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- .\" -*- mode: troff; coding: utf-8 -*-
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- .\"
- .IX Title "OSSL-GUIDE-LIBSSL-INTRODUCTION 7ossl"
- .TH OSSL-GUIDE-LIBSSL-INTRODUCTION 7ossl 2025-01-17 3.4.0 OpenSSL
- .\" For nroff, turn off justification. Always turn off hyphenation; it makes
- .\" way too many mistakes in technical documents.
- .if n .ad l
- .nh
- .SH NAME
- ossl\-guide\-libssl\-introduction, ssl
- \&\- OpenSSL Guide: An introduction to libssl
- .SH INTRODUCTION
- .IX Header "INTRODUCTION"
- The OpenSSL \f(CW\*(C`libssl\*(C'\fR library provides implementations of several secure network
- communications protocols. Specifically it provides SSL/TLS (SSLv3, TLSv1,
- TLSv1.1, TLSv1.2 and TLSv1.3), DTLS (DTLSv1 and DTLSv1.2) and QUIC (client side
- only). The library depends on \f(CW\*(C`libcrypto\*(C'\fR for its underlying cryptographic
- operations (see \fBossl\-guide\-libcrypto\-introduction\fR\|(7)).
- .PP
- The set of APIs supplied by \f(CW\*(C`libssl\*(C'\fR is common across all of these different
- network protocols, so a developer familiar with writing applications using one
- of these protocols should be able to transition to using another with relative
- ease.
- .PP
- An application written to use \f(CW\*(C`libssl\*(C'\fR will include the \fI<openssl/ssl.h>\fR
- header file and will typically use two main data structures, i.e. \fBSSL\fR and
- \&\fBSSL_CTX\fR.
- .PP
- An \fBSSL\fR object is used to represent a connection to a remote peer. Once a
- connection with a remote peer has been established data can be exchanged with
- that peer.
- .PP
- When using DTLS any data that is exchanged uses "datagram" semantics, i.e.
- the packets of data can be delivered in any order, and they are not guaranteed
- to arrive at all. In this case the \fBSSL\fR object used for the connection is also
- used for exchanging data with the peer.
- .PP
- Both TLS and QUIC support the concept of a "stream" of data. Data sent via a
- stream is guaranteed to be delivered in order without any data loss. A stream
- can be uni\- or bi-directional.
- .PP
- SSL/TLS only supports one stream of data per connection and it is always
- bi-directional. In this case the \fBSSL\fR object used for the connection also
- represents that stream. See \fBossl\-guide\-tls\-introduction\fR\|(7) for more
- information.
- .PP
- The QUIC protocol can support multiple streams per connection and they can be
- uni\- or bi-directional. In this case an \fBSSL\fR object can represent the
- underlying connection, or a stream, or both. Where multiple streams are in use
- a separate \fBSSL\fR object is used for each one. See
- \&\fBossl\-guide\-quic\-introduction\fR\|(7) for more information.
- .PP
- An \fBSSL_CTX\fR object is used to create the \fBSSL\fR object for the underlying
- connection. A single \fBSSL_CTX\fR object can be used to create many connections
- (each represented by a separate \fBSSL\fR object). Many API functions in libssl
- exist in two forms: one that takes an \fBSSL_CTX\fR and one that takes an \fBSSL\fR.
- Typically settings that you apply to the \fBSSL_CTX\fR will then be inherited by
- any \fBSSL\fR object that you create from it. Alternatively you can apply settings
- directly to the \fBSSL\fR object without affecting other \fBSSL\fR objects. Note that
- you should not normally make changes to an \fBSSL_CTX\fR after the first \fBSSL\fR
- object has been created from it.
- .SH "DATA STRUCTURES"
- .IX Header "DATA STRUCTURES"
- As well as \fBSSL_CTX\fR and \fBSSL\fR there are a number of other data structures
- that an application may need to use. They are summarised below.
- .IP "\fBSSL_METHOD\fR (SSL Method)" 4
- .IX Item "SSL_METHOD (SSL Method)"
- This structure is used to indicate the kind of connection you want to make, e.g.
- whether it is to represent the client or the server, and whether it is to use
- SSL/TLS, DTLS or QUIC (client only). It is passed as a parameter when creating
- the \fBSSL_CTX\fR.
- .IP "\fBSSL_SESSION\fR (SSL Session)" 4
- .IX Item "SSL_SESSION (SSL Session)"
- After establishing a connection with a peer the agreed cryptographic material
- can be reused to create future connections with the same peer more rapidly. The
- set of data used for such a future connection establishment attempt is collected
- together into an \fBSSL_SESSION\fR object. A single successful connection with a
- peer may generate zero or more such \fBSSL_SESSION\fR objects for use in future
- connection attempts.
- .IP "\fBSSL_CIPHER\fR (SSL Cipher)" 4
- .IX Item "SSL_CIPHER (SSL Cipher)"
- During connection establishment the client and server agree upon cryptographic
- algorithms they are going to use for encryption and other uses. A single set
- of cryptographic algorithms that are to be used together is known as a
- ciphersuite. Such a set is represented by an \fBSSL_CIPHER\fR object.
- .Sp
- The set of available ciphersuites that can be used are configured in the
- \&\fBSSL_CTX\fR or \fBSSL\fR.
- .SH "FURTHER READING"
- .IX Header "FURTHER READING"
- See \fBossl\-guide\-tls\-introduction\fR\|(7) for an introduction to the SSL/TLS
- protocol and \fBossl\-guide\-quic\-introduction\fR\|(7) for an introduction to QUIC.
- .PP
- See \fBossl\-guide\-libcrypto\-introduction\fR\|(7) for an introduction to \f(CW\*(C`libcrypto\*(C'\fR.
- .SH "SEE ALSO"
- .IX Header "SEE ALSO"
- \&\fBossl\-guide\-libcrypto\-introduction\fR\|(7), \fBossl\-guide\-tls\-introduction\fR\|(7),
- \&\fBossl\-guide\-quic\-introduction\fR\|(7)
- .SH COPYRIGHT
- .IX Header "COPYRIGHT"
- Copyright 2000\-2023 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
- .PP
- Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use
- this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy
- in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
- <https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.
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