ECPARAM

ecparam − EC parameter manipulation and generation

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]

This command is used to manipulate or generate EC parameter files.

−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 get_ec_group_XXX() 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 its unique id string) will cause ecparam 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.

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.

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

ec(1), dsaparam(1)

The ecparam command was first introduced in OpenSSL 0.9.8.

Nils Larsch for the OpenSSL project (http://www.openssl.org)