[aerogear-dev] JavaScript Crypto

[Kris Borchers]

On Sep 23, 2013, at 1:04 PM, Lucas Holmquist <lholmqui at redhat.com> wrote:

> 
> On Sep 23, 2013, at 2:01 PM, Kris Borchers <kris at redhat.com> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> On Sep 23, 2013, at 12:40 PM, Kris Borchers <kris at redhat.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> On Sep 20, 2013, at 10:05 AM, Bruno Oliveira <bruno at abstractj.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Good morning slackland, following with the plan I started a simple draft
>>>> for JavaScript (https://github.com/abstractj/cryptoparty-js) we have
>>>> several alternatives outside there the most popular are Crypto-js
>>>> (https://code.google.com/p/crypto-js/) and the Stanford crypto library
>>>> (http://crypto.stanford.edu/sjcl/).
>>>> 
>>>> Before I finish the whole implementation I have some questions:
>>>> 
>>>> - Currently crypto-js doesn't have support for GCM or ECC, but sjcl has.
>>>> That's the reason why my choice was sjcl instead of crypto-js, but if
>>>> you have another good alternative,  let me know.
>>> 
>>> +1 for sjcl if you think it offers everything we need
>>>> 
>>>> - Create wrappers or not? If you read the unit tests at first glance (at
>>>> least for me) looks like is too much. Most part of developers are
>>>> looking for security by default.
>>> 
>>> +1 I would like us to provide methods like encrypt or decrypt which use default values which we choose because we have researched and feel they are the best option for devs.
>>>> My idea is not to hide the library, but
>>>> provide a simple interface like:
>>>> 
>>>> Crypto crypto = new Crypto;
>>>> ciphertext = crypto. encrypt("blah");
>>>> crypto.decrypt(ciphertext);
>>> 
>>> I agree with this syntax in spirit but not execution. ;) JS doesn't have types like Crypto crypto, just var crypto. I would also prefer to follow the pattern we use in the rest of AeroGear.js to allow for instantiation without the use of the `new` keyword'. You can see the source of the other modules or ping me for details.
>> 
>> Now that I think about it, if this is just for encryption and decryption, I think this would look better and be more user friendly in AeroGear.core. That way, a user doesn't even have to instantiate and object, they just use our shortcut methods to call into sjcl. For example:
>> 
>> AeroGear.encrypt("blah");
>> AeroGear.decrypt( cipherText );
>> 
>> Those should be really easy to implement too and that will keep the size of the library way down. :)
> 
> that could be nice,  but what if a user doesn't want those methods,  i wonder if it would make sense to have a security.core or something,  

That would be fine. We could build it as a separate module that just gets tacked onto Core if they want it that way they can leave it and sjcl out if they don't want it.
> 
>>>> 
>>>> Advanced users looking for another kind of algorithm/implementation or
>>>> whatever would still be able to make use of the plain and straight
>>>> crypto library.
>>> 
>>> +1 and we should provide examples at least in the docs
>>>> 
>>>> - What is the best way to package this library? Bower?
>>> 
>>> If we're going to create some sort of wrapper object then it would just be part of AeroGear.js and by doing that would be packaged and available via Bower.
>>>> 
>>>> Thoughts?
>>> 
>>> Great start and great thoughts!
>>>> 
>>>> -- 
>>>> abstractj
>>>> 
>>>> 
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>>> 
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