PKCS7_VERIFY(3) | Library Functions Manual | PKCS7_VERIFY(3)

# NAME

`PKCS7_verify`, `PKCS7_get0_signers` — verify a PKCS#7 signedData structure

# SYNOPSIS

library “libcrypto”
`#include <openssl/pkcs7.h>`

int
`PKCS7_verify`(PKCS7 *p7, STACK_OF(X509) *certs, X509_STORE *store, BIO *indata, BIO *out, int flags);

STACK_OF(X509) *
`PKCS7_get0_signers`(PKCS7 *p7, STACK_OF(X509) *certs, int flags);

# DESCRIPTION

`PKCS7_verify`() verifies a PKCS#7 signedData structure. p7 is the PKCS7 structure to verify. certs is a set of certificates in which to search for the signer's certificate. store is a trusted certificate store (used for chain verification). indata is the signed data if the content is not present in p7, that is if it is detached. The content is written to out if it is not `NULL`.

flags is an optional set of flags, which can be used to modify the verify operation.

`PKCS7_get0_signers`() retrieves the signer's certificates from p7. The signers must be freed with `sk_X509_free`(). It does not check their validity or whether any signatures are valid. The certs and flags parameters have the same meanings as in `PKCS7_verify`().

Normally the verify process proceeds as follows.

Initially some sanity checks are performed on p7. The type of p7 must be signedData. There must be at least one signature on the data and if the content is detached, indata cannot be `NULL`.

An attempt is made to locate all the signer's certificates, first looking in the certs parameter (if it is not `NULL`) and then looking in any certificates contained in the p7 structure itself. If any signer's certificates cannot be located, the operation fails.

Each signer's certificate is chain verified using the smimesign purpose and the supplied trusted certificate store. Any internal certificates in the message are used as untrusted CAs. If any chain verify fails, an error code is returned.

Finally, the signed content is read (and written to out if it is not `NULL`) and the signature's checked.

If all signature's verify correctly then the function is successful.

Any of the following flags (OR'ed together) can be passed in the flags parameter to change the default verify behaviour. Only the flag `PKCS7_NOINTERN` is meaningful to `PKCS7_get0_signers`().

If `PKCS7_NOINTERN` is set, the certificates in the message itself are not searched when locating the signer's certificate. This means that all the signer's certificates must be in the certs parameter.

If the `PKCS7_TEXT` flag is set, MIME headers for type text/plain are deleted from the content. If the content is not of type text/plain, then an error is returned.

If `PKCS7_NOVERIFY` is set, the signer's certificates are not chain verified.

If `PKCS7_NOCHAIN` is set, then the certificates contained in the message are not used as untrusted CAs. This means that the whole verify chain (apart from the signer's certificate) must be contained in the trusted store.

If `PKCS7_NOSIGS` is set, then the signatures on the data are not checked.

One application of `PKCS7_NOINTERN` is to only accept messages signed by a small number of certificates. The acceptable certificates would be passed in the certs parameter. In this case, if the signer is not one of the certificates supplied in certs, then the verify will fail because the signer cannot be found.

Care should be taken when modifying the default verify behaviour, for example setting `PKCS7_NOVERIFY` | `PKCS7_NOSIGS` will totally disable all verification and any signed message will be considered valid. This combination is however useful if one merely wishes to write the content to out and its validity is not considered important.

Chain verification should arguably be performed using the signing time rather than the current time. However since the signing time is supplied by the signer, it cannot be trusted without additional evidence (such as a trusted timestamp).

# RETURN VALUES

`PKCS7_verify`() returns 1 for a successful verification and 0 or a negative value if an error occurs.

`PKCS7_get0_signers`() returns all signers or `NULL` if an error occurred. The signers must be freed with `sk_X509_free`().

The error can be obtained from ERR_get_error(3).

# SEE ALSO

PKCS7_decrypt(3), PKCS7_new(3), PKCS7_sign(3), X509_STORE_new(3)

# HISTORY

`PKCS7_verify`() and `PKCS7_get0_signers`() first appeared in OpenSSL 0.9.5 and have been available since OpenBSD 2.7.

# BUGS

The trusted certificate store is not searched for the signer's certificate. This is primarily due to the inadequacies of the current X509_STORE functionality.

The lack of single pass processing and the need to hold all data in memory as mentioned in PKCS7_sign(3) also applies to `PKCS7_verify`().

June 8, 2025 | Debian