- NAME
- SYNOPSIS
- DESCRIPTION
- NOTES
- BUGS
- RETURN VALUES
- SEE ALSO
- HISTORY

# NAME

     SMIME_read_CMS - parse S/MIME message.

# SYNOPSIS

     #include <openssl/cms.h>

     CMS_ContentInfo *SMIME_read_CMS(BIO *in, BIO **bcont);

# DESCRIPTION

`SMIME_read_CMS()` parses a message in S/MIME format.

in 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 *bcont, otherwise *bcont is set to NULL.

The parsed CMS_ContentInfo structure is returned or NULL if an error occurred.

# NOTES

If *bcont is not NULL then the message is clear text signed. *bcont can then be passed to `CMS_verify()` with the CMS_DETACHED flag set.

Otherwise the type of the returned structure can be determined using CMS_get0_type().

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

     BIO *cont = NULL;
     CMS_ContentInfo *cms;

     cms = SMIME_read_CMS(in, &cont);

# BUGS

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

The parser assumes that the CMS_ContentInfo 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

`SMIME_read_CMS()` returns a valid CMS_ContentInfo structure or NULL if an error occurred. The error can be obtained from ERR_get_error(3).

# SEE ALSO

ERR_get_error, CMS_type SMIME_read_CMS, CMS_sign, CMS_verify, CMS_encrypt CMS_decrypt

# HISTORY

`SMIME_read_CMS()` was added to OpenSSL 0.9.8