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man pages section 3: Extended Library Functions, Volume 1

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Updated: Wednesday, July 27, 2022
 
 

OPENSSL_ia32cap (3openssl)

Name

OPENSSL_ia32cap - 32 processor capabilities vector

Synopsis

unsigned long *OPENSSL_ia32cap_loc(void);
#define OPENSSL_ia32cap ((OPENSSL_ia32cap_loc())[0])

Description

OPENSSL_ia32cap(3openssl)           OpenSSL          OPENSSL_ia32cap(3openssl)



NAME
       OPENSSL_ia32cap, OPENSSL_ia32cap_loc - the IA-32 processor capabilities
       vector

SYNOPSIS
        unsigned long *OPENSSL_ia32cap_loc(void);
        #define OPENSSL_ia32cap ((OPENSSL_ia32cap_loc())[0])

DESCRIPTION
       Value returned by OPENSSL_ia32cap_loc() is address of a variable
       containing IA-32 processor capabilities bit vector as it appears in
       EDX:ECX register pair after executing CPUID instruction with EAX=1
       input value (see Intel Application Note #241618). Naturally it's
       meaningful on x86 and x86_64 platforms only. The variable is normally
       set up automatically upon toolkit initialization, but can be
       manipulated afterwards to modify crypto library behaviour. For the
       moment of this writing following bits are significant:

       bit #4 denoting presence of Time-Stamp Counter.
       bit #19 denoting availability of CLFLUSH instruction;
       bit #20, reserved by Intel, is used to choose among RC4 code paths;
       bit #23 denoting MMX support;
       bit #24, FXSR bit, denoting availability of XMM registers;
       bit #25 denoting SSE support;
       bit #26 denoting SSE2 support;
       bit #28 denoting Hyperthreading, which is used to distinguish cores
       with shared cache;
       bit #30, reserved by Intel, denotes specifically Intel CPUs;
       bit #33 denoting availability of PCLMULQDQ instruction;
       bit #41 denoting SSSE3, Supplemental SSE3, support;
       bit #43 denoting AMD XOP support (forced to zero on non-AMD CPUs);
       bit #57 denoting AES-NI instruction set extension;
       bit #59, OSXSAVE bit, denoting availability of YMM registers;
       bit #60 denoting AVX extension;
       bit #62 denoting availability of RDRAND instruction;

       For example, clearing bit #26 at run-time disables high-performance
       SSE2 code present in the crypto library, while clearing bit #24
       disables SSE2 code operating on 128-bit XMM register bank. You might
       have to do the latter if target OpenSSL application is executed on SSE2
       capable CPU, but under control of OS that does not enable XMM
       registers. Even though you can manipulate the value programmatically,
       you most likely will find it more appropriate to set up an environment
       variable with the same name prior starting target application, e.g. on
       Intel P4 processor 'env OPENSSL_ia32cap=0x16980010 apps/openssl', or
       better yet 'env OPENSSL_ia32cap=~0x1000000 apps/openssl' to achieve
       same effect without modifying the application source code.
       Alternatively you can reconfigure the toolkit with no-sse2 option and
       recompile.

       Less intuitive is clearing bit #28. The truth is that it's not copied
       from CPUID output verbatim, but is adjusted to reflect whether or not
       the data cache is actually shared between logical cores. This in turn
       affects the decision on whether or not expensive countermeasures
       against cache-timing attacks are applied, most notably in AES assembler
       module.

       The vector is further extended with EBX value returned by CPUID with
       EAX=7 and ECX=0 as input. Following bits are significant:

       bit #64+3 denoting availability of BMI1 instructions, e.g. ANDN;
       bit #64+5 denoting availability of AVX2 instructions;
       bit #64+8 denoting availability of BMI2 instructions, e.g. MUXL and
       RORX;
       bit #64+18 denoting availability of RDSEED instruction;
       bit #64+19 denoting availability of ADCX and ADOX instructions;


ATTRIBUTES
       See attributes(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +---------------+--------------------------+
       |ATTRIBUTE TYPE |     ATTRIBUTE VALUE      |
       +---------------+--------------------------+
       |Availability   | library/security/openssl |
       +---------------+--------------------------+
       |Stability      | Pass-through uncommitted |
       +---------------+--------------------------+
NOTES
       Source code for open source software components in Oracle Solaris can
       be found at https://www.oracle.com/downloads/opensource/solaris-source-
       code-downloads.html.

       This software was built from source available at
       https://github.com/oracle/solaris-userland.  The original community
       source was downloaded from
       https://www.openssl.org/source/openssl-1.0.2ze.tar.gz.

       Further information about this software can be found on the open source
       community website at https://www.openssl.org/.



1.0.2ze                           2022-05-03         OPENSSL_ia32cap(3openssl)