xref: /freebsd/crypto/openssl/doc/man1/openssl-enc.pod.in (revision 88b8b7f0c4e9948667a2279e78e975a784049cba)
1=pod
2{- OpenSSL::safe::output_do_not_edit_headers(); -}
3
4=head1 NAME
5
6openssl-enc - symmetric cipher routines
7
8=head1 SYNOPSIS
9
10B<openssl> B<enc>|I<cipher>
11[B<-I<cipher>>]
12[B<-help>]
13[B<-list>]
14[B<-ciphers>]
15[B<-in> I<filename>]
16[B<-out> I<filename>]
17[B<-pass> I<arg>]
18[B<-e>]
19[B<-d>]
20[B<-a>]
21[B<-base64>]
22[B<-A>]
23[B<-k> I<password>]
24[B<-kfile> I<filename>]
25[B<-K> I<key>]
26[B<-iv> I<IV>]
27[B<-S> I<salt>]
28[B<-salt>]
29[B<-nosalt>]
30[B<-z>]
31[B<-md> I<digest>]
32[B<-iter> I<count>]
33[B<-pbkdf2>]
34[B<-saltlen> I<size>]
35[B<-p>]
36[B<-P>]
37[B<-bufsize> I<number>]
38[B<-nopad>]
39[B<-v>]
40[B<-debug>]
41[B<-none>]
42[B<-skeymgmt> I<skeymgmt>]
43[B<-skeyopt> I<opt>:I<value>]
44{- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_engine_synopsis -}{- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_r_synopsis -}
45{- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_provider_synopsis -}
46
47B<openssl> I<cipher> [B<...>]
48
49=head1 DESCRIPTION
50
51The symmetric cipher commands allow data to be encrypted or decrypted
52using various block and stream ciphers using keys based on passwords
53or explicitly provided. Base64 encoding or decoding can also be performed
54either by itself or in addition to the encryption or decryption.
55
56=head1 OPTIONS
57
58=over 4
59
60=item B<-I<cipher>>
61
62The cipher to use.
63
64=item B<-help>
65
66Print out a usage message.
67
68=item B<-list>
69
70List all supported ciphers.
71
72=item B<-ciphers>
73
74Alias of -list to display all supported ciphers.
75
76=item B<-in> I<filename>
77
78The input filename, standard input by default.
79
80=item B<-out> I<filename>
81
82The output filename, standard output by default.
83
84=item B<-pass> I<arg>
85
86The password source. For more information about the format of I<arg>
87see L<openssl-passphrase-options(1)>.
88
89=item B<-e>
90
91Encrypt the input data: this is the default.
92
93=item B<-d>
94
95Decrypt the input data.
96
97=item B<-a>
98
99Base64 process the data. This means that if encryption is taking place
100the data is base64 encoded after encryption. If decryption is set then
101the input data is base64 decoded before being decrypted.
102
103When the B<-A> option not given,
104on encoding a newline is inserted after each 64 characters, and
105on decoding a newline is expected among the first 1024 bytes of input.
106
107=item B<-base64>
108
109Same as B<-a>
110
111=item B<-A>
112
113If the B<-a> option is set then base64 encoding produces output without any
114newline character, and base64 decoding does not require any newlines.
115Therefore it can be helpful to use the B<-A> option when decoding unknown input.
116
117=item B<-k> I<password>
118
119The password to derive the key from. This is for compatibility with previous
120versions of OpenSSL. Superseded by the B<-pass> argument.
121
122=item B<-kfile> I<filename>
123
124Read the password to derive the key from the first line of I<filename>.
125This is for compatibility with previous versions of OpenSSL. Superseded by
126the B<-pass> argument.
127
128=item B<-md> I<digest>
129
130Use the specified digest to create the key from the passphrase.
131The default algorithm is sha-256.
132
133=item B<-iter> I<count>
134
135Use a given number of iterations on the password in deriving the encryption key.
136High values increase the time required to brute-force the resulting file.
137This option enables the use of PBKDF2 algorithm to derive the key.
