OpenSSL Functions

openssl_cipher_iv_length — Gets the cipher iv length
openssl_csr_export_to_file — Exports a CSR to a file
openssl_csr_export — Exports a CSR as a string
openssl_csr_get_public_key — Returns the public key of a CERT
openssl_csr_get_subject — Returns the subject of a CERT
openssl_csr_new — Generates a CSR
openssl_csr_sign — Sign a CSR with another certificate (or itself) and generate a certificate
openssl_decrypt — Decrypts data
openssl_dh_compute_key — Computes shared secret for public value of remote DH key and local DH key
openssl_digest — Computes a digest
openssl_encrypt — Encrypts data
openssl_error_string — Return openSSL error message
openssl_free_key — Free key resource
openssl_get_cert_locations — Retrieve the available certificate locations
openssl_get_cipher_methods — Gets available cipher methods
openssl_get_md_methods — Gets available digest methods
openssl_get_privatekey — Alias of openssl_pkey_get_private
openssl_get_publickey — Alias of openssl_pkey_get_public
openssl_open — Open sealed data
openssl_pbkdf2 — Generates a PKCS5 v2 PBKDF2 string, defaults to SHA-1
openssl_pkcs12_export_to_file — Exports a PKCS#12 Compatible Certificate Store File
openssl_pkcs12_export — Exports a PKCS#12 Compatible Certificate Store File to variable.
openssl_pkcs12_read — Parse a PKCS#12 Certificate Store into an array
openssl_pkcs7_decrypt — Decrypts an S/MIME encrypted message
openssl_pkcs7_encrypt — Encrypt an S/MIME message
openssl_pkcs7_sign — Sign an S/MIME message
openssl_pkcs7_verify — Verifies the signature of an S/MIME signed message
openssl_pkey_export_to_file — Gets an exportable representation of a key into a file
openssl_pkey_export — Gets an exportable representation of a key into a string
openssl_pkey_free — Frees a private key
openssl_pkey_get_details — Returns an array with the key details
openssl_pkey_get_private — Get a private key
openssl_pkey_get_public — Extract public key from certificate and prepare it for use
openssl_pkey_new — Generates a new private key
openssl_private_decrypt — Decrypts data with private key
openssl_private_encrypt — Encrypts data with private key
openssl_public_decrypt — Decrypts data with public key
openssl_public_encrypt — Encrypts data with public key
openssl_random_pseudo_bytes — Generate a pseudo-random string of bytes
openssl_seal — Seal (encrypt) data
openssl_sign — Generate signature
openssl_spki_export_challenge — Exports the challenge assoicated with a signed public key and challenge
openssl_spki_export — Exports a valid PEM formatted public key signed public key and challenge
openssl_spki_new — Generate a new signed public key and challenge
openssl_spki_verify — Verifies a signed public key and challenge
openssl_verify — Verify signature
openssl_x509_check_private_key — Checks if a private key corresponds to a certificate
openssl_x509_checkpurpose — Verifies if a certificate can be used for a particular purpose
openssl_x509_export_to_file — Exports a certificate to file
openssl_x509_export — Exports a certificate as a string
openssl_x509_fingerprint — Calculates the fingerprint, or digest, of a given X.509 certificate
openssl_x509_free — Free certificate resource
openssl_x509_parse — Parse an X509 certificate and return the information as an array
openssl_x509_read — Parse an X.509 certificate and return a resource identifier for it

User Contributed Notes

11 years ago


In case you're wondering what's a "correctly hashed" directory for the use with cainfo: it's simply a directory which contains CA public certificates in PEM/X.509 format. You can get such certificates either from the CA's website (they advertise it in visible places) or from your browser. In Explorer for instance you can click on the little yellow padlock, go to the CA entry and export it.

The only trick with the directory is that file names must be in the form "hash.#". The "hash" part is the 8-digit hex hash of the certificate, while the # part is a number which serves to differentiate certificates which give the same hash (yes, it can happen with certificates coming from the same CA). Usually # is 0, but you also can use 1, 2 and so on when having more certs with the same hash.

In order to obtain the hash of a certificate you can use the openssl command line utility like this:

openssl x509 -hash -in certfile.cer | head -1

dan -AT- NOSPAM danschafer DOT netTT

9 years ago


Currently, all OpenSSL Functions defined in PHP only utilize the PEM format.  Use the following code to convert from DER to PEM and PEM to DER.

