Add streaming encryption/decryption API to OpenSSL extension (openssl_encrypt_init / openssl_encrypt_update / openssl_encrypt_final)
Open
@bukka is already working on this.
Since Aug 22, 2025.
Extension: openssl
Feature
Status: Requires RFC
- Dominant language
- C
- Stars
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- Avg merge
- 2d 13h
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- 96
Description
Description
Currently, the OpenSSL extension in PHP provides openssl_encrypt() and openssl_decrypt(), which require the entire data buffer in memory for AES-128-GCM, AES-256-GCM... This makes it impractical to process very large files (e.g. 100 MB, 1 GB, 1 TB) because PHP will try to load the entire content into memory before encrypting/decrypting.
Proposal
Introduce a streaming API for encryption/decryption, similar to how hash_init(), hash_update(), and hash_final() work.
For example for encryption:
$res = openssl_encrypt_init('aes-256-gcm', $key, OPENSSL_RAW_DATA, $iv, $tag_length);
openssl_encrypt_update($ctx, $aad);
while (!feof($fp_in)) {
$chunk = fread($fp_in, 1048576); // 1 MB
$enc = openssl_encrypt_update($res, $chunk);
fwrite($fp_out, $enc);
}
$enc = openssl_encrypt_final($res, $tag);
fwrite($fp_out, $enc);
And for decryption:
$res = openssl_decrypt_init("aes-256-gcm", $key, OPENSSL_RAW_DATA, $iv, $tag);
openssl_decrypt_update($ctx, $aad);
while (!feof($fp_in)) {
$chunk = fread($fp_in, 1048576);
$dec = openssl_decrypt_update($res, $chunk);
fwrite($fp_out, $dec);
}
$dec = openssl_decrypt_final($res);
fwrite($fp_out, $dec);
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