EVP_PKEY_CTX_SET1_PBE_PASS(3ossl)

📦 version 3.5.0, in opensuse-leap 16.0

💅 EVP_PKEY_CTX_SET1_PBE_PASS(3ossl) — bestie edition

okay so you're in the OpenSSL kdf.h cinematic universe and you need to hand a password to a KDF? say less, this is the page for you. it lives in the OpenSSL manual (3ossl), and honestly it's a short one — a little snack of a manpage 🍓

✨ NAME ✨

EVP_PKEY_CTX_set1_pbe_pass — the generic KDF support functions, aka the little helper squad that works with all the KDF algorithms 💖

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <openssl/kdf.h>

int EVP_PKEY_CTX_set1_pbe_pass(EVP_PKEY_CTX *pctx, unsigned char *pass,
                               int passlen);

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

so these functions are the generic support girlies for every single KDF algorithm. they're not out here playing favorites, they support them all, periodt ✨

EVP_PKEY_CTX_set1_pbe_pass() sets the password to the passlen first bytes from pass. that's it. that's the whole vibe — first passlen bytes, no more, no less, lit rally byte-accurate 💅

🦋 STRING CTRLS 🦋

there's also support for string based control operations via EVP_PKEY_CTX_ctrl_str(3) — yes bestie, you have options 👑

the password can be directly specified using the type parameter "pass", or given in hex encoding using the "hexpass" parameter. so like, plain vibes or hex vibes, your call 🧚

💜 RETURN VALUES 💜

all these functions return 1 for success 🌈 and 0 or a negative value for failure 💀

and in particular?? a return value of -2 means the operation is not supported by the public key algorithm — so if you see -2, it's not you, it's the algorithm, don't take it personally 🙈

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

go read those too, iykyk 🫶

⭐ HISTORY ⭐

EVP_PKEY_CTX_set1_pbe_pass() got converted from a macro to a function in OpenSSL 3.0 — glow-up era, truly iconic behavior ✨

Copyright 2018-2020 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.

Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at <https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.

fr fr read the license before you go copying things, bestie — "may not use this file except in compliance with the License" is a real one 😭

and that's the page!! mwah 💋 sign-off time: this was OpenSSL 3.5.0, dated 2026-09-25, no cap — go set some passwords and slay 🎀💖

📦 where this page comes from