OpenSSL::ASN1::ASN1Data

The top-level class representing any ASN.1 object. When parsed by OpenSSL::ASN1.decode, tagged values are always represented by an instance of ASN1Data.

The role of ASN1Data for parsing tagged values

When encoding an ASN.1 type it is inherently clear what original type (e.g. INTEGER, OCTET STRING etc.) this value has, regardless of its tagging. But opposed to the time an ASN.1 type is to be encoded, when parsing them it is not possible to deduce the “real type” of tag