified.
52 =item B<-out filename>
54 This specifies the output filename parameters to. Standard output is used
55 if this option is not present. The output filename should B<not> be the same
56 as the input filename.
60 This option inhibits the output of the encoded version of the parameters.
64 This option prints out the EC parameters in human readable form.
68 This option converts the EC parameters into C code. The parameters can then
69 be loaded by calling the B<get_ec_group_XXX()> function.
73 Validate the elliptic curve parameters.
77 Use the EC parameters with the specified 'short' name. Use B<-list_curves>
78 to get a list of all currently implemented EC parameters.
82 If this options is specified B<ecparam> will print out a list of all
83 currently implemented EC parameters names and exit.
87 This specifies how the points on the elliptic curve are converted
88 into octet strings. Possible values are: B<compressed> (the default
89 value), B<uncompressed> and B<hybrid>. For more information regarding
90 the point conversion forms please read the X9.62 standard.
91 B<Note> Due to patent issues the B<compressed> option is disabled
92 by default for binary curves and can be enabled by defining
93 the preprocessor macro B<OPENSSL_EC_BIN_PT_COMP> at compile time.
95 =item B<-param_enc arg>
97 This specifies how the elliptic curve parameters are encoded.
98 Possible value are: B<named_curve>, i.e. the ec parameters are
99 specified by a OID, or B<explicit> where the ec parameters are
100 explicitly given (see RFC 3279 for the definition of the
101 EC parameters structures). The default value is B<named_curve>.
102 B<Note> the B<implicitlyCA> alternative ,as specified in RFC 3279,
103 is currently not implemented in OpenSSL.
107 This option inhibits that the 'seed' for the parameter generation
108 is included in the ECParameters structure (see RFC 3279).
112 This option will generate a EC private key using the specified parameters.
114 =item B<-rand file(s)>
116 a file or files containing random data used to seed the random number
117 generator, or an EGD socket (see L<RAND_egd(3)|RAND_egd(3)>).
118 Multiple files can be specified separated by a OS-dependent character.
119 The separator is B<;> for MS-Windows, B<,> for OpenVMS, and B<:> for
124 specifying an engine (by its unique B<id> string) will cause B<ecparam>
125 to attempt to obtain a functional reference to the specified engine,
126 thus initialising it if needed. The engine will then be set as the default
127 for all available algorithms.
133 PEM format EC parameters use the header and footer lines:
135 -----BEGIN EC PARAMETERS-----
136 -----END EC PARAMETERS-----
138 OpenSSL is currently not able to generate new groups and therefore
139 B<ecparam> can only create EC parameters from known (named) curves.
143 To create EC parameters with the group 'prime192v1':
145 openssl ecparam -out ec_param.pem -name prime192v1
147 To create EC parameters with explicit parameters:
149 openssl ecparam -out ec_param.pem -name prime192v1 -param_enc explicit
151 To validate given EC parameters:
153 openssl ecparam -in ec_param.pem -check
155 To create EC parameters and a private key:
157 openssl ecparam -out ec_key.pem -name prime192v1 -genkey
159 To change the point encoding to 'compressed':
161 openssl ecparam -in ec_in.pem -out ec_out.pem -conv_form compressed
163 To print out the EC parameters to standard output:
165 openssl ecparam -in ec_param.pem -noout -text
169 L<ec(1)|ec(1)>, L<dsaparam(1)|dsaparam(1)>
173 The ecparam command was first introduced in OpenSSL 0.9.8.
177 Nils Larsch for the OpenSSL project (http://www.openssl.org)