[RFC] PHP 7.1 - Simple Cryptography Interface

I'd like to make cryptography drop-dead simple in PHP 7.1 and thereafter. The simplest thing to do is to provide a simple front-end API, designed for human usability, that abstracts away the complexities of cryptography engineering. I've started writing an RFC draft here: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/php71-crypto These are the rules I'd like everyone to keep in mind when proposing changes to these features: 1. Security is the first priority. It is absolutely unacceptable to add a cryptographic side-channel or render this library vulnerable to any sort of chosen-ciphertext attack.ECB mode is completely off the table. 2. Simple is good. Developers should not need to know what a nonce is, nor should they be given the opportunity to weaken the protocol by providing their own. Some general guidelines that I feel particularly strong about but others might contest: For 7.1, we will only allow elliptic curve public key cryptography. In the future, we might expand to include post-quantum cryptography. We must absolutely not support RSA or classic (non-EC) Diffie Hellman. This is the overall process I'd like to follow for getting this ready for PHP 7.1. 1. Develop a PHP extension, available in PECL, so developers can implement it in PHP 7.0 projects to test it out. This process starts today. I've set up a GIthub repository at https://github.com/paragonie/php71_crypto for any developers that would like to help. 2. The RFC/voting process. This starts as soon as we have a stable implementation and drivers for both libsodium and openssl ready to go. 3. Formal code review from a third-party team of security experts (Depending on how successful I am in my business ventures this year, I might be able to cover the cost of this personally. I can't promise anything today, however.) 4. Merge it into the PHP core before 7.1.0 is released. Everyone is welcome to contribute, even if you're not a cryptography expert. Non-experts are the people I intend to be able to use it, so your feedback will be incredibly valuable. Together, I believe we can make PHP 7.1 the pinnacle of usable security. :) Scott Arciszewski Chief Development Officer Paragon Initiative Enterprises <https://paragonie.com>