encrypted file integration into KDE

[Roberto Alsina]

On Fri, 26 Apr 2002, George Staikos wrote:

[snip, so we agree on the basics, good :-]

> > Then Konqueror can open the encrypted file using the above data, the
> > api to decrypt should look pretty much like KTar, only with plugins for
> > algos?
> 
>    Yes.  That part as you see is easy.  The hard part is coming up with a 
> flexible, reusable, appropriate crypto backend.  Something that won't confuse 
> the user too much, but is safe and powerful, follows KDE development models, 
> and is light.

A candidate: libmcrypt

http://mcrypt.hellug.gr/

Uses standard algorithms (3DES, IDEA, etc, has a lot of them)

There is already a CLI tool using it, so you could open the files outside
of KDE (that is a must).

There is a library form, so it can be called from KDE.

License is lgpl, so we can use it or tune it.

It seems to be under active development (ie: not stagnant)

>    My point is that we can't use a library like OpenSSL or Crypto++ or foobar 
> because they are too heavy for something that could permeate throughout KDE 
> applications.  However we don't want to have random crypto algorithms strewn 
> throughout CVS either.  We need something structured.  We see the problem 
> already happening in kdecore/kmdcodecs.

You are correct. OTOH, a slow crypto is not too terrible, IMVVVHO
> 
>    In some cases, as I said above, it will be sufficient to have a good test 
> bucket to compare against reference implementations.  The reviewing part 
> comes more when things like password transformations, random data, etc are 
> used.  These can't be tested against a predefined bucket. :)

Kinda by definition ;-)

 ("\''/").__..-''"`-. .         Roberto Alsina
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I would like to believe in God [..]. But I just believe in Billy Wilder.