14. 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.

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.skyport.net/crew/amk/maintained/crypto.html or send email to akuchlin@acm.org for more information.