openssl-ecparam1ssl

Usage

Overview

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

OpenSSL is currently not able to generate new groups and therefore this command can only create EC parameters from known (named) curves.

Options

-help

Print out a usage message.

-inform DER|PEM

The EC parameters input format; unspecified by default. See openssl-format-options(1) for details.

-outform DER|PEM

The EC parameters output format; the default is PEM. See openssl-format-options(1) for details.

Parameters are encoded as EcpkParameters as specified in IETF RFC 3279.

-in filename

This specifies the input file 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 can be the same as the input filename, which leads to replacing the file contents. Note that file I/O is not atomic. The output file is truncated and then written.

-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.

-check

Validate the elliptic curve parameters.

-check_named

Validate the elliptic name curve parameters by checking if the curve parameters match any built-in curves.

-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

Print out a list of all currently implemented EC parameters names and exit.

-conv_form arg

This specifies how the points on the elliptic curve are converted into octet strings. Possible values are: compressed, uncompressed (the default value) 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 an 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 an EC private key using the specified parameters.

-engine id

See "Engine Options" in openssl(1). This option is deprecated.

-rand files, -writerand file

See "Random State Options" in openssl(1) for details.

-provider name

-provider-path path

-provparam [name:]key=value

-propquery propq

See "Provider Options" in openssl(1), provider(7), and property(7).

The openssl-genpkey(1) and openssl-pkeyparam(1) commands are capable of performing all the operations this command can, as well as supporting other public key types.

Examples

The documentation for the openssl-genpkey(1) and openssl-pkeyparam(1) commands contains examples equivalent to the ones listed here.

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