ecparam(1)
NAME
ecparam - EC parameter manipulation and generation
SYNOPSIS
openssl ecparam [-inform DER|PEM] [-outform DER|PEM] [-in filename] [-out filename] [-noout] [-text] [-C] [-check] [-name arg] [-list_curve] [-conv_form arg] [-param_enc arg] [-no_seed] [-rand file(s)] [-genkey] [-engine id]
DESCRIPTION
This command is used to manipulate or generate EC parameter files.
OPTIONS
- -inform DER|PEM
- This specifies the input format. The DER option uses an ASN.1 DER encoded form compatible with RFC 3279 EcpkParameters. The PEM form is the default format: it consists of the DER format base64 encoded with additional header and footer lines.
- -outform DER|PEM
- This specifies the output format, the options have the same meaning as the -inform option.
- -in filename
- This specifies the input filename to read parameters from or
standard input if this option is not specified. - -out filename
- This specifies the output filename parameters to. Standard output
is used if this option is not present. The output filename should
not be the same as the input filename. - -noout
- This option inhibits the output of the encoded version of the
parameters. - -text
- This option prints out the EC parameters in human readable form.
- -C This option converts the EC parameters into C code. The parameters
- can then be loaded by calling the ggeett__eecc__ggrroouupp__XXXXXX(()) function.
- -check
- Validate the elliptic curve parameters.
- -name arg
- Use the EC parameters with the specified 'short' name. Use
-list_curves to get a list of all currently implemented EC parameters. - -list_curves
- If this options is specified ecparam will print out a list of all currently implemented EC parameters names and exit.
- -conv_form
- This specifies how the points on the elliptic curve are converted
into octet strings. Possible values are: compressed (the default value), uncompressed and hybrid. For more information regarding the point conversion forms please read the X9.62 standard. Note Due to patent issues the compressed option is disabled by default for binary curves and can be enabled by defining the preprocessor macro OPENSSL_EC_BIN_PT_COMP at compile time. - -param_enc arg
- This specifies how the elliptic curve parameters are encoded.
Possible value are: named_curve, i.e. the ec parameters are specified by a OID, or explicit where the ec parameters are explicitly given (see RFC 3279 for the definition of the EC
parameters structures). The default value is named_curve. Note the implicitlyCA alternative ,as specified in RFC 3279, is currently not implemented in OpenSSL. - -no_seed
- This option inhibits that the 'seed' for the parameter generation
is included in the ECParameters structure (see RFC 3279). - -genkey
- This option will generate a EC private key using the specified
parameters. - -rand file(s)
- a file or files containing random data used to seed the random
number generator, or an EGD socket (see RAND_egd(3)). Multiple files can be specified separated by a OS-dependent character. The separator is ; for MS-Windows, , for OpenVMS, and : for all others. - -engine id
- specifying an engine (by it's unique id string) will cause req to
attempt to obtain a functional reference to the specified engine,
thus initialising it if needed. The engine will then be set as the default for all available algorithms.
NOTES
- PEM format EC parameters use the header and footer lines:
- -----BEGIN EC PARAMETERS---------END EC PARAMETERS----
- OpenSSL is currently not able to generate new groups and therefore
ecparam can only create EC parameters from known (named) curves.
EXAMPLES
- To create EC parameters with the group 'prime192v1':
- openssl ecparam -out ec_param.pem -name prime192v1
- To create EC parameters with explicit parameters:
openssl ecparam -out ec_param.pem -name prime192v1 -param_enc explicit- To validate given EC parameters:
openssl ecparam -in ec_param.pem -check- To create EC parameters and a private key:
openssl ecparam -out ec_key.pem -name prime192v1 -genkey- To change the point encoding to 'compressed':
openssl ecparam -in ec_in.pem -out ec_out.pem -conv_form compressed- To print out the EC parameters to standard output:
openssl ecparam -in ec_param.pem -noout -text
SEE ALSO
HISTORY
The ecparam command was first introduced in OpenSSL 0.9.8.
AUTHOR
- Nils Larsch for the OpenSSL project (http://www.openssl.org)