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Yeah most programmers should not code "AES" or other algo. The should be an option to use the current best.
by ape4 8y ago
Yeah most programmers should not code "AES" or other algo. The should be an option to use the current best.
- DennisP 8y agoThis is not about coding AES, it's about designing APIs for cryptographic libraries. If you're a programmer using those APIs, it would be helpful to know whether they're well-designed, and what pitfalls might be there if they're not.
- CiPHPerCoder 8y agoI often quote Avi Douglen here: "Security at the expense of usability, comes at the expense of security." Misuse-resistant cryptography API design is a particular hobby horse of mine. (My other hobby horse is software update security.) A lot of the arguments in favor of cipher agility (a.k.a. runtime negotiation and risk of downgrade attacks) come from well-intended people who haven't internalized the past few decades of real world cryptographic failures. I liken it to building a brick wall that's expected to hold up a roof. Would you rather have a wall made by carefully placing bricks and mortar in place once, and if need be, rebuild the brick wall later with better materials? Or would a lattice of mortar that lets you hot-swap bricks as needed be a preferable design? The first one is versioned protocols. The latter is what keeps people typing AES into their code.