SMIMEreadPKCS7(3) OpenSSL SMIMEreadPKCS7(3)

NAME
       SMIMEreadPKCS7 - parse S/MIME message.

SYNOPSIS
       PKCS7 *SMIMEreadPKCS7(BIO *in, BIO **bcont);

DESCRIPTION
       SMIMEreadPKCS7() parses a message in S/MIME format.

       iinn is a BIO to read the message from.

       If cleartext signing is used then the content is saved in a memory bio
       which is written to **bbccoonntt, otherwise **bbccoonntt is set to NNUULLLL.

       The parsed PKCS#7 structure is returned or NNUULLLL if an error occurred.

NNOOTTEESS
       If **bbccoonntt is not NNUULLLL then the message is clear text signed. **bbccoonntt can
       then be passed to PKCS7verify() with the PPKKCCSS77DDEETTAACCHHEEDD flag set.

       Otherwise the type of the returned structure can be determined using
       PKCS7type().

       To support future functionality if bbccoonntt is not NNUULLLL **bbccoonntt should be
       initialized to NNUULLLL. For example:

        BIO *cont = NULL;
        PKCS7 *p7;

        p7 = SMIMEreadPKCS7(in, &cont);

BUGS
       The MIME parser used by SMIMEreadPKCS7() is somewhat primitive.
       While it will handle most S/MIME messages more complex compound formats
       may not work.

       The parser assumes that the PKCS7 structure is always base64 encoded
       and will not handle the case where it is in binary format or uses
       quoted printable format.

       The use of a memory BIO to hold the signed content limits the size of
       message which can be processed due to memory restraints: a streaming
       single pass option should be available.

RETURN VALUES
       SMIMEreadPKCS7() returns a valid PPKKCCSS77 structure or NNUULLLL is an error
       occurred. The error can be obtained from ERRgeterror(3).

SEE ALSO
       ERRgeterror(3), PKCS7type(3) SMIMEreadPKCS7(3), PKCS7sign(3),
       PKCS7verify(3), PKCS7encrypt(3) PKCS7decrypt(3)

HISTORY       SMIMEreadPKCS7() was added to OpenSSL 0.9.5



0.9.7l                            2002-10-09               SMIMEreadPKCS7(3)