138
139=item B<-pbkdf2>
140
141Use PBKDF2 algorithm with a default iteration count of 10000
142unless otherwise specified by the B<-iter> command line option.
143
144=item B<-saltlen>
145
146Set the salt length to use when using the B<-pbkdf2> option.
147For compatibility reasons, the default is 8 bytes.
148The maximum value is currently 16 bytes.
149If the B<-pbkdf2> option is not used, then this option is ignored
150and a fixed salt length of 8 is used. The salt length used when
151encrypting must also be used when decrypting.
152
153=item B<-nosalt>
154
155Don't use a salt in the key derivation routines. This option B<SHOULD NOT> be
156used except for test purposes or compatibility with ancient versions of
157OpenSSL.
158
159=item B<-salt>
160
161Use salt (randomly generated or provide with B<-S> option) when
162encrypting, this is the default.
163
164=item B<-S> I<salt>
165
166The actual salt to use: this must be represented as a string of hex digits.
167If this option is used while encrypting, the same exact value will be needed
168again during decryption. This salt may be truncated or zero padded to
169match the salt length (See B<-saltlen>).
170
171=item B<-K> I<key>
172
173The actual key to use: this must be represented as a string comprised only
174of hex digits. If only the key is specified, the IV must additionally specified
175using the B<-iv> option. When both a key and a password are specified, the
176key given with the B<-K> option will be used and the IV generated from the
177password will be taken. It does not make much sense to specify both key
178and password.
179
180=item B<-iv> I<IV>
181
182The actual IV to use: this must be represented as a string comprised only
183of hex digits. When only the key is specified using the B<-K> option, the
184IV must explicitly be defined. When a password is being specified using
185one of the other options, the IV is generated from this password.
186
187=item B<-p>
188
189Print out the key and IV used.
190
191=item B<-P>
192
193Print out the key and IV used then immediately exit: don't do any encryption
194or decryption.
195
196=item B<-bufsize> I<number>[B<k>]
197
198Set the buffer size for I/O.
199The maximum size that can be specified is B<2^31-1> (2147483647) bytes.
200The B<k> suffix can be specified to indicate that I<number> is provided
201in kibibytes (multiples of 1024 bytes).
202
203=item B<-nopad>
204
205Disable standard block padding.
206
207=item B<-v>
208
209Verbose print; display some statistics about I/O and buffer sizes.
210
211=item B<-debug>
212
213Debug the BIOs used for I/O.
214
215=item B<-z>
216
217Compress or decompress encrypted data using zlib after encryption or before
218decryption. This option exists only if OpenSSL was compiled with the zlib
219or zlib-dynamic option.
220
221=item B<-none>
222
223Use NULL cipher (no encryption or decryption of input).
224
225=item B<-skeymgmt> I<skeymgmt>
226
227Some providers may support opaque symmetric keys objects. To use them, we need
228to know the name of the B<EVP_SKEYMGMT> to be used. If not specified, the name
229of the cipher will be used.
230
231To find out the name of the suitable symmetric key management,
232please refer to the output of the C<openssl list -skey-managers> command.
233
234=item B<-skeyopt> I<opt>:I<value>
235
236To obtain an existing opaque symmetric key or generate a new one, key
237options are specified as opt:value. These options can't be used together with
238any options implying raw key directly or indirectly.
239
240{- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_r_item -}
241
242{- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_provider_item -}
243
244{- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_engine_item -}
245
246=back
247
248=head1 NOTES
249
250The program can be called either as C<openssl I<cipher>> or
251C<openssl enc -I<cipher>>. The first form doesn't work with
252engine-provided ciphers, because this form is processed before the
253configuration file is read and any ENGINEs loaded.
254Use the L<openssl-list(1)> command to get a list of supported ciphers.
255
256Engines which provide entirely new encryption algorithms (such as the ccgost
257engine which provides gost89 algorithm) should be configured in the
258configuration file. Engines specified on the command line using B<-engine>
259option can only be used for hardware-assisted implementations of
260ciphers which are supported by the OpenSSL core or another engine specified
261in the configuration file.
