Hello!
The GNU project is pleased to announce the availability of Libgcrypt
version 1.6.0. This is the new stable version of Libgcrypt with the API
being mostly compatible to previous versions. Due to the removal of
certain long deprecated functions this version introduces an ABI change.
Libgcrypt is a general purpose library of cryptographic building
blocks. It is originally based on code used by GnuPG. It does not
provide any implementation of OpenPGP or other protocols. Thorough
understanding of applied cryptography is required to use Libgcrypt.
The main features of this version are performance improvements [3],
better support for elliptic curves, new algorithms and modes, as well as
API and internal cleanups. Better performance of public key algorithms,
in particular for Curve25519, is planned for forthcoming releases.
Note that the 1.5 series will enter end of life state on 2016-12-31.
Noteworthy changes between version 1.5.0 and 1.6.0:
===
* Removed the long deprecated gcry_ac interface. Thus Libgcrypt is
not anymore ABI compatible to previous versions if they used the
ac interface.
* Removed the module register subsystem.
* The deprecated message digest debug macros have been removed. Use
gcry_md_debug instead.
* Removed deprecated control codes.
* Improved performance of most cipher algorithms as well as for the
SHA family of hash functions.
* Added support for the IDEA cipher algorithm.
* Added support for the Salsa20 and reduced Salsa20/12 stream
ciphers.
* Added limited support for the GOST 28147-89 cipher algorithm.
* Added support for the GOST R 34.11-94 and R 34.11-2012 (Stribog)
hash algorithms.
* Added a random number generator to directly use the system's RNG.
Also added an interface to prefer the use of a specified RNG.
* Added support for the SCRYPT algorithm.
* Mitigated the Yarom/Falkner flush+reload side-channel attack on RSA
secret keys. See http://eprint.iacr.org/2013/448 [CVE-2013-4242].
* Added support for Deterministic DSA as per RFC-6969.
* Added support for curve Ed25519.
* Added a scatter gather hash convenience function.
* Added several MPI amd SEXP helper functions.
* Added support for negative numbers to gcry_mpi_print,
gcry_mpi_aprint and gcry_mpi_scan.
* The algorithm ids GCRY_PK_ECDSA and GCRY_PK_ECDH are now
deprecated. Use GCRY_PK_ECC if you need an algorithm id.
* Changed gcry_pk_genkey for ecc to only include the curve name
and not the parameters. The flag param may be used to revert
this.
* Added a feature to globally disable selected hardware features.
* Added debug helper functions.
For Interface changes relative to the 1.5.0 release see below [4].
Download
Source code is hosted at the GnuPG FTP server and its mirrors as
listed at http://www.gnupg.org/download/mirrors.html . On the primary
server the source file and its digital signatures is:
ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/libgcrypt/libgcrypt-1.6.0.tar.bz2 (2441k)
ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/libgcrypt/libgcrypt-1.6.0.tar.bz2.sig
This file is bzip2 compressed. A gzip compressed version is also
available:
ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/libgcrypt/libgcrypt-1.6.0.tar.gz (2866k)
ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/libgcrypt/libgcrypt-1.6.0.tar.gz.sig
Due to the amount of changes we don't provide a patch file against
1.5.x.
The SHA-1 checksums are:
43283c0b41c41e3d3bc13c2d8f937dfe2aaa1a77 libgcrypt-1.6.0.tar.bz2
03551121fe5b706532158667699f63b6e2606755 libgcrypt-1.6.0.tar.gz
Copying
===
Libgcrypt is distributed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General
Public License (LGPLv2.1+). The helper programs as well as the
documentation are distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public
License (GPLv2+). The file LICENSES has notices about contributions
that require these additional notices are distributed.
Support
===
For help on developing with Libgcrypt you should read the included
manual and optional ask on the gcrypt-devel mailing list [1]. A
listing with commercial support offers for Libgcrypt and related
software is available at the GnuPG web site [2].
The driving force behind the development of Libgcrypt is my company
g10 Code. Maintenance and improvement of Libgcrypt and related
software takes up most of our resources. To allow us to continue our
work on free software, we ask to either purchase a support contract,
engage us for custom enhancements, or to donate money:
http://g10code.com/gnupg-donation.html
Thanks
==
Many thanks to all who contributed to Libgcrypt development, be it bug
fixes, code, documentation, testing or helping users. Special thanks to
Jussi Kivilinna who did most of the performance improvement work.
Happy hacking,
Werner
[1] http://www.gnupg.org/documentation/mailing-lists.html
[2]
