openssl-enc - symmetric cipher routines
openssl enc|
cipher [
-cipher] [
-help] [
-list] [
-ciphers] [
-in filename]
[
-out filename] [
-pass arg] [
-e] [
-d] [
-a] [
-base64] [
-A] [
-k
password] [
-kfile filename] [
-K key] [
-iv IV] [
-S salt] [
-salt] [
-nosalt] [
-z] [
-md digest] [
-iter
count] [
-pbkdf2] [
-p] [
-P] [
-bufsize
number] [
-nopad] [
-v] [
-debug] [
-none]
[
-engine id] [
-rand files] [
-writerand
file] [
-provider name] [
-provider-path
path] [
-propquery propq]
openssl cipher [
...]
The symmetric cipher commands allow data to be encrypted or decrypted using
various block and stream ciphers using keys based on passwords or explicitly
provided. Base64 encoding or decoding can also be performed either by itself
or in addition to the encryption or decryption.
-
-cipher
- The cipher to use.
- -help
- Print out a usage message.
- -list
- List all supported ciphers.
- -ciphers
- Alias of -list to display all supported ciphers.
-
-in filename
- The input filename, standard input by default.
-
-out filename
- The output filename, standard output by default.
-
-pass arg
- The password source. For more information about the format
of arg see openssl-passphrase-options(1).
- -e
- Encrypt the input data: this is the default.
- -d
- Decrypt the input data.
- -a
- Base64 process the data. This means that if encryption is
taking place the data is base64 encoded after encryption. If decryption is
set then the input data is base64 decoded before being decrypted.
- -base64
- Same as -a
- -A
- If the -a option is set then base64 process the data
on one line.
-
-k password
- The password to derive the key from. This is for
compatibility with previous versions of OpenSSL. Superseded by the
-pass argument.
-
-kfile filename
- Read the password to derive the key from the first line of
filename. This is for compatibility with previous versions of
OpenSSL. Superseded by the -pass argument.
-
-md digest
- Use the specified digest to create the key from the
passphrase. The default algorithm is sha-256.
-
-iter count
- Use a given number of iterations on the password in
deriving the encryption key. High values increase the time required to
brute-force the resulting file. This option enables the use of PBKDF2
algorithm to derive the key.
- -pbkdf2
- Use PBKDF2 algorithm with a default iteration count of
10000 unless otherwise specified by the -iter command line
option.
- -nosalt
- Don't use a salt in the key derivation routines. This
option SHOULD NOT be used except for test purposes or compatibility
with ancient versions of OpenSSL.
- -salt
- Use salt (randomly generated or provide with -S
option) when encrypting, this is the default.
-
-S salt
- The actual salt to use: this must be represented as a
string of hex digits. If this option is used while encrypting, the same
exact value will be needed again during decryption.
-
-K key
- The actual key to use: this must be represented as a string
comprised only of hex digits. If only the key is specified, the IV must
additionally specified using the -iv option. When both a key and a
password are specified, the key given with the -K option will be
used and the IV generated from the password will be taken. It does not
make much sense to specify both key and password.
-
-iv IV
- The actual IV to use: this must be represented as a string
comprised only of hex digits. When only the key is specified using the
-K option, the IV must explicitly be defined. When a password is
being specified using one of the other options, the IV is generated from
this password.
- -p
- Print out the key and IV used.
- -P
- Print out the key and IV used then immediately exit: don't
do any encryption or decryption.
-
-bufsize number
- Set the buffer size for I/O.
- -nopad
- Disable standard block padding.
- -v
- Verbose print; display some statistics about I/O and buffer
sizes.
- -debug
- Debug the BIOs used for I/O.
- -z
- Compress or decompress encrypted data using zlib after
encryption or before decryption. This option exists only if OpenSSL was
compiled with the zlib or zlib-dynamic option.
- -none
- Use NULL cipher (no encryption or decryption of
input).
-
-rand files, -writerand
file
- See "Random State Options" in openssl(1)
for details.
-
-provider name
-
-provider-path path
-
-propquery propq
- See "Provider Options" in openssl(1),
provider(7), and property(7).
-
-engine id
- See "Engine Options" in openssl(1). This
option is deprecated.
The program can be called either as "openssl
cipher" or
"openssl enc -
cipher". 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. Use the
openssl-list(1) command to get a list of supported ciphers.
Engines which provide entirely new encryption algorithms (such as the ccgost
engine which provides gost89 algorithm) should be configured in the
configuration file. Engines specified on the command line using
-engine
option can only be used for hardware-assisted implementations of ciphers which
are supported by the OpenSSL core or another engine specified in the
configuration file.
When the 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 generated at random (that means when encrypting using a
passphrase without explicit salt given using
-S option), the first
bytes of the encrypted data are reserved to store the salt for later
decrypting.
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, such as AES, in CBC mode.
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.
