OSSL_PROVIDER-BASE(7ossl)

📦 version 3.5.0, in opensuse-leap 16.0

💅 OSSL_PROVIDER-BASE (7ossl) ✨

okay so bestie, welcome to the OSSL_PROVIDER-base page — that's the base provider for OpenSSL, and yes it's a 7ossl manual page, iykyk 🎀

🌸 NAME 🌸

OSSL_PROVIDER-base — the OpenSSL base provider, no cap 💖

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

So the OpenSSL base provider is literally the one that supplies the encoding for OpenSSL's asymmetric cryptography. That's its whole vibe. It's giving "encoding specialist" and honestly? Obsessed. 🦋

🧚 Properties

The implementations in this provider specifically have this property defined:

  • "provider=base"

You can use it in a property query string when you're doing fetching functions. It isn't mandatory to query for this property — like, you can just rawdog it — but you'd query it to make sure you get implementations of this provider and none other. Gotta be sure, fr fr. 💅

Now these ones:

  • "type=parameters"
  • "type=private"
  • "type=public"

These may be used in a property query string with fetching functions to select which data are to be encoded. Either the private key material, the public key material, or the domain parameters — pick your fighter bestie, you can select between them. 👑

And these:

  • "format=der"
  • "format=pem"
  • "format=text"

These may be used in a property query string with fetching functions to select the encoding output format. DER, PEM and plaintext are currently permitted — that's the whole menu, no secret extras. 🌈

🔥 OPERATIONS AND ALGORITHMS 🔥

The OpenSSL base provider supports these operations and algorithms, and we're listing every single one because I would never gatekeep:

⭐ Random Number Generation

In addition to this provider, the "SEED-SRC" and "JITTER" algorithms are also available in the default provider. So like, this provider isn't the only one serving those, mwah 💋

🎀 Asymmetric Key Encoder

RSA
RSA-PSS
DH
DHX
DSA
EC
ED25519
ED448
X25519
X448
SM2
ML-DSA-44
ML-DSA-65
ML-DSA-87
ML-KEM-512
ML-KEM-768
ML-KEM-1024
SLH-DSA-SHA2-128s
SLH-DSA-SHA2-128f
SLH-DSA-SHA2-192s
SLH-DSA-SHA2-192f
SLH-DSA-SHA2-256s
SLH-DSA-SHA2-256f
SLH-DSA-SHAKE-128s
SLH-DSA-SHAKE-128f
SLH-DSA-SHAKE-192s
SLH-DSA-SHAKE-192f
SLH-DSA-SHAKE-256s
SLH-DSA-SHAKE-256f

In addition to this provider, all of these encoding algorithms are also available in the default provider. Some of these algorithms may be used in combination with the FIPS provider. 👑

🦋 Asymmetric Key Decoder

RSA
RSA-PSS
DH
DHX
DSA
EC
ED25519
ED448
X25519
X448
SM2
DER
ML-DSA-44
ML-DSA-65
ML-DSA-87
ML-KEM-512
ML-KEM-768
ML-KEM-1024
SLH-DSA-SHA2-128s
SLH-DSA-SHA2-128f
SLH-DSA-SHA2-192s
SLH-DSA-SHA2-192f
SLH-DSA-SHA2-256s
SLH-DSA-SHA2-256f
SLH-DSA-SHAKE-128s
SLH-DSA-SHAKE-128f
SLH-DSA-SHAKE-192s
SLH-DSA-SHAKE-192f
SLH-DSA-SHAKE-256s
SLH-DSA-SHAKE-256f

Okay and notice the decoder list has DER in it and the encoder list doesn't — that's not me messing up, that's literally how the page reads, so don't come for me 🙈

In addition to this provider, all of these decoding algorithms are also available in the default provider. Some of these algorithms may be used in combination with the FIPS provider. Same energy as above, periodt. ✨

🍓 Stores

In addition to this provider, all of these store algorithms are also available in the default provider. 💜

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

OSSL_PROVIDER-default(7), openssl-core.h(7), openssl-core_dispatch.h(7), provider(7) — go read those too bestie, they're iconic in their own right 🫶

🌸 HISTORY 🌸

This functionality was added in OpenSSL 3.0.

Support for ML-DSA and <ML-KEM> was added in OpenSSL 3.5.

And yes, the angle brackets around <ML-KEM> are literally in the original. I'm not inventing anything, I promise. 😭

Copyright 2020-2025 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!! 💅✨ this was version 3.5.0, dated 2026-09-25, filed under OSSL_PROVIDER-BASE(7ossl) — go forth and encode responsibly 🎀🦋

📦 where this page comes from