xref: /freebsd/crypto/openssl/doc/man3/CMS_sign.pod (revision 5ca8e32633c4ffbbcd6762e5888b6a4ba0708c6c)
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. If B<CMS_NOSMIMECAP> is set then just the SMIMECapabilities are
64omitted.
65
66If present the SMIMECapabilities attribute indicates support for the following
67algorithms in preference order: 256 bit AES, Gost R3411-94, Gost 28147-89, 192
68bit AES, 128 bit AES, triple DES, 128 bit RC2, 64 bit RC2, DES and 40 bit RC2.
69If any of these algorithms is not available then it will not be included:
70for example the GOST algorithms will not be included if the GOST ENGINE is
71not loaded.
72
73OpenSSL will by default identify signing certificates using issuer name
74and serial number. If B<CMS_USE_KEYID> is set it will use the subject key
75identifier value instead. An error occurs if the signing certificate does not
76have a subject key identifier extension.
77
78If the flags B<CMS_STREAM> is set then the returned B<CMS_ContentInfo>
79structure is just initialized ready to perform the signing operation. The
80signing is however B<not> performed and the data to be signed is not read from
81the B<data> parameter. Signing is deferred until after the data has been
82written. In this way data can be signed in a single pass.
83
84If the B<CMS_PARTIAL> flag is set a partial B<CMS_ContentInfo> structure is
85output to which additional signers and capabilities can be added before
86finalization.
87
88If the flag B<CMS_STREAM> is set the returned B<CMS_ContentInfo> structure is
89B<not> complete and outputting its contents via a function that does not
90properly finalize the B<CMS_ContentInfo> structure will give unpredictable
91results.
92
93Several functions including SMIME_write_CMS(), i2d_CMS_bio_stream(),
94PEM_write_bio_CMS_stream() finalize the structure. Alternatively finalization
95can be performed by obtaining the streaming ASN1 B<BIO> directly using
96BIO_new_CMS().
97
98If a signer is specified it will use the default digest for the signing
99algorithm. This is B<SHA1> for both RSA and DSA keys.
100
101If B<signcert> and B<pkey> are NULL then a certificates only CMS structure is
102output.
103
104The function CMS_sign() is a basic CMS signing function whose output will be
105suitable for many purposes. For finer control of the output format the
106B<certs>, B<signcert> and B<pkey> parameters can all be B<NULL> and the
107B<CMS_PARTIAL> flag set. Then one or more signers can be added using the
108function CMS_add1_signer(), non default digests can be used and custom
109attributes added. CMS_final() must then be called to finalize the
110structure if streaming is not enabled.
111
112=head1 BUGS
113
114Some attributes such as counter signatures are not supported.
115
116=head1 RETURN VALUES
117
118CMS_sign_ex() and CMS_sign() return either a valid CMS_ContentInfo
119structure or NULL if an error occurred. The error can be obtained from
120ERR_get_error(3).
121
122=head1 SEE ALSO
123
124L<ERR_get_error(3)>, L<CMS_verify(3)>
125
126=head1 HISTORY
127
128The B<CMS_STREAM> flag is only supported for detached data in OpenSSL 0.9.8,
129it is supported for embedded data in OpenSSL 1.0.0 and later.
130
131The CMS_sign_ex() method was added in OpenSSL 3.0.
132
133=head1 COPYRIGHT
134
135Copyright 2008-2023 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
136
137Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License").  You may not use
138this file except in compliance with the License.  You can obtain a copy
139in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
140L<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.
141
142=cut
143