15. Cryptographic Services

The modules described in this chapter implement various algorithms of a cryptographic nature. They are available at the discretion of the installation. Here's an overview:

md5 RSA's MD5 message digest algorithm.
sha NIST's secure hash algorithm, SHA.
mpz Interface to the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
rotor Enigma-like encryption and decryption.

Hardcore cypherpunks will probably find the cryptographic modules written by Andrew Kuchling of further interest; the package adds built-in modules for DES and IDEA encryption, provides a Python module for reading and decrypting PGP files, and then some. These modules are not distributed with Python but available separately. See the URL http://starship.python.net/crew/amk/python/crypto.html or send email to akuchlin@acm.org for more information.


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