xref: /freebsd/crypto/openssl/doc/man3/CMS_sign.pod (revision e7be843b4a162e68651d3911f0357ed464915629)
1=pod
2
3=head1 NAME
4
5CMS_sign, CMS_sign_ex - create a CMS SignedData structure
6
7=head1 SYNOPSIS
8
9 #include <openssl/cms.h>
10
11 CMS_ContentInfo *CMS_sign_ex(X509 *signcert, EVP_PKEY *pkey,
12                              STACK_OF(X509) *certs, BIO *data,
13                              unsigned int flags, OSSL_LIB_CTX *ctx,
14                              const char *propq);
15 CMS_ContentInfo *CMS_sign(X509 *signcert, EVP_PKEY *pkey, STACK_OF(X509) *certs,
16                           BIO *data, unsigned int flags);
17
18=head1 DESCRIPTION
19
20CMS_sign_ex() creates and returns a CMS SignedData structure.
21I<signcert> is the certificate to sign with, I<pkey> is the corresponding
22private key. I<certs> is an optional additional set of certificates to include
23in the CMS structure (for example any intermediate CAs in the chain). The
24library context I<libctx> and the property query I<propq> are used when
25retrieving algorithms from providers. Any or all of these parameters can be
26B<NULL>, see B<NOTES> below.
27
28The data to be signed is read from BIO B<data>.
29
30B<flags> is an optional set of flags.
31
32CMS_sign() is similar to CMS_sign_ex() but uses default values of NULL
33for the library context I<libctx> and the property query I<propq>.
34
35=head1 NOTES
36
37Any of the following flags (ored together) can be passed in the B<flags>
38parameter.
39
40Many S/MIME clients expect the signed content to include valid MIME headers. If
41the B<CMS_TEXT> flag is set MIME headers for type B<text/plain> are prepended
42to the data.
43
44If B<CMS_NOCERTS> is set the signer's certificate will not be included in the
45CMS_ContentInfo structure, the signer's certificate must still be supplied in
46the B<signcert> parameter though. This can reduce the size of the signature if
47the signers certificate can be obtained by other means: for example a
48previously signed message.
49
50The data being signed is included in the CMS_ContentInfo structure, unless
51B<CMS_DETACHED> is set in which case it is omitted. This is used for
52CMS_ContentInfo detached signatures which are used in S/MIME plaintext signed
53messages for example.
54
55Normally the supplied content is translated into MIME canonical format (as
56required by the S/MIME specifications) if B<CMS_BINARY> is set no translation
57occurs. This option should be used if the supplied data is in binary format
58otherwise the translation will corrupt it.
59
60The SignedData structure includes several CMS signedAttributes including the
61signing time, the CMS content type and the supported list of ciphers in an
62SMIMECapabilities attribute. If B<CMS_NOATTR> is set then no signedAttributes
63will be used at all. If B<CMS_NOSMIMECAP> is set then the SMIMECapabilities
64will be omitted. If B<CMS_NO_SIGNING_TIME> is set then the signing time will be
65omitted.
66
67If present the SMIMECapabilities attribute indicates support for the following
68algorithms in preference order: 256 bit AES, Gost R3411-94, Gost 28147-89, 192
69bit AES, 128 bit AES, triple DES, 128 bit RC2, 64 bit RC2, DES and 40 bit RC2.
70If any of these algorithms is not available then it will not be included:
71for example the GOST algorithms will not be included if the GOST ENGINE is
72not loaded.
73
74OpenSSL will by default identify signing certificates using issuer name
75and serial number. If B<CMS_USE_KEYID> is set it will use the subject key
76identifier value instead. An error occurs if the signing certificate does not
77have a subject key identifier extension.
78
79If the flags B<CMS_STREAM> is set then the returned B<CMS_ContentInfo>
80structure is just initialized ready to perform the signing operation. The
81signing is however B<not> performed and the data to be signed is not read from
82the B<data> parameter. Signing is deferred until after the data has been
83written. In this way data can be signed in a single pass.
84
85If the B<CMS_PARTIAL> flag is set a partial B<CMS_ContentInfo> structure is
86output to which additional signers and capabilities can be added before
87finalization.
88
89If the flag B<CMS_STREAM> is set the returned B<CMS_ContentInfo> structure is
90B<not> complete and outputting its contents via a function that does not
91properly finalize the B<CMS_ContentInfo> structure will give unpredictable
92results.
93
94Several functions including SMIME_write_CMS(), i2d_CMS_bio_stream(),
95PEM_write_bio_CMS_stream() finalize the structure. Alternatively finalization
96can be performed by obtaining the streaming ASN1 B<BIO> directly using
97BIO_new_CMS().
98
99If a signer is specified it will use the default digest for the signing
100algorithm. This is B<SHA256> for both RSA and DSA keys.
101
102If B<signcert> and B<pkey> are NULL then a certificates only CMS structure is
103output.
104
105The function CMS_sign() is a basic CMS signing function whose output will be
106suitable for many purposes. For finer control of the output format the
107B<certs>, B<signcert> and B<pkey> parameters can all be B<NULL> and the
108B<CMS_PARTIAL> flag set. Then one or more signers can be added using the
109function CMS_add1_signer(), non default digests can be used and custom
110attributes added. CMS_final() must then be called to finalize the
111structure if streaming is not enabled.
112
113=head1 BUGS
114
115Some attributes such as counter signatures are not supported.
116
117=head1 RETURN VALUES
118
119CMS_sign_ex() and CMS_sign() return either a valid CMS_ContentInfo
120structure or NULL if an error occurred. The error can be obtained from
121ERR_get_error(3).
122
123=head1 SEE ALSO
124
125L<ERR_get_error(3)>, L<CMS_verify(3)>
126
127=head1 HISTORY
128
129The B<CMS_STREAM> flag is only supported for detached data in OpenSSL 0.9.8,
130it is supported for embedded data in OpenSSL 1.0.0 and later.
131
132The CMS_sign_ex() method was added in OpenSSL 3.0.
133
134Since OpenSSL 3.2, CMS_sign_ex() and CMS_sign() ignore any duplicate
135certificates in their I<certs> argument and no longer throw an error for them.
136
137=head1 COPYRIGHT
138
139Copyright 2008-2025 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
140
141Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License").  You may not use
142this file except in compliance with the License.  You can obtain a copy
143in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
144L<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.
145
146=cut
147