Hello JavaScript Enthusiasts,
I recently posted this draft spec (
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Privacy/Features/DOMCryptAPISpec/Latest ) for a crypto
API for browsers to the whatwg (see:
http://lists.whatwg.org/htdig.cgi/whatwg-whatwg.org/2011-May/031741.html ,
summary is here: http://etherpad.mozilla.com:9000/DOMCrypt-discussion ) and
wanted to get feedback and criticism from es-discuss/TC39.
Privacy and user control on the web is of utter importance. Tracking,
unauthorized user data aggregation and personal information breaches are
becoming so commonplace you see a new headline almost daily. (It seems).
We need crypto APIs in browsers to allow developers to create more secure
communications tools and web applications that don’t have to implicitly trust
the server, among other use cases.
The DOMCrypt API is a good start, and more feedback and discussion will really
help round out how all of this should work – as well as how it can work in any
browser that will support such an API. I think the main issue is creating an
elegant API regardless of how it is implemented.
This API will provide each web browser window with a ‘cipher’ property[1] that
facilitates:
asymmetric encryption key pair generation
public key encryption
public key decryption
symmetric encryption
signature generation
signature verification
hashing
easy public key discovery via meta tags or an ‘addressbookentry’ tag
[1] There is a bit of discussion around adding this API to window.navigator or
consolidation within window.crypto
I have created a Firefox extension that implements most of the above, and am
working on an experimental patch that integrates this API into Firefox.
The project originated in an extension I wrote, the home page is here:
http://domcrypt.org
The source code for the extension is here: https://github.com/daviddahl/domcrypt
The Mozilla bugs are here:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=649154
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=657432
Firefox "feature wiki page":
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Privacy/Features/DOMCryptAPI
You can test the API by installing the extension hosted at domcrypt.org, and
going to http://domcrypt.org
A recent blog post updating all of this is posted here:
http://monocleglobe.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/domcrypt-update-2011-06-01/
The API:
window.cipher = {
// Public Key API
pk: {
set algorithm(algorithm){ },
get algorithm(){ },
// Generate a keypair and then execute the callback function
generateKeypair: function ( function callback( aPublicKey ) { } ) { },
// encrypt a plainText
encrypt: function ( plainText, function callback (cipherMessageObject) ) { }
) { },
// decrypt a cipherMessage
decrypt: function ( cipherMessageObject, function callback ( plainText ) { }
) { },
// sign a message
sign: function ( plainText, function callback ( signature ) { } ) { },
// verify a signature
verify: function ( signature, plainText, function callback ( boolean ) { } )
{ },
// get the JSON cipherAddressbook
get addressbook() {},
// make changes to the addressbook
saveAddressbook: function (JSONObject, function callback ( addresssbook ) {
}) { }
},
// Symmetric Crypto API
sym: {
get algorithm(),
set algorithm(algorithm),
// create a new symmetric key
generateKey: function (function callback ( key ){ }) { },
// encrypt some data
encrypt: function (plainText, key, function callback( cipherText ){ }) { },
// decrypt some data
decrypt: function (cipherText, key, function callback( plainText ) { }) { },
},
// hashing
hash: {
SHA256: function (function callback (hash){}) { }
}
}
Your feedback and criticism will be invaluable.
Best regards,
David Dahl
Firefox Engineer, Mozilla Corp.
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