devolutions-crypto 2026.6.22

An abstraction layer for the cryptography used by Devolutions

devolutions-crypto

Cryptographic library used in Devolutions products. It is made to be fast, easy to use and misuse-resistant.

This is the official Python wrapper for the devolutions-crypto Rust library, providing high-performance cryptographic operations with a simple, Pythonic API.

Installation

pip install devolutions-crypto

Features

• Symmetric Encryption: Fast AES-256-GCM encryption for shared-key scenarios
• Asymmetric Encryption: X25519-based public-key encryption
• Password Hashing: Secure password hashing with Argon2 and PBKDF2
• Digital Signatures: Ed25519 signatures for data authentication
• Key Derivation: Argon2 and PBKDF2 key derivation functions
• Type Safety: Full type hints and IDE support

Quick Start

import devolutions_crypto
import os

# Generate a random encryption key
key = os.urandom(32)

# Encrypt some data
plaintext = b"Hello, World!"
ciphertext = devolutions_crypto.encrypt(plaintext, key)

# Decrypt it back
decrypted = devolutions_crypto.decrypt(ciphertext, key)
assert decrypted == plaintext

Usage Examples

Table of Contents

• Symmetric Encryption
• Asymmetric Encryption
• Password Hashing
• Digital Signatures
• Key Derivation
• Password-Based Encryption

Symmetric Encryption

Use symmetric encryption when both parties share the same secret key.

import devolutions_crypto
import os

# Generate a 32-byte encryption key
key = os.urandom(32)

# Encrypt data
plaintext = b"This is secret data"
ciphertext = devolutions_crypto.encrypt(plaintext, key)

# Decrypt data
decrypted = devolutions_crypto.decrypt(ciphertext, key)
assert decrypted == plaintext

With Additional Authenticated Data (AAD)

AAD allows you to bind additional context to the ciphertext without encrypting it:

import devolutions_crypto
import os

key = os.urandom(32)
plaintext = b"Secret message"
aad = b"user_id:12345"  # Context data (not encrypted, but authenticated)

# Encrypt with AAD
ciphertext = devolutions_crypto.encrypt_with_aad(plaintext, key, aad)

# Decrypt with AAD (must match encryption AAD)
decrypted = devolutions_crypto.decrypt_with_aad(ciphertext, key, aad)
assert decrypted == plaintext

# Decryption fails with wrong or missing AAD
try:
    devolutions_crypto.decrypt_with_aad(ciphertext, key, b"wrong_context")
except devolutions_crypto.DevolutionsCryptoError:
    print("Authentication failed - AAD mismatch")

Asymmetric Encryption

Use asymmetric encryption when you want to encrypt data for a recipient using their public key.

import devolutions_crypto

# Generate a keypair
keypair = devolutions_crypto.generate_keypair()

# Encrypt data with the public key
plaintext = b"Secret message for Bob"
ciphertext = devolutions_crypto.encrypt_asymmetric(plaintext, keypair.public_key)

# Decrypt with the private key
decrypted = devolutions_crypto.decrypt_asymmetric(ciphertext, keypair.private_key)
assert decrypted == plaintext

Key Exchange Example

Alice and Bob can establish a shared secret without transmitting it:

import devolutions_crypto

# Alice generates her keypair
alice_keypair = devolutions_crypto.generate_keypair()

# Bob generates his keypair
bob_keypair = devolutions_crypto.generate_keypair()

# They exchange public keys (public keys can be transmitted over insecure channels)

# Alice encrypts a message for Bob using his public key
message = b"Hello Bob!"
ciphertext = devolutions_crypto.encrypt_asymmetric(message, bob_keypair.public_key)

# Bob decrypts the message using his private key
decrypted = devolutions_crypto.decrypt_asymmetric(ciphertext, bob_keypair.private_key)
assert decrypted == message

Password Hashing

Securely hash and verify passwords. The default uses Argon2id:

import devolutions_crypto

# Hash a password (this is slow by design)
password = b"my_secure_password123!"
password_hash = devolutions_crypto.hash_password(password)

# Verify the password
is_valid = devolutions_crypto.verify_password(password, password_hash)
assert is_valid is True

# Wrong password fails verification
is_valid = devolutions_crypto.verify_password(b"wrong_password", password_hash)
assert is_valid is False

Digital Signatures

Sign data to prove authenticity and verify signatures:

