OSSL_STORE-WINSTORE(7ossl)

📦 version 3.5.0, in opensuse-leap 16.0

💅 OSSL_STORE-WINSTORE 💅

okay so this is the OSSL_STORE-WINSTORE(7ossl) page — yes the whole manual name is a mouthful, we're just gonna roll with it 🫶 — and it's literally all about the built-in OSSL_STORE shenanigans for Windows. bestie, it's giving "niche but iconic."

✨ NAME ✨

OSSL_STORE-winstore — the OpenSSL built-in OSSL_STORE for Windows. that's it, that's the whole name, no notes 💅

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So the OSSL_STORE implementation for Windows gives you access to Windows' system "ROOT" certificate store through URIs — and the URI scheme it uses is "org.openssl.winstore". cute, right? 🎀

🦋 Supported URIs 🦋

There is literally only one supported URI:

org.openssl.winstore:

and that's the whole thing. no authority (host, etc), no path, no query, no fragment. none of that. it's minimal, it's clean, it's lowkey the main character of URI schemes ✨

🧚 Supported OSSL_STORE_SEARCH operations 🧚

  • OSSL_STORE_SEARCH_by_name(3) — bestie, as a matter of fact, this must be used. fr fr. because it is not possible to enumerate all available certificates in the store. so like… don't even try to scroll the whole list, it's not giving what you want 💀

🔥 Windows certificate store features 🔥

Okay so apart from all the diverse constraints that live inside the certificates themselves, the Windows certificate store also has this ability to associate additional constraining properties alongside a certificate in the store. and it includes both documented and undocumented capabilities, which is so on brand for Windows honestly 🙈:

  • The documented capability to override EKU
  • The undocumented capability to add name constraints
  • The undocumented capability to override the certificate expiry date
⚠️ heads up bestie: such constraints are not checked by this OSSL_STORE implementation, and thereby not honoured. like, the winstore impl simply does not do that vibe check.

However — and this is the slay part 👑 — once extracted with OSSL_STORE_load(3), certificates that have constraints in their X.509 extensions will go through the usual constraint checks when used by OpenSSL, and are thereby honoured. so the constraints get their moment eventually, periodt. 💖

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

⭐ HISTORY ⭐

The winstore ("org.openssl.winstore") implementation was added in OpenSSL 3.2.0. glow-up era, honestly. ✨

💜 NOTES 💜

OpenSSL uses OSSL_DECODER(3) implementations under the hood — sneaky little decoders doing their thing. so if you wanna influence what OSSL_DECODER(3) implementations are used, it's advisable to use OSSL_STORE_open_ex(3) and set the propq argument. yes, the propq argument. set it. thank me later 🫶

Copyright 2024 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 page, bestie 🎀 — brought to you by version 3.5.0, dated 2026-09-25, and the OSSL_STORE-WINSTORE(7ossl) energy we all needed. stay encrypted, stay iconic 💅💖

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