262
263When the enc command lists supported ciphers, ciphers provided by engines,
264specified in the configuration files are listed too.
265
266A password will be prompted for to derive the key and IV if necessary.
267
268The B<-salt> option should B<ALWAYS> be used if the key is being derived
269from a password unless you want compatibility with previous versions of
270OpenSSL.
271
272Without the B<-salt> option it is possible to perform efficient dictionary
273attacks on the password and to attack stream cipher encrypted data. The reason
274for this is that without the salt the same password always generates the same
275encryption key.
276
277When the salt is generated at random (that means when encrypting using a
278passphrase without explicit salt given using B<-S> option), the first bytes
279of the encrypted data are reserved to store the salt for later decrypting.
280
281Some of the ciphers do not have large keys and others have security
282implications if not used correctly. A beginner is advised to just use
283a strong block cipher, such as AES, in CBC mode.
284
285All the block ciphers normally use PKCS#7 padding, also known as standard
286block padding. This allows a rudimentary integrity or password check to
287be performed. However, since the chance of random data passing the test
288is better than 1 in 256 it isn't a very good test.
289
290If padding is disabled then the input data must be a multiple of the cipher
291block length.
292
293All RC2 ciphers have the same key and effective key length.
294
295Blowfish and RC5 algorithms use a 128 bit key.
296
297Please note that OpenSSL 3.0 changed the effect of the B<-S> option.
298Any explicit salt value specified via this option is no longer prepended to the
299ciphertext when encrypting, and must again be explicitly provided when decrypting.
300Conversely, when the B<-S> option is used during decryption, the ciphertext
301is expected to not have a prepended salt value.
302
303When using OpenSSL 3.0 or later to decrypt data that was encrypted with an
304explicit salt under OpenSSL 1.1.1 do not use the B<-S> option, the salt will
305then be read from the ciphertext.
306To generate ciphertext that can be decrypted with OpenSSL 1.1.1 do not use
307the B<-S> option, the salt will be then be generated randomly and prepended
308to the output.
309
310=head1 SUPPORTED CIPHERS
311
312Note that some of these ciphers can be disabled at compile time
313and some are available only if an appropriate engine is configured
314in the configuration file. The output when invoking this command
315with the B<-list> option (that is C<openssl enc -list>) is
316a list of ciphers, supported by your version of OpenSSL, including
317ones provided by configured engines.
318
319This command does not support authenticated encryption modes
320like CCM and GCM, and will not support such modes in the future.
321This is due to having to begin streaming output (e.g., to standard output
322when B<-out> is not used) before the authentication tag could be validated.
323When this command is used in a pipeline, the receiving end will not be
324able to roll back upon authentication failure.  The AEAD modes currently in
325common use also suffer from catastrophic failure of confidentiality and/or
326integrity upon reuse of key/iv/nonce, and since B<openssl enc> places the
327entire burden of key/iv/nonce management upon the user, the risk of
328exposing AEAD modes is too great to allow. These key/iv/nonce
329management issues also affect other modes currently exposed in this command,
330but the failure modes are less extreme in these cases, and the
331functionality cannot be removed with a stable release branch.
332For bulk encryption of data, whether using authenticated encryption
333modes or other modes, L<openssl-cms(1)> is recommended, as it provides a
334standard data format and performs the needed key/iv/nonce management.
335
336When enc is used with key wrapping modes the input data cannot be streamed,
337meaning it must be processed in a single pass.
338Consequently, the input data size must be less than
339the buffer size (-bufsize arg, default to 8*1024 bytes).
340The '*-wrap' ciphers require the input to be a multiple of 8 bytes long,
341because no padding is involved.
342The '*-wrap-pad' ciphers allow any input length.
343In both cases, no IV is needed. See example below.
