path: root/lib/crypto/doc/src/engine_load.xml

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<!DOCTYPE chapter SYSTEM "chapter.dtd">

<chapter>
  <header>
    <copyright>
      <year>2017</year><year>2017</year>
      <holder>Ericsson AB. All Rights Reserved.</holder>
    </copyright>
    <legalnotice>
      The contents of this file are subject to the Erlang Public License,
      Version 1.1, (the "License"); you may not use this file except in
      compliance with the License. You should have received a copy of the
      Erlang Public License along with this software. If not, it can be
      retrieved online at http://www.erlang.org/.

      Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS"
      basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See
      the License for the specific language governing rights and limitations
      under the License.
    </legalnotice>
    <title>Engine Load</title>
    <prepared>Lars Thorsén</prepared>
    <date>2017-08-22</date>
    <file>engine_load.xml</file>
  </header>
  <p>
    <marker id="engine_load"></marker>
    This chapter describes the support for loading encryption engines in the crypto application.
  </p>

  <section>
    <title>Background</title>
    <p>
      OpenSSL exposes an Engine API, which makes it possible to plug in alternative
      implementations for some or all of the cryptographic operations implemented by OpenSSL.
      When configured appropriately, OpenSSL calls the engine's implementation of these
      operations instead of its own.
    </p>
    <p>
      Typically, OpenSSL engines provide a hardware implementation of specific cryptographic
      operations. The hardware implementation usually offers improved performance over its
      software-based counterpart, which is known as cryptographic acceleration.
    </p>
    <note>
      <p>The file name requirement on the engine dynamic library can differ between SSL versions.</p>
    </note>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Use Cases</title>
    <section>
      <title>Dynamically load an engine from default directory</title>
      <p>
	If the engine is located in the OpenSSL/LibreSSL installation <c>engines</c> directory.
      </p>
      <code>
1> {ok, Engine} = crypto:engine_load(&lt;&lt;"otp_test_engine">>, [], []).
 {ok, #Ref}</code>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Load an engine with the dynamic engine</title>
      <p>
	Load an engine with the help of the dynamic engine by giving the path to the library.
      </p>
      <code>
 2> {ok, Engine} = crypto:engine_load(&lt;&lt;"dynamic">>,
                                      [{&lt;&lt;"SO_PATH">>,
                                        &lt;&lt;"/some/path/otp_test_engine.so">>},
                                       {&lt;&lt;"ID">>, &lt;&lt;"MD5">>},
                                       &lt;&lt;"LOAD">>],
                                      []).
 {ok, #Ref}</code>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Load an engine and replace some methods</title>
      <p>
	Load an engine with the help of the dynamic engine and just
	replace some engine methods.
      </p>
      <code>
 3> Methods = crypto:engine_get_all_methods() -- [engine_method_dh,engine_method_rand,
engine_method_ciphers,engine_method_digests, engine_method_store,
engine_method_pkey_meths, engine_method_pkey_asn1_meths].
[engine_method_rsa,engine_method_dsa,
 engine_method_ecdh,engine_method_ecdsa]
 4> {ok, Engine} = crypto:engine_load(&lt;&lt;"dynamic">>,
                                      [{&lt;&lt;"SO_PATH">>,
                                        &lt;&lt;"/some/path/otp_test_engine.so">>},
                                       {&lt;&lt;"ID">>, &lt;&lt;"MD5">>},
                                       &lt;&lt;"LOAD">>],
                                      [],
		                      Methods).
 {ok, #Ref}</code>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Load with the ensure loaded function</title>
      <p>
	This function makes sure the engine is loaded just once and the ID is added to the internal
	engine list of OpenSSL. The following calls to the function will check if the ID is loaded
	and then just get a new reference to the engine.
      </p>
      <code>
 5> {ok, Engine} = crypto:ensure_engine_loaded(&lt;&lt;"MD5">>,
                                               &lt;&lt;"/some/path/otp_test_engine.so">>).
 {ok, #Ref}</code>
      <p>
	To unload it use crypto:ensure_engine_unloaded/1 which removes the ID from the internal list
	before unloading the engine.
      </p>
      <code>
 6> crypto:ensure_engine_unloaded(&lt;&lt;"MD5">>).
 ok</code>
    </section>



    <section>
      <title>List all engines currently loaded</title>
      <code>
 5> crypto:engine_list().
[&lt;&lt;"dynamic">>, &lt;&lt;"MD5">>]</code>
    </section>

  </section>
</chapter>