PKCS12_PBE_KEYIVGEN(3ossl)

📦
version 3.5.9 · 8 versions
, in fedora 43, fedora 44

💖 PKCS12_PBE_KEYIVGEN 💖

okay so bestie, we're in the PKCS12_PBE_KEYIVGEN(3ossl) era and honestly? it's giving password-based-encryption main character energy. this is the family of functions that does PKCS#12 Password based encryption — key derivation, encryption, decryption, the whole slay. ✨

✨ NAME ✨

PKCS12_PBE_keyivgen, PKCS12_PBE_keyivgen_ex, PKCS12_pbe_crypt, PKCS12_pbe_crypt_ex — PKCS#12 Password based encryption 🎀

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <openssl/evp.h>

int PKCS12_PBE_keyivgen(EVP_CIPHER_CTX *ctx, const char *pass, int passlen,
                        ASN1_TYPE *param, const EVP_CIPHER *cipher,
                        const EVP_MD *md_type, int en_de);
int PKCS12_PBE_keyivgen_ex(EVP_CIPHER_CTX *ctx, const char *pass, int passlen,
                           ASN1_TYPE *param, const EVP_CIPHER *cipher,
                           const EVP_MD *md_type, int en_de,
                           OSSL_LIB_CTX *libctx, const char *propq);
unsigned char *PKCS12_pbe_crypt(const X509_ALGOR *algor,
                                const char *pass, int passlen,
                                const unsigned char *in, int inlen,
                                unsigned char **data, int *datalen,
                                int en_de);
unsigned char *PKCS12_pbe_crypt_ex(const X509_ALGOR *algor,
                                   const char *pass, int passlen,
                                   const unsigned char *in, int inlen,
                                   unsigned char **data, int *datalen,
                                   int en_de, OSSL_LIB_CTX *libctx,
                                   const char *propq);

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so PKCS12_PBE_keyivgen() and PKCS12_PBE_keyivgen_ex() take a password pass of length passlen, parameters param, and a message digest function md_type, and they do a key derivation according to PKCS#12. then that resulting key gets used to initialise the cipher context ctx with a cipher cipher — either for encryption (en_de=1) or decryption (en_de=0). yes bestie, one little int controls the whole vibe direction. 😌

PKCS12_PBE_keyivgen_ex() is the glow-up version — it also lets the app specify a library context libctx and property query propq to select the appropriate algorithm implementations. so fancy. so specific. 🫶

then we have PKCS12_pbe_crypt() and PKCS12_pbe_crypt_ex(), which will encrypt or decrypt a buffer based on the algorithm in algor and password pass of length passlen. the input comes from in of length inlen, and the output goes into a malloc'd buffer returned in *data of length datalen. the operation is determined by en_de — encryption (en_de=1) or decryption (en_de=0). periodt.

PKCS12_pbe_crypt_ex() also lets the application specify a library context libctx and property query propq to select appropriate algorithm implementations. (noticing a pattern? the _ex girlies always bring the extra config ✨)

okay now the deets you actually need:

  • pass is the password used in the derivation of length passlen. pass is an optional parameter and can be NULL. If passlen is -1, then the function will calculate the length of pass using strlen(). convenient, honestly.
  • salt is the salt used in the derivation of length saltlen. If the salt is NULL, then saltlen must be 0. The function will not attempt to calculate the length of the salt because it is not assumed to be NULL terminated. > so like… don't try it. it's not gonna strlen for you. 🙈
  • iter is the iteration count and its value should be greater than or equal to 1. RFC 2898 suggests an iteration count of at least 1000. Any iter less than 1 is treated as a single iteration. (one. uno. single.)
  • digest is the message digest function used in the derivation.
  • Functions ending in _ex() take optional parameters libctx and propq, which are used to select appropriate algorithm implementations.

📝 NOTES 📝

These functions are typically used in PKCS#12 to encrypt objects. 💖

They make no assumption regarding the given password. It will simply be treated as a byte sequence. no judgement, no validation, no reading into it — just bytes being bytes. iconic behaviour, honestly.

🦋 RETURN VALUES 🦋

  • PKCS12_PBE_keyivgen() and PKCS12_PBE_keyivgen_ex() return 1 on success or 0 on error.
  • PKCS12_pbe_crypt() and PKCS12_pbe_crypt_ex() return a buffer containing the output, or NULL if an error occurred. > if you get NULL, bestie, that's your villain origin story. check the error stack. 😭

⭐ CONFORMING TO ⭐

IETF RFC 7292 (<https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7292>) — we stay standards-compliant over here. 👑

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

go read those too, iykyk. 💜

🎀 HISTORY 🎀

PKCS12_PBE_keyivgen_ex() and PKCS12_pbe_crypt_ex() were added in OpenSSL 3.0. so they're the newer siblings — the _ex versions showed up late but absolutely ate. 🔥

Copyright 2014-2021 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>.

and that's the whole page bestie, no cap. this was OpenSSL 3.5.9, dated 2026-09-29, and the manual is PKCS12_PBE_KEYIVGEN(3ossl) — go forth and derive those keys responsibly, mwah 💋✨

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