Please note that OpenSSL 3.0 changed the effect of the
-S option. Any
explicit salt value specified via this option is no longer prepended to the
ciphertext when encrypting, and must again be explicitly provided when
decrypting. Conversely, when the
-S option is used during decryption,
the ciphertext is expected to not have a prepended salt value.
When using OpenSSL 3.0 or later to decrypt data that was encrypted with an
explicit salt under OpenSSL 1.1.1 do not use the
-S option, the salt
will then be read from the ciphertext. To generate ciphertext that can be
decrypted with OpenSSL 1.1.1 do not use the
-S option, the salt will be
then be generated randomly and prepended to the output.
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 when invoking this command with the
-list option (that
is "openssl enc -list") is a list of ciphers, supported by your
version of OpenSSL, including ones provided by configured engines.
This command does not support authenticated encryption modes like CCM and GCM,
and will not support such modes in the future. This is due to having to begin
streaming output (e.g., to standard output when
-out is not used)
before the authentication tag could be validated. When this command is used in
a pipeline, the receiving end will not be able to roll back upon
authentication failure. The AEAD modes currently in common use also suffer
from catastrophic failure of confidentiality and/or integrity upon reuse of
key/iv/nonce, and since
openssl enc places the entire burden of
key/iv/nonce management upon the user, the risk of exposing AEAD modes is too
great to allow. These key/iv/nonce management issues also affect other modes
currently exposed in this command, but the failure modes are less extreme in
these cases, and the functionality cannot be removed with a stable release
branch. For bulk encryption of data, whether using authenticated encryption
modes or other modes,
openssl-cms(1) is recommended, as it provides a
standard data format and performs the needed key/iv/nonce management.
base64 Base 64
bf-cbc Blowfish in CBC mode
bf Alias for bf-cbc
blowfish 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
chacha20 ChaCha20 algorithm
des-cbc DES in CBC mode
des Alias for des-cbc
des-cfb DES in CFB 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
seed-cbc SEED cipher in CBC mode
seed Alias for seed-cbc
seed-cfb SEED cipher in CFB mode
seed-ecb SEED cipher in ECB mode
seed-ofb SEED cipher in OFB mode
sm4-cbc SM4 cipher in CBC mode
sm4 Alias for sm4-cbc
sm4-cfb SM4 cipher in CFB mode
sm4-ctr SM4 cipher in CTR mode
sm4-ecb SM4 cipher in ECB mode
sm4-ofb SM4 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]-ctr 128/192/256 bit AES in CTR 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
aria-[128|192|256]-cbc 128/192/256 bit ARIA in CBC mode
aria[128|192|256] Alias for aria-[128|192|256]-cbc
aria-[128|192|256]-cfb 128/192/256 bit ARIA in 128 bit CFB mode
aria-[128|192|256]-cfb1 128/192/256 bit ARIA in 1 bit CFB mode
aria-[128|192|256]-cfb8 128/192/256 bit ARIA in 8 bit CFB mode
aria-[128|192|256]-ctr 128/192/256 bit ARIA in CTR mode
aria-[128|192|256]-ecb 128/192/256 bit ARIA in ECB mode
aria-[128|192|256]-ofb 128/192/256 bit ARIA in OFB mode
camellia-[128|192|256]-cbc 128/192/256 bit Camellia in CBC mode
camellia[128|192|256] Alias for camellia-[128|192|256]-cbc
camellia-[128|192|256]-cfb 128/192/256 bit Camellia in 128 bit CFB mode
camellia-[128|192|256]-cfb1 128/192/256 bit Camellia in 1 bit CFB mode
camellia-[128|192|256]-cfb8 128/192/256 bit Camellia in 8 bit CFB mode
camellia-[128|192|256]-ctr 128/192/256 bit Camellia in CTR mode
camellia-[128|192|256]-ecb 128/192/256 bit Camellia in ECB mode
camellia-[128|192|256]-ofb 128/192/256 bit Camellia in OFB mode
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 AES-128 using a prompted password and PBKDF2 key
derivation:
openssl enc -aes128 -pbkdf2 -in file.txt -out file.aes128
Decrypt a file using a supplied password:
openssl enc -aes128 -pbkdf2 -d -in file.aes128 -out file.txt \
-pass pass:<password>
Encrypt a file then base64 encode it (so it can be sent via mail for example)
using AES-256 in CTR mode and PBKDF2 key derivation:
openssl enc -aes-256-ctr -pbkdf2 -a -in file.txt -out file.aes256
Base64 decode a file then decrypt it using a password supplied in a file:
openssl enc -aes-256-ctr -pbkdf2 -d -a -in file.aes256 -out file.txt \
-pass file:<passfile>
The
-A option when used with large files doesn't work properly.
The
openssl enc command 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.
The default digest was changed from MD5 to SHA256 in OpenSSL 1.1.0.
The
-list option was added in OpenSSL 1.1.1e.
The
-ciphers and
-engine options were deprecated in OpenSSL 3.0.
Copyright 2000-2023 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
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>.