<?php
$pem_data = file_get_contents($cert_path.$pem_file);
$pem2der = pem2der($pem_data);

$der_data = file_get_contents($cert_path.$der_file);
$der2pem = der2pem($der_data);

function pem2der($pem_data) {
   $begin = "CERTIFICATE-----";
   $end   = "-----END";
   $pem_data = substr($pem_data, strpos($pem_data, $begin)+strlen($begin));    
   $pem_data = substr($pem_data, 0, strpos($pem_data, $end));
   $der = base64_decode($pem_data);
   return $der;
}

function der2pem($der_data) {
   $pem = chunk_split(base64_encode($der_data), 64, "\n");
   $pem = "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----\n".$pem."-----END CERTIFICATE-----\n";
   return $pem;
}
?>

peter dot mescalchin @ geemail dot com

9 years ago


For w32 users to enable OpenSSL support. As well as copying "libeay32.dll" to the windows system32 folder you also need to copy "ssleay32.dll".  The documentation above should probably be updated to note this.

This requirement was documented at the libcurl pages:

http://curl.haxx.se/libcurl/php/install.html#windows

kraven at kraven dot org

3 years ago


If you want to verify that a csr was generated properly from your private key you can do the following:



<?php

$countryName = "UK";

$stateOrProvinceName = "London";

$localityName = "Blah";

$organizationName = "Blah1";

$organizationalUnitName = "Blah2";

$commonName = "Joe Bloggs";

$emailAddress = "openssl@example.com";



$dn = array(

  "countryName" => $countryName,

  "stateOrProvinceName" => $stateOrProvinceName,

  "localityName" => $localityName,

  "organizationName" => $organizationName,

  "organizationalUnitName" => $organizationalUnitName,

  "commonName" => $commonName,

  "emailAddress" => $emailAddress

);



$badPriv = 'foo';



// generate a bad csr

$badCsr = openssl_csr_new($dn, $badPriv);



// generate private key

$priv = openssl_pkey_new();



// generate csr

$csr = openssl_csr_new($dn, $priv);



$badCsrDetails = openssl_pkey_get_details(openssl_csr_get_public_key($badCsr));

$privDetails = openssl_pkey_get_details($priv);

$csrDetails = openssl_pkey_get_details(openssl_csr_get_public_key($csr));



echo md5($badCsrDetails['rsa']['n']);

echo "\nDoes not match\n";

echo md5($privDetails['rsa']['n']);

echo "\nMatches\n";

echo md5($csrDetails['rsa']['n']);

echo "\n";

?>



This output is an md5 hash of the modulus.  The same check can be accomplished with openssl:

openssl rsa -noout -modulus -in server.key | openssl md5

openssl req -noout -modulus -in server.csr | openssl md5

stephen_at_liberty-irm_dot_com

8 years ago


This note is primarily aimed at folks storing encrypted things in MySQL as I'm unfamiliar with other database setups. If you store, for example, a credit card number that has been encrypted by openssl_public_encrypt inside of a database, the column type for the column you are storing the number in must be a blob. This is because "the result might contain arbitrary byte values" (MySQL Reference Manual). Basically, if you try to store it in a VARCHAR, LONGTEXT, etc, certain parts of the encrypted data may be dropped, truncated, etc. This will of course make the data impossible to decrypt. Hopefully this will help someone, because it had me stumped for about an hour!

jts

8 years ago


Win32 users having trouble getting php_openssl to work should make sure that they replace ALL the versions of libeay32.dll and ssleay32.dll, with the ones included with PHP.  This is especially true while using Apache2 and OpenSSL together, as some OpenSSL win32 packages include older versions of these two files.

daevid at daevid dot com

8 years ago


There doesn't seem to be a function here to test if a cert is valid (i.e. not corrupt)... This bash snippet should help. Sorry it's not PHP. slap it in a system(); call or make it a bash script and call it that way or something...

if [ "`openssl x509 -in /etc/certs/my.crt -noout -modulus`" = "`openssl rsa -in /etc/keys/my.key -noout -modulus`" ]; then echo "Match"; else echo "Different"; fi

kurian at net4ideas dot com

8 years ago


For working of openssl in windows platform IIS webserver, we need to enable in php.ini, tne copy libeay32.dll and ssleay32.dll to the php folder (or windows's system32 folder) and add both dll's path to the window's PATH variable. It seems to be working for me after I did these changes.