Generating a Signing Keypair

import devolutions_crypto

# Generate a signing keypair
signing_keypair = devolutions_crypto.generate_signing_keypair()

# Extract the public key
public_key = signing_keypair.get_public_key()

Signing Data

import devolutions_crypto

# Sign some data
data = b"This is an important message"
signature = devolutions_crypto.sign(data, signing_keypair.get_private_key())

Verifying Signatures

import devolutions_crypto

# Verify the signature with the public key
is_valid = devolutions_crypto.verify_signature(data, public_key, signature)
assert is_valid is True

# Verification fails for modified data
modified_data = b"This is a tampered message"
is_valid = devolutions_crypto.verify_signature(modified_data, public_key, signature)
assert is_valid is False

Key Derivation

Derive cryptographic keys from passwords or other key material.

PBKDF2

import devolutions_crypto
import os

# Derive a key from a password
password = b"user_password"
salt = os.urandom(16)  # Use a unique random salt per user

derived_key = devolutions_crypto.derive_key_pbkdf2(
    password,
    salt=salt,
    iterations=600000,
    length=32
)

# Use the derived key for encryption
plaintext = b"User data"
ciphertext = devolutions_crypto.encrypt(plaintext, derived_key)

Argon2

import devolutions_crypto

# Derive a key using Argon2id
password = b"user_password"
parameters = devolutions_crypto.Argon2ParametersBuilder().build()  # default Argon2id parameters
derived_key = devolutions_crypto.derive_key_argon2(password, parameters)

Password-Based Encryption

Encrypt data directly with a password. The key is derived with Argon2id and the derivation parameters (including the random salt) are stored in the returned blob, so decryption only needs the password.

import devolutions_crypto

password = b"my_secure_password"
plaintext = b"secret data"

# Encrypt with a password
blob = devolutions_crypto.derive_encrypt_with_password(plaintext, password)

# Decrypt with the same password
decrypted = devolutions_crypto.derive_decrypt_with_password(blob, password)
assert decrypted == plaintext

With Additional Authenticated Data (AAD)

import devolutions_crypto

password = b"my_secure_password"
plaintext = b"secret data"
aad = b"context"

blob = devolutions_crypto.derive_encrypt_with_password_and_aad(plaintext, password, aad)
decrypted = devolutions_crypto.derive_decrypt_with_password_and_aad(blob, password, aad)
assert decrypted == plaintext

# Decryption fails with wrong or missing AAD
try:
    devolutions_crypto.derive_decrypt_with_password(blob, password)
except devolutions_crypto.DevolutionsCryptoError:
    print("Authentication failed - AAD required")

Supported Python Versions

• Python 3.10+
• Python 3.11
• Python 3.12
• Python 3.13
• Python 3.14

Supported Platforms

Pre-built wheels are available for:

• Linux: x86_64, i686, aarch64
• macOS: x86_64 (Intel), aarch64 (Apple Silicon)
• Windows: x86, x64, ARM64

Security Notes

1. Key Management: Always use cryptographically secure random number generators (like os.urandom()) for key generation
2. Salt Uniqueness: Use unique salts for each password/user when deriving keys
3. Iterations: Use high iteration counts (100,000+) for password hashing and key derivation
4. Key Size: Use 32-byte (256-bit) keys for symmetric encryption
5. AAD: Additional Authenticated Data must match exactly between encryption and decryption

Exception Handling

All functions may raise DevolutionsCryptoError on errors:

import devolutions_crypto

try:
    # Invalid key size
    result = devolutions_crypto.encrypt(b"data", b"short_key")
except devolutions_crypto.DevolutionsCryptoError as e:
    print(f"Encryption error: {e}")

Underlying Algorithms

As of the current version:

• Symmetric encryption: AES-256-GCM
• Asymmetric encryption: X25519 (ECDH) + AES-256-GCM (ECIES)
• Password hashing: PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256
• Digital signatures: Ed25519
• Key derivation: PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256, Argon2

Performance

This library is built on Rust and compiled to native code, providing excellent performance:

• Symmetric encryption/decryption: Millions of operations per second
• Asymmetric operations: Thousands of operations per second
• Password hashing: Intentionally slow (configurable via iterations)

Contributing

This project is open source. Visit the GitHub repository to report issues or contribute.

License

This project is licensed under MIT OR Apache-2.0.