Proposal for a Desktop Neutral Crypto API

Nielsen nielsen at memberwebs.com
Fri Apr 1 23:55:38 EEST 2005


I've drafted a proposal for a DBUS encryption API. It's meant to be 
desktop neutral, and encryption system neutral (ie: OpenPGP vs. S/MIME).

The Draft:
http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Crypto

I'm the maintainer of Seahorse, a GNOME encryption interface. Many of us 
on the Seahorse project, and I'm sure others, have seen the need for an 
API which abstracts desktop encryption. This API would be used in email 
programs and file manager plugins to provide basic encryption services 
to the user.

This DBUS API would allow any program to call desktop crypto services 
regardless of what toolkit or desktop it's designed for.

Possible implementors:
  - KGPG
  - Seahorse

Consumers of this API could include:
  - Evolution
  - Kmail
  - Thunderbird/Mozilla
  - Konqueror (with a plugin)
  - Nautilus (with a plugin)
  - Instant Messaging Plugins?
  - Some text editors?

Naturally this project has a wide scope, so I'd like to start a 
discussion on what would need to be included in this API for your 
project to be interested.

Cheers,
Nate Nielsen

The Draft: http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Crypto




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