BN_CTX_NEW

Section: OpenSSL (3)
Updated: 2021-03-26
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NAME

BN_CTX_new, BN_CTX_secure_new, BN_CTX_free - allocate and free BN_CTX structures

SYNOPSIS

 #include <openssl/bn.h>

 BN_CTX *BN_CTX_new(void);

 BN_CTX *BN_CTX_secure_new(void);

 void BN_CTX_free(BN_CTX *c);

DESCRIPTION

A BN_CTX is a structure that holds BIGNUM temporary variables used by library functions. Since dynamic memory allocation to create BIGNUMs is rather expensive when used in conjunction with repeated subroutine calls, the BN_CTX structure is used.

BN_CTX_new() allocates and initializes a BN_CTX structure. BN_CTX_secure_new() allocates and initializes a BN_CTX structure but uses the secure heap (see CRYPTO_secure_malloc(3)) to hold the BIGNUMs.

BN_CTX_free() frees the components of the BN_CTX and the structure itself. Since BN_CTX_start() is required in order to obtain BIGNUMs from the BN_CTX, in most cases BN_CTX_end() must be called before the BN_CTX may be freed by BN_CTX_free(). If c is NULL, nothing is done.

A given BN_CTX must only be used by a single thread of execution. No locking is performed, and the internal pool allocator will not properly handle multiple threads of execution.

RETURN VALUES

BN_CTX_new() and BN_CTX_secure_new() return a pointer to the BN_CTX. If the allocation fails, they return NULL and sets an error code that can be obtained by ERR_get_error(3).

BN_CTX_free() has no return values.

REMOVED FUNCTIONALITY

 void BN_CTX_init(BN_CTX *c);

BN_CTX_init() is no longer available as of OpenSSL 1.1.0. Applications should replace use of BN_CTX_init with BN_CTX_new instead:

 BN_CTX *ctx;
 ctx = BN_CTX_new();
 if (!ctx)
     /* error */
 ...
 BN_CTX_free(ctx);

HISTORY

BN_CTX_init() was removed in OpenSSL 1.1.0.

COPYRIGHT

Licensed under the OpenSSL license (the ``License''). You may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at <https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.