Doubts between libfips.a and fips.so in openssl3.0

[Matt Caswell]

On 02/01/2020 04:11, Manish Patidar wrote:
> Hi
> 
> What is the difference in libfips.a and fips.so.? 
> Selftest.c and fipsprov.c is extra in fips.so library compilation.  Does
> it mean that it just add provider entry function and self test, which is
> required for fips certification.? 

libfips.a is just an internal build artifact. The actual module itself
is fips.so.

> Once openssl3.0 is fips certified,  can we use libfips.a directly ? 

No. Applications will use libcrypto/libssl, and OpenSSL will internally
load fips.so as required.
> My requirement is to use fips certified algorithm but environment may
> not have capability to load dynamic library, so just thinking how
> openssl3.0 should be used?

Unfortunately in the 3.0 design you *must* use dynamic libraries. Static
linking for fips usage will not be possible.

Matt