OSSL_STORE-FILE(7SSL)

📦
version 4.0.3 · 13 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💖 OSSL_STORE-FILE(7SSL) 💖

okay bestie, this is the OSSL_STORE-FILE page, section 7SSL of the OpenSSL manual. it's giving "how does the file loader work" energy and honestly? it's iconic.

✨ NAME ✨

ossl_store-file — the store 'file' scheme loader 🗂️

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

#include <openssl/store.h>

that's it. that's the whole synopsis. slay. 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so, support for the 'file' scheme is built right into "libcrypto" — no extra install, no vibe check needed, it's just there. 🫶

but here's the thing: files come in literally all kinds of formats and content types (think less "one file type" and more "the whole group chat"), so the 'file' scheme has its own little layer of functionality called "file handlers", and those are what get used to try and decode all the diverse types of file contents. 😌

PEM files, explained

if a file is formatted as PEM, then each file handler that gets called receives:

  • the PEM name (aka everything following any '"-----BEGIN "') 👑
  • any possible PEM headers
  • together with the decoded PEM body

and because PEM formatted files can hold more than one object (yeah, they're overachievers like that), the file handlers get called upon for each such object. one by one, no skips. ✨

not PEM? no problem

if the file isn't determined to be formatted as PEM, then the content gets loaded in raw form, in its entirety, and passed to the available file handlers as is — with no PEM name and no headers. just vibes and bytes. 🍓

symmetric keys (the special request chapter)

Store 'file' also supports load of symmetric keys from arbitrary files. but listen — symmetric keys don't have any structure and encapsulation (they're the lowkey mysterious type, no wrapper, no nothing), so if you want a file interpreted as a symmetric key, you have to request that explicitly via OSSL_STORE_expect(3). it will not just happen for you. main character energy requires an invitation. 💌

⚠️ also important: when loading from a file, symmetric keys are limited to 2048 bytes in length. that's the cap, bestie.

each handler does its own thing

each file handler is expected to handle PEM and non-PEM content as appropriate. some may refuse non-PEM content, and that's for the sake of determinism — here's the example from the original: there are keys out in the wild that are represented as an ASN.1 OCTET STRING. in raw form, it's not easily possible to distinguish those from any other data coming as an ASN.1 OCTET STRING, so such keys would naturally be accepted as PEM files only. so if a handler says "PEM only," it's not being mean, it's being careful. 💀

🌸 NOTES 🌸

when needed, the 'file' scheme loader will require a pass phrase, and it does that by using the UI_METHOD that was passed via OSSL_STORE_open(). 🔐

this pass phrase is expected to be UTF-8 encoded — anything else will give an undefined result. not "a slightly wrong result," not "an error message," just undefined. we do not gamble on encodings here. 🙈

the files made accessible through this loader are expected to be standard compliant with regards to pass phrase encoding. files that aren't should be re-generated with a correctly encoded pass phrase. that's the fix, that's the whole fix.

see passphrase-encoding(7) for more information. 🎀

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

🌈 HISTORY 🌈

Support for reading symmetric keys from files was added in OpenSSL 4.0 ✨ (yes, a glow-up era).

Copyright 2018-2025 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 OpenSSL 4.0.3, dated 2026-09-29 — go forth, load your files, respect the 2048 byte limit, and stay UTF-8 encoded. periodt. 💅✨🎀

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