Richard Ablewhite

9 years ago


Windows users be warned that you need the following file in system32:

msvcr71.dll

It has to go in system32, is not picked up from php/dlls

matt at NOSPAMopenflowsPLEASE dot org

10 years ago


The openssl functions were disabled in Debian release 3.0 (woody), but as of release 3.1 (sarge) they're available again.

greensweater

10 years ago


Sorry, the code in my previous note doesn't work... the last line should read:

$csr = openssl_csr_new(array('commonName'=>'MyCSR'),$pkey,$config);

greensweater

10 years ago


"You need to have a valid openssl.cnf installed for this function to operate correctly" includes most openssl functions. You can force php to find your openssl.cnf file as follows:

$config = array('config'=>'/path/to/openssl.cnf');
$pkey = openssl_pkey_new($config);
$csr = openssl_csr_new('MyCSR',$pkey,$config);

jaz at ensn dot net

11 years ago


For newbies (as me):
If you want to try at home on win32, you can learn how to install apache+ssl on this url: http://tud.at/programm/apache-ssl-win32-howto.php3

Versions on English, Spanish and French.

Just I have read and install and run perfectly.

norman at rasmussen dot org

12 years ago


Debian maintainers have disabled the openssl support because it seems to help break apache on startup.  (http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=193343 and http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=165699)

- Norman

web at mburda dot com

7 years ago


There is a little problem with Matt Alexander's code below.
Both public and private key are generated internally and saved into OpenSSL class object properties but only private key is then used.
Public key is taken from an external file and if it differs from the one stored internally, OpenSSL fails to decrypt the text.

mattalexx at gmail dot com

8 years ago


Use this for simple public/private key encryption.

<?php

/**
 * Point to your config file
 *
 */
define("OPEN_SSL_CONF_PATH", "/usr/share/ssl/openssl.cnf");
/**
 * Length of time certificate is valid (in days)
 *
 */
define("OPEN_SSL_CERT_DAYS_VALID", 365);
/**
 * Passphrase required with private key
 *
 */
define("OPEN_SSL_PASSPHRASE", "lkdfjbjeyrasdfvkajwdeblsolkdkdjfbvzslalsmdbfvksb");
/**
 * Enter description here...
 *
 */
define("OPEN_SSL_PUBKEY_PATH", "/docs/domains/mywebsite.com/docs/key.pem"); // Public key path

/**
 * A wrapper class for a simple subset of the PHP OpenSSL functions. Use for public key encryption jobs.
 * 
 * <code>
 * 
 * // To configure
 * // 1. Set OPEN_SSL_CONF_PATH to the path of your openssl.cnf file.
 * // 2. Set OPEN_SSL_PASSPHRASE to any passphrase.
 * // 3. Use the OpenSSL::do_csr method to generate your private and public keys (see next section).
 * // 4. Save the private key somewhere offline and save your public key somewhere on this machine.
 * // 5. Set OPEN_SSL_PUBKEY_PATH to the public key's path.
 * 
 * // To generate keys
 * $ossl = new OpenSSL;
 * $ossl->do_csr();
 * $privatekey = $ossl->privatekey;
 * $publickey = $ossl->publickey;
 * unset($ossl);
 * 
 * // Encrypt
 * $text = "Secret text";
 * $ossl = new OpenSSL;
 * $ossl->encrypt($text);
 * $encrypted_text = $ossl->crypttext;
 * $ekey = $ossl->ekey;
 * unset($ossl);
 * 
 * // Decrypt
 * $ossl = new OpenSSL;
 * $decrypted_text = $ossl->decrypt($encrypted_text, $privatekey, $ekey);
 * unset($ossl);
 * 
 * @author Matt Alexander (mattalexx@gmail.com) [based on code by Alex Poole (php@wwwcrm.com)]
 * @copyright 2007
 * 
 */
class OpenSSL {
   
   public $privatekey;
   public $publickey;
   public $csr;
   public $crypttext;
   public $ekey;
    
   public function encrypt($plain) {
      
      // Turn public key into resource
      $publickey = openssl_get_publickey(is_file(OPEN_SSL_PUBKEY_PATH)? file_get_contents(OPEN_SSL_PUBKEY_PATH) : OPEN_SSL_PUBKEY_PATH);
      
      // Encrypt
      openssl_seal($plain, $crypttext, $ekey, array($publickey));
      openssl_free_key($publickey);
      
      // Set values
      $this->crypttext = $crypttext;
      $this->ekey = $ekey[0];
   }
 
   public function decrypt($crypt, $privatekey, $ekey="") {
   
      // Turn private key into resource
      $privatekey = openssl_get_privatekey((is_file($privatekey)? file_get_contents($privatekey) : $privatekey), OPEN_SSL_PASSPHRASE);
      
      // Decrypt
      openssl_open($crypt, $plaintext, $ekey, $privatekey);
      openssl_free_key($privatekey);
      
