63 lines
2.3 KiB
Text
63 lines
2.3 KiB
Text
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ENGINE
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======
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With OpenSSL 0.9.6, a new component has been added to support external
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crypto devices, for example accelerator cards. The component is called
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ENGINE, and has still a pretty experimental status and almost no
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documentation. It's designed to be faily easily extensible by the
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calling programs.
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There's currently built-in support for the following crypto devices:
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o CryptoSwift
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o Compaq Atalla
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o nCipher CHIL
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A number of things are still needed and are being worked on:
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o An openssl utility command to handle or at least check available
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engines.
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o A better way of handling the methods that are handled by the
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engines.
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o Documentation!
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What already exists is fairly stable as far as it has been tested, but
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the test base has been a bit small most of the time.
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Because of this experimental status and what's lacking, the ENGINE
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component is not yet part of the default OpenSSL distribution. However,
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we have made a separate kit for those who want to try this out, to be
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found in the same places as the default OpenSSL distribution, but with
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"-engine-" being part of the kit file name. For example, version 0.9.6
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is distributed in the following two files:
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openssl-0.9.6.tar.gz
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openssl-engine-0.9.6.tar.gz
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NOTES
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=====
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openssl-engine-0.9.6.tar.gz does not depend on openssl-0.9.6.tar, you do
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not need to download both.
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openssl-engine-0.9.6.tar.gz is usable even if you don't have an external
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crypto device. The internal OpenSSL functions are contained in the
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engine "openssl", and will be used by default.
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No external crypto device is chosen unless you say so. You have actively
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tell the openssl utility commands to use it through a new command line
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switch called "-engine". And if you want to use the ENGINE library to
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do something similar, you must also explicitely choose an external crypto
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device, or the built-in crypto routines will be used, just as in the
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default OpenSSL distribution.
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PROBLEMS
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========
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It seems like the ENGINE part doesn't work too well with Cryptoswift on
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Win32. A quick test done right before the release showed that trying
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"openssl speed -engine cswift" generated errors. If the DSO gets enabled,
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an attempt is made to write at memory address 0x00000002.
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