Sodium Compat is a pure PHP polyfill for the Sodium cryptography library (libsodium), a core extension in PHP 7.2.0+ and otherwise available in PECL.
If you have the PHP extension installed, Sodium Compat will opportunistically and transparently use the PHP extension instead of our implementation.
sodium_compat v1.21.0 was the last v1.x release from the master branch. From now
on, all future releases that support PHP 5.2 - 8.0 and 32-bit integers will be
in the v1.x branch.
Newer versions of sodium_compat (i.e., v2.0.0) will continue to live in the master branch, unless a new major version is needed. The goal of this work is to improve code readability and performance, while reducing boilerplate code.
When in doubt, refer to the README file in the master branch for the latest in version information.
| sodium_compat version | PHP versions supported | 32-bit support? | Branch |
|---|---|---|---|
v1.x.y |
5.2.4 - LATEST | YES | v1.x |
v2.x.y |
8.1 - LATEST | NO | master |
If you need 32-bit PHP support (PHP_INT_SIZE == 4), continue using sodium_compat v1.x.
If you want improved performance and smaller dependencies, use v2.x.
We recommend libraries and frameworks set a Composer version constraint as follows:
{
"require": {
/* ... */
"paragonie/sodium_compat": ">= 1"
/* ... */
}
}Applications should, conversely, specify the actual version that matters to them and their deployments.
This cryptography library has not been formally audited by an independent third party that specializes in cryptography or cryptanalysis.
If you require such an audit before you can use sodium_compat in your projects
and have the funds for such an audit, please open an issue or contact
security at paragonie dot com so we can help get the ball rolling.
However, sodium_compat has been adopted by high profile open source projects, such as Joomla! and Magento. Furthermore, sodium_compat was developed by Paragon Initiative Enterprises, a company that specializes in secure PHP development and PHP cryptography, and has been informally reviewed by many other security experts who also specialize in PHP.
If you'd like to learn more about the defensive security measures we've taken to prevent sodium_compat from being a source of vulnerability in your systems, please read Cryptographically Secure PHP Development.
If you're using Composer:
composer require paragonie/sodium_compatIf you're not using Composer, download a release tarball
(which should be signed with our GnuPG public key), extract
its contents, then include our autoload.php script in your project.
<?php
require_once "/path/to/sodium_compat/autoload.php";Since version 1.3.0, sodium_compat releases include a PHP Archive (.phar file) and associated GPG signature. First, download both files and verify them with our GPG public key, like so:
# Getting our public key from the keyserver:
gpg --fingerprint 7F52D5C61D1255C731362E826B97A1C2826404DA
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
echo -e "\033[33mDownloading PGP Public Key...\033[0m"
gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 7F52D5C61D1255C731362E826B97A1C2826404DA
# Security <[email protected]>
gpg --fingerprint 7F52D5C61D1255C731362E826B97A1C2826404DA
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
echo -e "\033[31mCould not download PGP public key for verification\033[0m"
exit 1
fi
fi
# Verifying the PHP Archive
gpg --verify sodium-compat.phar.sig sodium-compat.pharNow, simply include this .phar file in your application.
<?php
require_once "/path/to/sodium-compat.phar";Commercial support for libsodium is available from multiple vendors. If you need help using sodium_compat in one of your projects, contact Paragon Initiative Enterprises.
Non-commercial report will be facilitated through Github issues. We offer no guarantees of our availability to resolve questions about integrating sodium_compat into third-party software for free, but will strive to fix any bugs (security-related or otherwise) in our library.
If your company uses this library in their products or services, you may be interested in purchasing a support contract from Paragon Initiative Enterprises.
As per the second vote on the libsodium RFC,
PHP 7.2 uses sodium_* instead of \Sodium\*.
