crypt-io 0.5.0

Status

Current version: 0.5.0 (2026-05-22). Pre-1.0 — the public API is allowed to evolve in breaking ways through the 0.x series; 1.0.0 freezes it.

See .dev/ROADMAP.md for the full milestone plan and CHANGELOG.md for per-version detail. Per-release notes live under docs/release/.

What's in 0.5.0

Symmetric AEAD encryption — crypt_io::aead

• Crypt::new() — ChaCha20-Poly1305 (default, post-quantum-safe at 256 bits).
• Crypt::aes_256_gcm() — AES-256-GCM (hardware-accelerated on AES-NI / ARMv8 crypto extensions, runtime-dispatched by upstream).
• Algorithm-agile API. Same encrypt / decrypt surface, same wire format (nonce || ciphertext || tag), same 32-byte key. Switch by picking the constructor.
• Fresh nonces per call via mod-rand Tier 3 (OS CSPRNG). Nonce reuse cannot happen through the public API.
• AAD support via encrypt_with_aad / decrypt_with_aad.
• RFC 8439 + NIST SP 800-38D known-answer tests verifying byte-exact output against the specs.

Hashing — crypt_io::hash

• BLAKE3 — hash::blake3 (32-byte default) + hash::blake3_long (XOF, any length) + streaming Blake3Hasher.
• SHA-256 / SHA-512 — hash::sha256 / hash::sha512 + streaming Sha256Hasher / Sha512Hasher.
• NIST FIPS 180-4 known-answer tests for SHA-2; byte-pinned KATs for BLAKE3.
• Streaming-equals-one-shot verified at multiple chunk boundaries.
• Hash-only by design. No with_key. Keyed hashing lives in mac.

Message Authentication — crypt_io::mac

• HMAC-SHA256 / HMAC-SHA512 — mac::hmac_sha256 / mac::hmac_sha512 + streaming HmacSha256 / HmacSha512.
• BLAKE3 keyed mode — mac::blake3_keyed (typed 32-byte key, infallible) + streaming Blake3Mac.
• Constant-time verification by default. Every algorithm exposes a *_verify path that compares against an expected tag via upstream constant-time comparators. Never tag == expected against a secret.
• RFC 4231 known-answer tests for HMAC; byte-pinned KAT for BLAKE3 keyed.
• Wrong-length tags are rejections, not panics.

Portfolio integration

• mod-rand — Tier 3 OS-backed CSPRNG for nonces.
• error-forge — declared dependency (deeper integration in a later phase).
• log-io (optional) — operation logging.
• metrics-lib (optional) — performance instrumentation.
• key-vault — peer crate; the consumer wires them together. No direct dependency.

What's not in 0.5.0 yet

• KDF (HKDF, Argon2id) — Phase 0.6.0.
• Stream / file encryption — Phase 0.7.0.
• Benchmark suite — Phase 0.8.0. Performance targets are in the contract (see .dev/ROADMAP.md); committed criterion-backed measurements land in 0.8.
• Fuzz testing — Phase 0.9.0.
• Asymmetric crypto, PGP, TLS, RNG, UUIDs, key storage — out of scope for the lifetime of this crate. Use mod-rand, key-vault, rustls, sequoia-openpgp, etc.

Installation

[dependencies]
crypt-io = "0.5"

Or:

cargo add crypt-io

MSRV: Rust 1.85 (edition 2024). Older toolchains will not build.

Quick start

AEAD round-trip

use crypt_io::Crypt;

let key = [0u8; 32];                  // your 256-bit key
let crypt = Crypt::new();             // ChaCha20-Poly1305 by default

let ciphertext = crypt.encrypt(&key, b"plaintext data")?;
let recovered  = crypt.decrypt(&key, &ciphertext)?;
assert_eq!(&*recovered, b"plaintext data");
# Ok::<(), crypt_io::Error>(())

AES-256-GCM (when you want hardware acceleration)

use crypt_io::Crypt;

let key = [0u8; 32];
let crypt = Crypt::aes_256_gcm();     // requires `aead-aes-gcm` (default-on)

let ciphertext = crypt.encrypt(&key, b"hello AES")?;
let recovered  = crypt.decrypt(&key, &ciphertext)?;
# Ok::<(), crypt_io::Error>(())