344
345
346 base64             Base 64
347
348 bf-cbc             Blowfish in CBC mode
349 bf                 Alias for bf-cbc
350 blowfish           Alias for bf-cbc
351 bf-cfb             Blowfish in CFB mode
352 bf-ecb             Blowfish in ECB mode
353 bf-ofb             Blowfish in OFB mode
354
355 cast-cbc           CAST in CBC mode
356 cast               Alias for cast-cbc
357 cast5-cbc          CAST5 in CBC mode
358 cast5-cfb          CAST5 in CFB mode
359 cast5-ecb          CAST5 in ECB mode
360 cast5-ofb          CAST5 in OFB mode
361
362 chacha20           ChaCha20 algorithm
363
364 des-cbc            DES in CBC mode
365 des                Alias for des-cbc
366 des-cfb            DES in CFB mode
367 des-ofb            DES in OFB mode
368 des-ecb            DES in ECB mode
369
370 des-ede-cbc        Two key triple DES EDE in CBC mode
371 des-ede            Two key triple DES EDE in ECB mode
372 des-ede-cfb        Two key triple DES EDE in CFB mode
373 des-ede-ofb        Two key triple DES EDE in OFB mode
374
375 des-ede3-cbc       Three key triple DES EDE in CBC mode
376 des-ede3           Three key triple DES EDE in ECB mode
377 des3               Alias for des-ede3-cbc
378 des-ede3-cfb       Three key triple DES EDE CFB mode
379 des-ede3-ofb       Three key triple DES EDE in OFB mode
380
381 desx               DESX algorithm.
382
383 gost89             GOST 28147-89 in CFB mode (provided by ccgost engine)
384 gost89-cnt         GOST 28147-89 in CNT mode (provided by ccgost engine)
385
386 idea-cbc           IDEA algorithm in CBC mode
387 idea               same as idea-cbc
388 idea-cfb           IDEA in CFB mode
389 idea-ecb           IDEA in ECB mode
390 idea-ofb           IDEA in OFB mode
391
392 rc2-cbc            128 bit RC2 in CBC mode
393 rc2                Alias for rc2-cbc
394 rc2-cfb            128 bit RC2 in CFB mode
395 rc2-ecb            128 bit RC2 in ECB mode
396 rc2-ofb            128 bit RC2 in OFB mode
397 rc2-64-cbc         64 bit RC2 in CBC mode
398 rc2-40-cbc         40 bit RC2 in CBC mode
399
400 rc4                128 bit RC4
401 rc4-64             64 bit RC4
402 rc4-40             40 bit RC4
403
404 rc5-cbc            RC5 cipher in CBC mode
405 rc5                Alias for rc5-cbc
406 rc5-cfb            RC5 cipher in CFB mode
407 rc5-ecb            RC5 cipher in ECB mode
408 rc5-ofb            RC5 cipher in OFB mode
409
410 seed-cbc           SEED cipher in CBC mode
411 seed               Alias for seed-cbc
412 seed-cfb           SEED cipher in CFB mode
413 seed-ecb           SEED cipher in ECB mode
414 seed-ofb           SEED cipher in OFB mode
415
416 sm4-cbc            SM4 cipher in CBC mode
417 sm4                Alias for sm4-cbc
418 sm4-cfb            SM4 cipher in CFB mode
419 sm4-ctr            SM4 cipher in CTR mode
420 sm4-ecb            SM4 cipher in ECB mode
421 sm4-ofb            SM4 cipher in OFB mode
422
423 aes-[128|192|256]-cbc  128/192/256 bit AES in CBC mode
424 aes[128|192|256]       Alias for aes-[128|192|256]-cbc
425 aes-[128|192|256]-cfb  128/192/256 bit AES in 128 bit CFB mode
426 aes-[128|192|256]-cfb1 128/192/256 bit AES in 1 bit CFB mode
427 aes-[128|192|256]-cfb8 128/192/256 bit AES in 8 bit CFB mode
428 aes-[128|192|256]-ctr  128/192/256 bit AES in CTR mode
429 aes-[128|192|256]-ecb  128/192/256 bit AES in ECB mode
430 aes-[128|192|256]-ofb  128/192/256 bit AES in OFB mode
431
432 aes-[128|192|256]-wrap     key wrapping using 128/192/256 bit AES
433 aes-[128|192|256]-wrap-pad key wrapping with padding using 128/192/256 bit AES
