BN_new3ssl
Allocate and free bignums
Usage
#include <openssl/bn.h>BIGNUM *BN_new(void);BIGNUM *BN_secure_new(void);void BN_clear(BIGNUM *a);void BN_free(BIGNUM *a);void BN_clear_free(BIGNUM *a);
Overview
BN_new() allocates and initializes a BIGNUM structure. BN_secure_new() does the same except that the secure heap OPENSSL_secure_malloc(3) is used to store the value.
BN_clear() is used to destroy sensitive data such as keys when they are no longer needed. It erases the memory used by a and sets it to the value 0. If a is NULL, nothing is done.
BN_free() frees the components of the BIGNUM, and if it was created by BN_new(), also the structure itself. BN_clear_free() additionally overwrites the data before the memory is returned to the system. If a is NULL, nothing is done.
Return values
BN_new() and BN_secure_new() return a pointer to the BIGNUM initialised to the value 0. If the allocation fails, they return NULL and set an error code that can be obtained by ERR_get_error(3).
BN_clear(), BN_free() and BN_clear_free() have no return values.
Releases
13 releases since Debian 3.0 (Woody); the text changed 12 times.