      // Return value
      return $plaintext;
   }

   public function do_csr( 
   $countryName = "UK",
   $stateOrProvinceName = "London",
   $localityName = "Blah",
   $organizationName = "Blah1",
   $organizationalUnitName = "Blah2",
   $commonName = "Joe Bloggs",
   $emailAddress = "openssl@domain.com"
   ) {         
      $dn = array(
         "countryName" => $countryName,
         "stateOrProvinceName" => $stateOrProvinceName,
         "localityName" => $localityName,
         "organizationName" => $organizationName,
         "organizationalUnitName" => $organizationalUnitName,
         "commonName" => $commonName,
         "emailAddress" => $emailAddress
         );
      $config = array(
         "config" => OPEN_SSL_CONF_PATH
         );
      $privkey = openssl_pkey_new();
      $csr = openssl_csr_new($dn, $privkey, $config);
      $sscert = openssl_csr_sign($csr, null, $privkey, OPEN_SSL_CERT_DAYS_VALID, $config);
      openssl_x509_export($sscert, $this->publickey);
      openssl_pkey_export($privkey, $this->privatekey, OPEN_SSL_PASSPHRASE, $config);
      openssl_csr_export($csr, $this->csr);
   }
   
}

?>

igor dot gorshkov at gmail dot com

9 years ago


I generate certificates in such a way. 

$config = array("config" => "d:/sslcert/openssl.cnf");
$dn = array(
   "countryName" => "RU",
   "stateOrProvinceName" => "Russia",
   "localityName" => "Saint-Petersburg",
   "organizationName" => "temp",
   "organizationalUnitName" => "temp",
   "commonName" => "temp",
   "emailAddress" => "temp@temp.com"
);
$privkey_enc = openssl_pkey_new($config);
$csr = openssl_csr_new($dn, $privkey_enc, $config);
$sscert = openssl_csr_sign($csr, null, $privkey_enc, 365);
openssl_x509_export_to_file($sscert, "d:/cert_enc.crt");
openssl_pkey_export_to_file($privkey_enc, "d:/privkey_enc.pem");

As a result all the received certificates have identical serial number (00). But it should not be! How to avoid it?

php ~at~ wwwcrm dot komm

10 years ago


If you want to use PHP for public / private key encryption jobs without needing to know the ins and outs of the Open SSL extension, the following may be of interest:

http://www.karenandalex.com/php_stuff/_class_OpenSSL.phps

This class was unavailable for a long while (server problems) but is now back up. Apologies to those who clicked through and got a 404

I hope it is useful to you...

Alex

rahuul at yours dot com

6 years ago


for changing serial no of cert following is the solution:



<?php

$sscert = openssl_csr_sign($csr, $cacert, $privkey, $days,$config,$serial);

?>

ChronoFish

8 years ago


There is a note below regarding the need to copy BOTH ssleay32.dll AND libeay32.dll to a folder in the system PATH on Win32 systems.

That is absolutely true.  It should be noted also that Windows will search the Windows system directories before it will search the PATH.  If you have existing .dlls in these directories - rename (rather than deleting in case you need to undo your changes) them and copy over the latest version of these files.

Key locations may include the /i386, /windows/system32, and ~/apache/.../modules directories.

I also updated my ~/subversion/bin directory.

-CF

yabba dabba

9 years ago


The php4 distribution for Windows/IIS has a README-SSL.txt which strongly implies that just the path needs to be added to the OPENSLL_CONF variable in the server's environment variables. Be sure to add the file name and extension too.

E.g.: c:\php-4.3.11\openssl\openssl.cnf

beckman at purplecow dot com

10 years ago


FreeBSD Ports tree php5-openssl uses openssl-0.9.8a.  This is a problem, as if you install these two ports and attempt to open an HTTPS URL within PHP, it will fail with this error from openssl_error_string(): error:140A90A1:SSL routines:func(169):reason(161) which is SSL_R_LIBRARY_HAS_NO_CIPHERS or "library has no ciphers"

This is because the openssl library now requires you to load your ciphers manually -- all ciphers are not automatically loaded for you.

I don't believe the php5-openssl module has been updated to do this before opening an SSL connection (as of 5.0.5). 

Using openssl-0.9.7i seems to work; symlinking libcrypto.so.3 to libcrypto.so.4 prevents the php5-openssl port from trying to install openssl-0.9.8a.  So install openssl-stable (0.9.7i) from ports first, symlink 2nd, then install php5-openssl 3rd, and you should be OK.

OpenSSL Functions

Table of Contents

User Contributed Notes