README.ENGINE revision 68651 
1
2  ENGINE
3  ======
4
5  With OpenSSL 0.9.6, a new component has been added to support external 
6  crypto devices, for example accelerator cards.  The component is called
7  ENGINE, and has still a pretty experimental status and almost no
8  documentation.  It's designed to be faily easily extensible by the
9  calling programs.
10
11  There's currently built-in support for the following crypto devices:
12
13      o CryptoSwift
14      o Compaq Atalla
15      o nCipher CHIL
16
17  A number of things are still needed and are being worked on:
18
19      o An openssl utility command to handle or at least check available
20        engines.
21      o A better way of handling the methods that are handled by the
22        engines.
23      o Documentation!
24
25  What already exists is fairly stable as far as it has been tested, but
26  the test base has been a bit small most of the time.
27
28  Because of this experimental status and what's lacking, the ENGINE
29  component is not yet part of the default OpenSSL distribution.  However,
30  we have made a separate kit for those who want to try this out, to be
31  found in the same places as the default OpenSSL distribution, but with
32  "-engine-" being part of the kit file name.  For example, version 0.9.6
33  is distributed in the following two files:
34
35      openssl-0.9.6.tar.gz
36      openssl-engine-0.9.6.tar.gz
37
38  NOTES
39  =====
40
41  openssl-engine-0.9.6.tar.gz does not depend on openssl-0.9.6.tar, you do
42  not need to download both.
43
44  openssl-engine-0.9.6.tar.gz is usable even if you don't have an external
45  crypto device.  The internal OpenSSL functions are contained in the
46  engine "openssl", and will be used by default.
47
48  No external crypto device is chosen unless you say so.  You have actively
49  tell the openssl utility commands to use it through a new command line
50  switch called "-engine".  And if you want to use the ENGINE library to
51  do something similar, you must also explicitely choose an external crypto
52  device, or the built-in crypto routines will be used, just as in the
53  default OpenSSL distribution.
54
55
56  PROBLEMS
57  ========
58
59  It seems like the ENGINE part doesn't work too well with Cryptoswift on
60  Win32.  A quick test done right before the release showed that trying
61  "openssl speed -engine cswift" generated errors.  If the DSO gets enabled,
62  an attempt is made to write at memory address 0x00000002.
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64