Hashing

use crypt_io::hash;

let digest = hash::blake3(b"the quick brown fox");   // [u8; 32]
let sha256 = hash::sha256(b"the quick brown fox");   // [u8; 32]
let sha512 = hash::sha512(b"the quick brown fox");   // [u8; 64]
let xof    = hash::blake3_long(b"input", 128);       // Vec<u8>, 128 bytes

MAC with constant-time verify

use crypt_io::mac;

let key  = b"shared secret";
let data = b"message to authenticate";

let tag = mac::hmac_sha256(key, data)?;
assert!(mac::hmac_sha256_verify(key, data, &tag)?);
// Never `tag == expected_tag` against a secret — use the `*_verify` path.
# Ok::<(), crypt_io::Error>(())

BLAKE3 keyed mode — typed key, infallible:

use crypt_io::mac;

let key = [0x42u8; 32];
let tag = mac::blake3_keyed(&key, b"message");
assert!(mac::blake3_keyed_verify(&key, b"message", &tag));

Streaming (large or chunked inputs)

use crypt_io::hash::Blake3Hasher;

let mut h = Blake3Hasher::new();
h.update(b"first chunk ");
h.update(b"second chunk");
let digest = h.finalize();

See docs/API.md for the full reference.

Design philosophy

crypt-io is intentionally focused:

• One job: symmetric crypto. Done well.
• No reinvention. Primitives come from RustCrypto and BLAKE3 (battle-tested, widely audited).
• Simple API. Encrypt in two lines. Hash in one. The easy path is the secure path.
• Algorithm agility. ChaCha20-Poly1305 by default, AES-256-GCM when you want hardware acceleration. Same Crypt API either way.
• Constant-time discipline. MAC verification uses upstream constant-time comparators, never ==. Documented in module overviews.
• Hash ≠ MAC. Blake3Hasher has no with_key. The only way to produce a keyed tag is through the mac module. This separation is deliberate.
• Redaction-clean errors. No variant of Error ever contains key material, plaintext, ciphertext, nonces, or tag bytes.
• REPS-disciplined. Every commit passes cargo fmt --check, cargo clippy --all-targets --all-features -- -D warnings, cargo test --all-features, and cargo doc with -D warnings.

What we explicitly do NOT do:

• Implement crypto primitives from scratch (use battle-tested upstreams)
• Asymmetric crypto (RSA, ECDSA, Ed25519) — different problem, separate crate
• PGP/GPG (use sequoia-openpgp)
• TLS (use rustls)
• Random number generation (use mod-rand)
• UUID generation (use id-forge)
• Key storage (use key-vault)

When to use crypt-io

Good fit:

• Encrypting data for storage (databases, file systems, caches)
• Encrypting API tokens or session data
• Authenticating messages, audit logs, signed records
• Hashing for integrity checks, fingerprinting, content-addressed storage
• HMAC signatures for outgoing requests (AWS SigV4, JWT HS256/HS512, webhooks)
• Composing with key-vault for in-memory key handling

Wrong fit:

• TLS connections — use rustls
• OpenPGP interop — use sequoia-openpgp
• Digital signatures — use ed25519-dalek
• Key exchange — use x25519-dalek
• Random number generation — use mod-rand

Performance targets

Verified by benchmarks in Phase 0.8.0 (criterion-backed, committed baselines). Until then these are documented targets, not measured numbers:

Documentation

• docs/API.md — complete public-API reference for the current version.
• CHANGELOG.md — per-version Added / Changed / Security entries.
• docs/release/ — per-release notes (v0.2.0.md, v0.3.0.md, …).
• .dev/ROADMAP.md — milestone plan through 1.0.

Standards

• REPS (Rust Efficiency & Performance Standards) governs every decision. See REPS.md.
• MSRV: Rust 1.85.
• Edition: 2024.
• Cross-platform: Linux, macOS, Windows (CI matrix on stable + MSRV).

License

Dual-licensed under either of:

• Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE)
• MIT License (LICENSE-MIT)

at your option.

Contribution

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.