PKCS7_GET_OCTET_STRING(3SSL)

💖 PKCS7_GET_OCTET_STRING 💖

okay so this is the OpenSSL girlies' page for the PKCS7_get_octet_string function — it lives in the 3SSL manual section, and bestie, it's a short one but it eats, so let's go 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

PKCS7_get_octet_string — return octet string from a PKCS#7 envelopedData structure 💅

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

#include <openssl/pkcs7.h>

ASN1_OCTET_STRING *PKCS7_get_octet_string(PKCS7 *p7);

that's it. that's the whole vibe. one include, one function, iconic ✨

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so like, PKCS7_get_octet_string() returns a pointer to an ASN1 octet string from a PKCS#7 envelopedData structure, or NULL if the structure cannot be parsed 😭

that's the tea. that's literally the whole function. no cap 🧚

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🎀 NOTES 🎀

okay pay attention bestie, this part matters 👑

as the 0 implies, PKCS7_get_octet_string() returns internal pointers which should not be freed by the caller.

🚨 so do NOT go rogue and free() this thing. it's not yours. it's internal. hands off. that's not your pointer, that's the library's pointer 🙈

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👑 RETURN VALUES 👑

PKCS7_get_octet_string() returns an ASN1_OCTET_STRING pointer. slay 💖

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• PKCS7_type_is_data(3)

go read that one next, it's giving sibling energy 🦋

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💜 COPYRIGHT 💜

Copyright 2002-2020 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>.

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okay bestie that's the whole page, we ate and left no crumbs 🍓 this was OpenSSL version 4.0.3, dated 2026-09-29 — mwah, tysm for reading, love u, bye 💅✨🫶