sodium 1.2.3
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Dart bindings for libsodium, for the Dart-VM and for the Web
sodium #
Dart bindings for libsodium, supporting both the VM and JS without flutter dependencies.
Table of contents #
Table of contents generated with markdown-toc
Features #
- Provides a simple to use dart API for accessing libsodium
- High-Level API that is the same for both VM and JS
- Aims to provide access to all primary libsodium APIs. See API Status for more details.
- Provides native APIs for tighter integration, if necessary
API Status #
The following table shows the current status of the implementation. APIs that have already been ported get the ✔️, those that are planned but not there yet have 🚧. If you see an ❌, it means that the API is not available on that platform and thus cannot be implemented. APIs that are marked with ❔ are still up for debate, whether the will be added to the library Version 1.0.0, or maybe later. APIs that are not listet yet have either been forgotten or are not planned. If you find one you would like to have made available, please create an issue for it, and I will add it to the list.
API based on libsodium version: 1.0.18
Note: Memory Management in JS is limited to overwriting the memory with 0. All other Memory-APIs are only available in the VM.
Considered for the future
The following APIs I considered adding, but since they all appear below the "Advanced" Tab in the documentation, I decided against it for now. However, I have collected some here that I consider implementing in the future. If you need one of these or some other advanced API, please create an Issue and I will add it as soon as possible.
libsodium API | VM | JS | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|
crypto_onetimeauth | ❔ | ❔ | https://libsodium.gitbook.io/doc/advanced/poly1305 |
crypto_scalarmult | ❔ | ❔ | https://libsodium.gitbook.io/doc/advanced/scalar_multiplication |
crypto_hash_sha | ❔ | ❔ | https://libsodium.gitbook.io/doc/advanced/sha-2_hash_function |
crypto_auth_hmacsha | ❔ | ❔ | https://libsodium.gitbook.io/doc/advanced/hmac-sha2 |
Installation #
Simply add sodium
to your pubspec.yaml
and run pub get
(or flutter pub get
).
Usage #
The usage can be split into two parts. The first one is about loading the native libsodium into dart, the second one about using the API.
Loading libsodium #
How you load the library depends on whether you are running in the dart VM or as transpiled JS code.
Note: For flutter users, you should use the
sodium_libs package, as it provides
embedded (or compile time added) binaries for every flutter platform. This way
you can simply use the library without thinking about this part. You can check
the documentation of sodium_libs
to add it to your project and then continue
at Using the API.
VM - loading the dynamic library
In the dart VM, dart:ffi
is used as backend to load and interact with the
libsodium binary. So, all you need to do is load such a library and then pass
it to the sodium APIs. This generally looks like this:
// required imports
import 'dart:ffi';
import 'package:sodium/sodium.dart';
// load the dynamic library into dart
final libsodium = DynamicLibrary.open('/path/to/libsodium.XXX'); // or DynamicLibrary.process()
// initialize the sodium APIs
final sodium = await SodiumInit.init(libsodium);
The tricky part here is the path, aka '/path/to/libsodium.XXX'
. It depends on
the platform and how you intend to use the library. My recommendation is to
follow https://libsodium.gitbook.io/doc/installation to get the library binary
for your platform and then pass the correct path. If you are linking statically,
you can use DynamicLibrary.process()
(except on windows) instead of the path.
However, here are some tips on how to get the library for some platforms and how to load it there. For flutter users, you can simply add sodium_libs to your project, which takes care of this for you.
- Linux: Install
libsodium
via your system package manager. Then, you can load thelibsodium.so
from where the package manager put it. - Windows: Download the correct binary from https://download.libsodium.org/libsodium/releases/ and simply use the path where you placed the library.
- macOS: Use homebrew and run
brew install libsodium
- then locate the binary in the Cellar. It is typically something like/usr/local/Cellar/libsodium/<version>/lib/libsodium.dylib
. - Android: Clone the official sources and run the correct build script
located at https://github.com/jedisct1/libsodium/tree/master/dist-build. The
build will produce an
.so
file you can add to yourmain/src/jniLibs
folder. - iOS: Simply add the swift-sodium
package to your project. It will statically link your app with the library. You
can use
DynamicLibrary.process()
to access the symbols.
Transpiled JavaScript - loading the JavaScript code.
