RE: [EXTERNAL] ASN1_STRING type is now opaque

It's typically UTF8 strings.  Occasionally it's OCTET strings.

If there were a pseudo-native type of char* for UTF8 and maybe a struct of =
uint8* and length for OCTET, that would work well for me.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tomas Mraz <[email protected]>
> Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2026 2:36 AM
> To: Sands, Daniel N. <[email protected]>; Blog on OpenSSL Library
> <[email protected]>; [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL] ASN1_STRING type is now opaque
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> Do you send arbitrary ASN1_STRINGs or some particular subtype? You could
> use i2d/d2i to encode and decode concrete ASN1_STRING subtypes.
>=20
> Tomas Mraz
>=20
> On Tue, 2026-04-14 at 19:41 +0000, 'Sands, Daniel N.' via openssl-users
> wrote:
> > How will EMBED work with this?  I can no longer add an ASN1_STRING
> > structure to my temp-to-send data structure since the contents are
> > unknown to the compiler now.  Is there a pseudo-native type that can
> > be used in its place, similar to INT32 and INT64 for integers?
> >
> > >
> > > The ASN1_STRING structure can [no longer be accessed directly](
> > >
> https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fd%
> > >
> 2F&data=3D05%7C02%7Cdnsands%40sandia.gov%7C9ecc78d4576448376e20
> 08de9b9
> > >
> 33b68%7C7ccb5a20a303498cb0c129007381b574%7C1%7C0%7C6391192
> 5382248458
> > >
> 6%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjA
> uMDAwMC
> > >
> IsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&
> sdat
> > >
> a=3D1eN8QA2iaWNt40GH1CYcMGPOuel%2B4fqCvaenFy3ZXF4%3D&reserved=3D
> 0
> > > ocs.openssl.org%2F4.0%2Fman7%2Fossl-guide-migration%2F%23the-
> > >
> &data=3D05%7C02%7Cdnsands%40sandia.gov%7Cd1c64df0760e47e2274e08
> de99
> > >
> c13d49%7C7ccb5a20a303498cb0c129007381b574%7C1%7C0%7C639117
> 25240
> > >
> 0348398%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYi
> OiIw
> > >
> LjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0
> %7C
> > >
> %7C%7C&sdata=3DBnnWtQOjyDFAzL9YmI03Hhs7E5QhOzgr0g1JJmbzuD4%3D
> &rese
> > > rved=3D0
> > > asn1_string-type-is-now-opaque). Instead, accessor functions must be
> > > used.
> > >
>=20
> --
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> C639119253822515442%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcG
> kiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUI
> joyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=3D6x4jFraPgSL3zu6xULbXmyRXkT6w
> %2F2AWeXqoFpCzzgc%3D&reserved=3D0

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