From: Robert Feldt <feldt@...>
Date: 2003-01-24T04:29:13+09:00
Subject: Re: Missing libraries??

On Fri, 24 Jan 2003, Brian Smyth wrote:

> * Hal E. Fulton (hal9000@hypermetrics.com) wrote:
> > 5. Any need for cryptographic stuff?
>
> The mcrypt library is fairly complete wrt available cryptographic
> algorithms, and we have Ruby/MCrypt written by Hans-Dieter Stich at
> http://www.rubylinks.de/ .
>
I disagree if it only contains symmetric ciphers according to
http://mcrypt.hellug.gr/.

> (However, it seems that the wrapper only functions properly in ECB mode.
> This behavior seems to differ from the author's intent, as the small
> test program included in the distribution tests CFB and CBC as well, but
> those tests fail.)
>
> Has anyone implemented any strong crypto algorithms in native Ruby to
> measure performance feasibility?
>
I have RSA, DSA and ElGamal in pure Ruby. I haven't compared to pure-c
implementations since assymetric ciphers are used "seldomly" compared to
symmetric ciphers so the advantage of having pure-Ruby implementation
outweighs disadvantage of speed, in many situations.

Having symmetric ciphers (AES, Blowfish et al) in pure Ruby would be
almost meaningless imho...

I can pack this up and submit to RAA if there is any interest.

Regards,

Robert Feldt