The correct setup depends on your JavaScript environment (i.e. browser, nodejs, ...) - however, the general way is the same:
// required imports
import 'package:sodium/sodium.dart';
final sodiumJS = // somehow load the sodium.js into dart
// initialize the sodium APIs
final sodium = await SodiumInit.init(sodiumJS);
The complex part is how to load the library into dart. Generally, you can refer to https://github.com/jedisct1/libsodium.js/#installation on how to load the library into your JS environment. However, since we are running JavaScript code, the setup is a little more complex. For flutter users, you can simply add sodium_libs to your project, which takes care of this for you.
The only platform I have tried so far is the browser. However, similar approches should work for all JS environments that you can run transpiled dart code in.
Loading sodium.js into the browser via dart.
The idea here is, that the dart code asynchronously loads the sodium.js
into
the browser and then acquires the result of loading it (As recommended in
https://github.com/jedisct1/libsodium.js/#usage-in-a-web-browser-via-a-callback
). The following code uses the package:js
to
interop with JavaScript and perform these steps. You can download the
sodium.js
file from here:
https://github.com/jedisct1/libsodium.js/tree/master/dist/browsers
// make the dart library JS-interoperable
@JS()
library interop;
// required imports
import 'package:js/js.dart';
import 'package:sodium/sodium.dart';
// declare a JavaScript type that will provide the callback for the loaded
// sodium JavaScript object.
@JS()
@anonymous
class SodiumBrowserInit {
external void Function(dynamic sodium) get onload;
external factory SodiumBrowserInit({void Function(dynamic sodium) onload});
}
Future<Sodium> loadSodiumInBrowser() async {
// create a completer that will wait for the library to be loaded
final completer = Completer<dynamic>();
// Set the global `sodium` property to our JS type, with the callback beeing
// redirected to the completer
setProperty(window, 'sodium', SodiumBrowserInit(
onload: allowInterop(completer.complete),
));
// Load the sodium.js into the page by appending a `<script>` element
final script = ScriptElement();
script
..type = 'text/javascript'
..async = true
..src = 'sodium.js'; // use the path where you put the file on your server
document.head!.append(script);
// await the completer
final dynamic sodiumJS = await completer.future;
// initialize the sodium APIs
return SodiumInit.init(sodiumJS);
Using the API #
Once you have acquired the Sodium
instance, usage is fairly straight forward.
The API mirrors the original native C api, splitting different categories of
methods into different classes for maintainability, which are all built up in
hierachical order starting at Sodium
. For example, if you wanted to use the
crypto_secretbox_easy
method from the C api, the eqivalent dart code would be:
final sodium = // load libsodium for your platform
// The message to be encrypted, converted to an unsigned char array.
final String message = 'my very secret message';
final Int8List messageChars = message.toCharArray();
final Uint8List messageBytes = messageChars.unsignedView();
// A randomly generated nonce
final nonce = sodium.randombytes.buf(
sodium.crypto.secretBox.nonceBytes,
);
// Generate a secret key
final SecureKey key = sodium.crypto.secretBox.keygen();
// Encrypt the data
final encryptedData = sodium.crypto.secretBox.easy(
message: messageBytes,
nonce: nonce,
key: key,
)
print(encryptedData);
// after you are done:
key.dispose();
The only main differences here are, that instead of raw pointers, the dart typed
lists are used. Also, instead of simply passing a byte array as the key, the
SecureKey
is used. It is a special class created for this library that wraps
native memory, thus providing a secure way of keeping your keys in memory. You
can either create such keys via the *_keygen
methods, or directly via
sodium.secure*
.
Note: Since these keys wrap native memory, it is mandatory that you dispose of them after you are done with a key, as otherwise they will leak memory.
Documentation #
The documentation is available at https://pub.dev/documentation/sodium/latest/. A full example can be found at https://pub.dev/packages/sodium/example.
The example runs both in the VM and on the web. To use it, see below.
As preparation for all platforms, run the following steps:
cd packages/sodium
dart pub get
dart run build_runner build
Example for the dart VM #
Locate/Download the libsodium binrary and run the example with it:
cd packages/sodium/example
dart pub get
dart run bin/main_native.dart '/path/to/libsodium.XXX'
Example in the browser #
First download sodium.js
into the examples web directory. Then simply run the
example:
dart pub global activate webdev
cd packages/sodium/example/web
curl -Lo sodium.js https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jedisct1/libsodium.js/master/dist/browsers/sodium.js
cd ..
dart pub get
dart pub global run webdev serve --release
# Visit http://127.0.0.1:8080 in the browser