<?php
require_once "/path/to/sodium_compat/autoload.php";
$alice_kp = sodium_crypto_sign_keypair();
$alice_sk = sodium_crypto_sign_secretkey($alice_kp);
$alice_pk = sodium_crypto_sign_publickey($alice_kp);
$message = 'This is a test message.';
$signature = sodium_crypto_sign_detached($message, $alice_sk);
if (sodium_crypto_sign_verify_detached($signature, $message, $alice_pk)) {
echo 'OK', PHP_EOL;
} else {
throw new Exception('Invalid signature');
}If your users are on PHP < 5.3, or you want to write code that will work
whether or not the PECL extension is available, you'll want to use the
ParagonIE_Sodium_Compat class for most of your libsodium needs.
The above example, written for general use:
<?php
require_once "/path/to/sodium_compat/autoload.php";
$alice_kp = ParagonIE_Sodium_Compat::crypto_sign_keypair();
$alice_sk = ParagonIE_Sodium_Compat::crypto_sign_secretkey($alice_kp);
$alice_pk = ParagonIE_Sodium_Compat::crypto_sign_publickey($alice_kp);
$message = 'This is a test message.';
$signature = ParagonIE_Sodium_Compat::crypto_sign_detached($message, $alice_sk);
if (ParagonIE_Sodium_Compat::crypto_sign_verify_detached($signature, $message, $alice_pk)) {
echo 'OK', PHP_EOL;
} else {
throw new Exception('Invalid signature');
}Generally: If you replace sodium_ with ParagonIE_Sodium_Compat::, any
code already written for the libsodium PHP extension should work with our
polyfill without additional code changes.
Since this doesn't require a namespace, this API is exposed on PHP 5.2.
Since version 0.7.0, we have our own namespaced API (ParagonIE\Sodium\*) to allow brevity
in software that uses PHP 5.3+. This is useful if you want to use our file cryptography
features without writing ParagonIE_Sodium_File every time. This is not exposed on PHP < 5.3,
so if your project supports PHP < 5.3, use the underscore method instead.
To learn how to use Libsodium, read Using Libsodium in PHP Projects.
There are three ways to make it fast:
- Use a newer version of PHP (at least 7.2).
- Install the libsodium PHP extension from PECL.
- Only if the previous two options are not available for you:
- Verify that the processor you're using actually implements constant-time multiplication. Sodium_compat does, but it must trade some speed in order to attain cross-platform security.
- Only if you are 100% certain that your processor is safe, you can set
ParagonIE_Sodium_Compat::$fastMult = true;without harming the security of your cryptography keys. If your processor isn't safe, then decide whether you want speed or security because you can't have both.
Since version 1.8, you can use the polyfill_is_fast() static method to
determine if sodium_compat will be slow at runtime.
<?php
if (ParagonIE_Sodium_Compat::polyfill_is_fast()) {
// Use libsodium now
$process->execute();
} else {
// Defer to a cron job or other sort of asynchronous process
$process->enqueue();
}First, you'll want to read the Libsodium Quick Reference. It aims to answer, "Which function should I use for [common problem]?".
If you don't find the answers in the Quick Reference page, check out Using Libsodium in PHP Projects.
Finally, the official libsodium documentation (which was written for the C library, not the PHP library) also contains a lot of insightful technical information you may find helpful.
