diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 33b98a418a..67cd88c1d8 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -73,6 +73,10 @@
 
  Changes between 0.9.8a and 0.9.8b  [XX xxx XXXX]
 
+  *) New functions EVP_CIPHER_CTX_new() and EVP_CIPHER_CTX_free() to support
+     opaque EVP_CIPHER_CTX handling.
+     [Steve Henson]
+
   *) Several fixes and enhancements to the OID generation code. The old code
      sometimes allowed invalid OIDs (1.X for X >= 40 for example), couldn't
      handle numbers larger than ULONG_MAX, truncated printing and had a
diff --git a/crypto/evp/evp.h b/crypto/evp/evp.h
index 0f5c9feeb4..3f90b175c7 100644
--- a/crypto/evp/evp.h
+++ b/crypto/evp/evp.h
@@ -580,6 +580,8 @@ int	EVP_DecodeBlock(unsigned char *t, const unsigned char *f, int n);
 
 void EVP_CIPHER_CTX_init(EVP_CIPHER_CTX *a);
 int EVP_CIPHER_CTX_cleanup(EVP_CIPHER_CTX *a);
+EVP_CIPHER_CTX *EVP_CIPHER_CTX_new(void);
+void EVP_CIPHER_CTX_free(EVP_CIPHER_CTX *a);
 int EVP_CIPHER_CTX_set_key_length(EVP_CIPHER_CTX *x, int keylen);
 int EVP_CIPHER_CTX_set_padding(EVP_CIPHER_CTX *c, int pad);
 int EVP_CIPHER_CTX_ctrl(EVP_CIPHER_CTX *ctx, int type, int arg, void *ptr);
diff --git a/crypto/evp/evp_enc.c b/crypto/evp/evp_enc.c
index 22cb6131be..f0b725def6 100644
--- a/crypto/evp/evp_enc.c
+++ b/crypto/evp/evp_enc.c
@@ -74,6 +74,13 @@ void EVP_CIPHER_CTX_init(EVP_CIPHER_CTX *ctx)
 	/* ctx->cipher=NULL; */
 	}
 
+EVP_CIPHER_CTX *EVP_CIPHER_CTX_new(void)
+	{
+	EVP_CIPHER_CTX *ctx=OPENSSL_malloc(sizeof *ctx);
+	if (ctx)
+		EVP_CIPHER_CTX_init(ctx);
+	return ctx;
+	}
 
 int EVP_CipherInit(EVP_CIPHER_CTX *ctx, const EVP_CIPHER *cipher,
 	     const unsigned char *key, const unsigned char *iv, int enc)
@@ -472,6 +479,15 @@ int EVP_DecryptFinal_ex(EVP_CIPHER_CTX *ctx, unsigned char *out, int *outl)
 	return(1);
 	}
 
+void EVP_CIPHER_CTX_free(EVP_CIPHER_CTX *ctx)
+	{
+	if (ctx)
+		{
+		EVP_CIPHER_CTX_cleanup(ctx);
+		OPENSSL_free(ctx);
+		}
+	}
+
 int EVP_CIPHER_CTX_cleanup(EVP_CIPHER_CTX *c)
 	{
 	if (c->cipher != NULL)