[492] in java-interest
Announcing JCrypt alpha release 0.1
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Chia-Hsun Chou)
Sun Jun 25 04:30:33 1995
From: Chia-Hsun Chou <achou@cs.utexas.edu>
To: java-interest@java.sun.com
Date: Sun, 25 Jun 1995 02:21:40 -0500 (CDT)
Announcing JCrypt alpha release 0.1
Strong cryptography for Java
We are pleased to announce a preliminary release of the first
publicly available strong cryptography package for the Java language.
JCrypt alpha release 0.1 is now available on ripem.msu.edu in the
directory /pub/crypt/ripem/incoming. The file name is
jcrypt-alpha0.1.tar.gz. To get an account on ripem.msu.edu, telnet to
ripem.msu.edu and login as ripem. You will be asked questions,
and if you answer them right, you get an account that you
can use to download cryptography software.
Even if you're not heavily into cryptography, this code might
be interesting to Java-heads for several reasons:
o It is a good demonstration of Java native methods.
o The Makefile not only works, but also only recompiles things
that need to be recompiled.
JCrypt is basically a set of wrappers around existing C libraries;
this is both for reasons of ultimate efficiency and to comply with the
licensing restrictions placed on certain kinds of cryptgraphy
by RSA. In fact, the routines we are providing at the moment
are _not_ terribly efficient, although we recently stumbled across a
performance-enhanced version of RSAREF which will be used in
alpha 0.2. The RSAREF license explicitly permits performance
enhancements, as long as their API is still used.
At present, JCrypt provides highly object-oriented wrappers
around: MD5, DES, RSA, and Diffie-Hellman. More low-level
routines, as well as higher-level classes for key management
and access to cryptography by untrusted code will be provided
in the near future.
Javadoc documentation is included in the distribution, and
can also be browsed at:
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/achou/JCrypt/packages.html
Our purpose for making such preliminary code available is
to solicit comments on how the API might be improved, and to
get people thinking about how to incorporate strong cryptography
in Java/HotJava. Since it is still so prelminary, we are asking
that people download it for personal, educational or research
purposes only, and that it not be redistributed in any form.
Once the dust settles on the API, we will be making our part of
the package freely available for any purpose.
Please let us know if you find bugs, have suggestions, or would
like to help.
Thanks!
General questions, comments, bugs, volunteers:
Amanda Chou (achou@cs.utexas.edu, or: http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/achou/)
Legal and licensing matters:
Douglas Barnes (cman@communities.com)
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