Recommended reading: Libsodium Quick Reference
- Mainline NaCl Features
crypto_auth()crypto_auth_verify()crypto_box()crypto_box_open()crypto_scalarmult()crypto_secretbox()crypto_secretbox_open()crypto_sign()crypto_sign_open()
- PECL Libsodium Features
crypto_aead_aegis128l_encrypt()crypto_aead_aegis128l_decrypt()crypto_aead_aegis256_encrypt()crypto_aead_aegis256_decrypt()crypto_aead_aes256gcm_encrypt()crypto_aead_aes256gcm_decrypt()crypto_aead_chacha20poly1305_encrypt()crypto_aead_chacha20poly1305_decrypt()crypto_aead_chacha20poly1305_ietf_encrypt()crypto_aead_chacha20poly1305_ietf_decrypt()crypto_aead_xchacha20poly1305_ietf_encrypt()crypto_aead_xchacha20poly1305_ietf_decrypt()crypto_box_xchacha20poly1305()crypto_box_xchacha20poly1305_open()crypto_box_seal()crypto_box_seal_open()crypto_generichash()crypto_generichash_init()crypto_generichash_update()crypto_generichash_final()crypto_kx()crypto_secretbox_xchacha20poly1305()crypto_secretbox_xchacha20poly1305_open()crypto_shorthash()crypto_sign_detached()crypto_sign_ed25519_pk_to_curve25519()crypto_sign_ed25519_sk_to_curve25519()crypto_sign_verify_detached()- For advanced users only:
crypto_core_ristretto255_add()crypto_core_ristretto255_from_hash()crypto_core_ristretto255_is_valid_point()crypto_core_ristretto255_random()crypto_core_ristretto255_scalar_add()crypto_core_ristretto255_scalar_complement()crypto_core_ristretto255_scalar_invert()crypto_core_ristretto255_scalar_mul()crypto_core_ristretto255_scalar_negate()crypto_core_ristretto255_scalar_random()crypto_core_ristretto255_scalar_reduce()crypto_core_ristretto255_scalar_sub()crypto_core_ristretto255_sub()crypto_scalarmult_ristretto255_base()crypto_scalarmult_ristretto255()crypto_stream()crypto_stream_keygen()crypto_stream_xor()crypto_stream_xchacha20()crypto_stream_xchacha20_keygen()crypto_stream_xchacha20_xor()crypto_stream_xchacha20_xor_ic()
- Other utilities (e.g.
crypto_*_keypair())add()base642bin()bin2base64()bin2hex()hex2bin()crypto_kdf_derive_from_key()crypto_kx_client_session_keys()crypto_kx_server_session_keys()crypto_secretstream_xchacha20poly1305_init_push()crypto_secretstream_xchacha20poly1305_push()crypto_secretstream_xchacha20poly1305_init_pull()crypto_secretstream_xchacha20poly1305_pull()crypto_secretstream_xchacha20poly1305_rekey()pad()unpad()
- X25519 - Elliptic Curve Diffie Hellman over Curve25519
- Ed25519 - Edwards curve Digital Signature Algorithm over Curve25519
- Xsalsa20 - Extended-nonce Salsa20 stream cipher
- ChaCha20 - Stream cipher
- Xchacha20 - Extended-nonce ChaCha20 stream cipher
- Poly1305 - Polynomial Evaluation Message Authentication Code modulo 2^130 - 5
- BLAKE2b - Cryptographic Hash Function
- SipHash-2-4 - Fast hash, but not collision-resistant; ideal for hash tables.
-
sodium_memzero()- Although we expose this API endpoint, we can't reliably zero buffers from PHP.If you have the PHP extension installed, sodium_compat will use the native implementation to zero out the string provided. Otherwise it will throw a
SodiumException. -
sodium_crypto_pwhash()- It's not feasible to polyfill scrypt or Argon2 into PHP and get reasonable performance. Users would feel motivated to select parameters that downgrade security to avoid denial of service (DoS) attacks.The only winning move is not to play.
If ext/sodium or ext/libsodium is installed, these API methods will fallthrough to the extension. Otherwise, our polyfill library will throw a
SodiumException.To detect support for Argon2i at runtime, use
ParagonIE_Sodium_Compat::crypto_pwhash_is_available(), which returns a boolean value (TRUEorFALSE). -
Libsodium's HKDF API (
crypto_kdf_hkdf_*()) is not included because PHP has its own HMAC features amd it was not deemed necessary.
For sodium_compat users and that utilize PHPCompatibility
in their CI process, there is now a custom ruleset available which can be used
to prevent false positives being thrown by PHPCompatibility for the native
PHP functionality being polyfilled by this repo.
You can find the repo for the PHPCompatibilityParagonieSodiumCompat ruleset
here on Github
and on Packagist.