NOTES

The program can be called either as openssl ciphername or openssl enc -ciphername. But the first form doesn't work with engine-provided ciphers, because this form is processed before the configuration file is read and any ENGINEs loaded.

Engines which provide entirely new encryption algorithms (such as ccgost engine which provides gost89 algorithm) should be configured in the configuration file. Engines, specified in the command line using -engine options can only be used for hardware-assisted implementations of ciphers, which are supported by OpenSSL core or other engine, specified in the configuration file.

When enc command lists supported ciphers, ciphers provided by engines, specified in the configuration files are listed too.

A password will be prompted for to derive the key and IV if necessary.

The -salt option should ALWAYS be used if the key is being derived from a password unless you want compatibility with previous versions of OpenSSL.

Without the -salt option it is possible to perform efficient dictionary attacks on the password and to attack stream cipher encrypted data. The reason for this is that without the salt the same password always generates the same encryption key. When the salt is being used the first eight bytes of the encrypted data are reserved for the salt: it is generated at random when encrypting a file and read from the encrypted file when it is decrypted.

Some of the ciphers do not have large keys and others have security implications if not used correctly. A beginner is advised to just use a strong block cipher in CBC mode such as bf or des3.

All the block ciphers normally use PKCS#5 padding also known as standard block padding: this allows a rudimentary integrity or password check to be performed. However since the chance of random data passing the test is better than 1 in 256 it isn't a very good test.

If padding is disabled then the input data must be a multiple of the cipher block length.

All RC2 ciphers have the same key and effective key length.

Blowfish and RC5 algorithms use a 128 bit key.

SUPPORTED CIPHERS

Note that some of these ciphers can be disabled at compile time and some are available only if an appropriate engine is configured in the configuration file. The output of the enc command run with unsupported options (for example openssl enc -help) includes a list of ciphers, supported by your version of OpenSSL, including ones provided by configured engines.

The enc program does not support authenticated encryption modes like CCM and GCM. The utility does not store or retrieve the authentication tag.

base64             Base 64

bf-cbc             Blowfish in CBC mode
bf                 Alias for bf-cbc
bf-cfb             Blowfish in CFB mode
bf-ecb             Blowfish in ECB mode
bf-ofb             Blowfish in OFB mode

cast-cbc           CAST in CBC mode
cast               Alias for cast-cbc
cast5-cbc          CAST5 in CBC mode
cast5-cfb          CAST5 in CFB mode
cast5-ecb          CAST5 in ECB mode
cast5-ofb          CAST5 in OFB mode

des-cbc            DES in CBC mode
des                Alias for des-cbc
des-cfb            DES in CBC mode
des-ofb            DES in OFB mode
des-ecb            DES in ECB mode

des-ede-cbc        Two key triple DES EDE in CBC mode
des-ede            Two key triple DES EDE in ECB mode
des-ede-cfb        Two key triple DES EDE in CFB mode
des-ede-ofb        Two key triple DES EDE in OFB mode

des-ede3-cbc       Three key triple DES EDE in CBC mode
des-ede3           Three key triple DES EDE in ECB mode
des3               Alias for des-ede3-cbc
des-ede3-cfb       Three key triple DES EDE CFB mode
des-ede3-ofb       Three key triple DES EDE in OFB mode

desx               DESX algorithm.

gost89             GOST 28147-89 in CFB mode (provided by ccgost engine)
gost89-cnt        `GOST 28147-89 in CNT mode (provided by ccgost engine)

idea-cbc           IDEA algorithm in CBC mode
idea               same as idea-cbc
idea-cfb           IDEA in CFB mode
idea-ecb           IDEA in ECB mode
idea-ofb           IDEA in OFB mode

rc2-cbc            128 bit RC2 in CBC mode
rc2                Alias for rc2-cbc
rc2-cfb            128 bit RC2 in CFB mode
rc2-ecb            128 bit RC2 in ECB mode
rc2-ofb            128 bit RC2 in OFB mode
rc2-64-cbc         64 bit RC2 in CBC mode
rc2-40-cbc         40 bit RC2 in CBC mode

rc4                128 bit RC4
rc4-64             64 bit RC4
rc4-40             40 bit RC4

rc5-cbc            RC5 cipher in CBC mode
rc5                Alias for rc5-cbc
rc5-cfb            RC5 cipher in CFB mode
rc5-ecb            RC5 cipher in ECB mode
rc5-ofb            RC5 cipher in OFB mode

aes-[128|192|256]-cbc  128/192/256 bit AES in CBC mode
aes[128|192|256]       Alias for aes-[128|192|256]-cbc
aes-[128|192|256]-cfb  128/192/256 bit AES in 128 bit CFB mode
aes-[128|192|256]-cfb1 128/192/256 bit AES in 1 bit CFB mode
aes-[128|192|256]-cfb8 128/192/256 bit AES in 8 bit CFB mode
aes-[128|192|256]-ecb  128/192/256 bit AES in ECB mode
aes-[128|192|256]-ofb  128/192/256 bit AES in OFB mode

EXAMPLES

Just base64 encode a binary file:

openssl base64 -in file.bin -out file.b64

Decode the same file

openssl base64 -d -in file.b64 -out file.bin

Encrypt a file using triple DES in CBC mode using a prompted password:

openssl des3 -salt -in file.txt -out file.des3

Decrypt a file using a supplied password:

openssl des3 -d -salt -in file.des3 -out file.txt -k mypassword

Encrypt a file then base64 encode it (so it can be sent via mail for example) using Blowfish in CBC mode:

openssl bf -a -salt -in file.txt -out file.bf

Base64 decode a file then decrypt it:

openssl bf -d -salt -a -in file.bf -out file.txt

Decrypt some data using a supplied 40 bit RC4 key:

openssl rc4-40 -in file.rc4 -out file.txt -K 0102030405

BUGS

The -A option when used with large files doesn't work properly.

There should be an option to allow an iteration count to be included.

The enc program only supports a fixed number of algorithms with certain parameters. So if, for example, you want to use RC2 with a 76 bit key or RC4 with an 84 bit key you can't use this program.

HISTORY

The default digest was changed from MD5 to SHA256 in Openssl 1.1.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2000-2016 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.