434
435 aria-[128|192|256]-cbc  128/192/256 bit ARIA in CBC mode
436 aria[128|192|256]       Alias for aria-[128|192|256]-cbc
437 aria-[128|192|256]-cfb  128/192/256 bit ARIA in 128 bit CFB mode
438 aria-[128|192|256]-cfb1 128/192/256 bit ARIA in 1 bit CFB mode
439 aria-[128|192|256]-cfb8 128/192/256 bit ARIA in 8 bit CFB mode
440 aria-[128|192|256]-ctr  128/192/256 bit ARIA in CTR mode
441 aria-[128|192|256]-ecb  128/192/256 bit ARIA in ECB mode
442 aria-[128|192|256]-ofb  128/192/256 bit ARIA in OFB mode
443
444 camellia-[128|192|256]-cbc  128/192/256 bit Camellia in CBC mode
445 camellia[128|192|256]       Alias for camellia-[128|192|256]-cbc
446 camellia-[128|192|256]-cfb  128/192/256 bit Camellia in 128 bit CFB mode
447 camellia-[128|192|256]-cfb1 128/192/256 bit Camellia in 1 bit CFB mode
448 camellia-[128|192|256]-cfb8 128/192/256 bit Camellia in 8 bit CFB mode
449 camellia-[128|192|256]-ctr  128/192/256 bit Camellia in CTR mode
450 camellia-[128|192|256]-ecb  128/192/256 bit Camellia in ECB mode
451 camellia-[128|192|256]-ofb  128/192/256 bit Camellia in OFB mode
452
453=head1 EXAMPLES
454
455Just base64 encode a binary file:
456
457 openssl base64 -in file.bin -out file.b64
458
459Decode the same file
460
461 openssl base64 -d -in file.b64 -out file.bin
462
463Encrypt a file using AES-128 using a prompted password
464and PBKDF2 key derivation:
465
466 openssl enc -aes128 -pbkdf2 -in file.txt -out file.aes128
467
468Decrypt a file using a supplied password:
469
470 openssl enc -aes128 -pbkdf2 -d -in file.aes128 -out file.txt \
471    -pass pass:<password>
472
473Encrypt a file then base64 encode it (so it can be sent via mail for example)
474using AES-256 in CTR mode and PBKDF2 key derivation:
475
476 openssl enc -aes-256-ctr -pbkdf2 -a -in file.txt -out file.aes256
477
478Base64 decode a file then decrypt it using a password supplied in a file:
479
480 openssl enc -aes-256-ctr -pbkdf2 -d -a -in file.aes256 -out file.txt \
481    -pass file:<passfile>
482
483AES key wrapping:
484
485 openssl enc -e -a -id-aes128-wrap-pad -K 000102030405060708090A0B0C0D0E0F -in file.bin
486or
487 openssl aes128-wrap-pad -e -a -K 000102030405060708090A0B0C0D0E0F -in file.bin
488
489=head1 BUGS
490
491The B<-A> option when used with large files doesn't work properly.
492On the other hand, when base64 decoding without the B<-A> option,
493if the first 1024 bytes of input do not include a newline character
494the first two lines of input are ignored.
495
496The B<openssl enc> command only supports a fixed number of algorithms with
497certain parameters. So if, for example, you want to use RC2 with a
49876 bit key or RC4 with an 84 bit key you can't use this program.
499
500=head1 SEE ALSO
501
502L<openssl-list(1)>, L<EVP_SKEY(3)>
503
504=head1 HISTORY
505
506The default digest was changed from MD5 to SHA256 in OpenSSL 1.1.0.
507
508The B<-list> option was added in OpenSSL 1.1.1e.
509
510The B<-ciphers> and B<-engine> options were deprecated in OpenSSL 3.0.
511
512The B<-saltlen> option was added in OpenSSL 3.2.
513
514The B<-skeymgmt> and B<-skeyopt> options were added in OpenSSL 3.5.
515
516=head1 COPYRIGHT
517
518Copyright 2000-2025 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
519
520Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License").  You may not use
521this file except in compliance with the License.  You can obtain a copy
522in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
523L<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.
524
525=cut
526