Facebook Conceal Encryption For Android
Written by Mike James   
Monday, 03 February 2014

Why is Facebook offering Android programmers an encryption library? The reason isn't clear, but it is open source so there can't be anything lurking in there, can there?

facebooklogo

Facebook builds a lot of software and it open sources a pleasing amount of useful code. Conceal is a Java API targeting Android file encryption. It is designed to be efficient enough to be used on old Android devices with low memory and slower processors. 

Can you be sure that the crypto is done right?

The good news is that there is no need to check out Conceal from the start because it doesn't actually implement the cryptographics algorithms. Instead it makes use of OpenSSL.

This raises the question of why not just use OpenSS? The answer is that the entire OpenSSL library is sophisticated and flexible - and therefore big. Conceal ships with a subset of selected algorithms which makes it possible to fit everything into 85KB. 

Of course this means that you don't have the choice and flexibility that a full encryption library offers but, let's face it, you often don't need a choice - any encryption will satisfy the need.

 

concealed

Comparing Conceal to Bouncycastle, another lightweight encryption library, and native Android encryption.

 

In this case Conceal make use of AES-GCM and HMAC-SHA1 which are faster versions of the standard algorithms and not available as part of OpenSSL on older Android devices.

It also ships with a default keychain which stores the keys in SharedPreferences. In a real use of the library you would probably have to pay attention to implementing your own key management. 

What does Facebook use Conceal for?

"Facebook currently uses Conceal to store image files on SD cards. Conceal helps Facebook protect user's private data by encrypting data stored on SD cards while allowing users to move some of the data storage needs of the app to the expandable SD card."

Conceal is offered on a BSD licence, which means you can modify it, and the team are looking for help to expand and maintain the code. 

 

facebooklogo

 

More Information

Conceal

 

Related Articles

Prime Numbers And Primality Testing       

Stick Figure Guide To AES Encryption       

Public Key Cryptography Set To Fail In Five Years       

Public Key Encryption       

Android Security Hole More Stupid Error Than Defect

Open Source Homomorphic Cryptography

The Computer Science of Insecurity

Modifiable encryption

DARPA spends $20 million on homomorphic encryption

25 GPUs Crack Passwords In Minutes

Security by obscurity - a new theory

 

To be informed about new articles on I Programmer, install the I Programmer Toolbar, subscribe to the RSS feed, follow us on, Twitter, FacebookGoogle+ or Linkedin,  or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

 

raspberry pi books

 

Comments




or email your comment to: comments@i-programmer.info

 

Banner


Ibis 8 Adds Streaming
05/03/2024

Ibis 8.0 has been released with stream processing backends. The new release includes Apache Flink as a streaming backend, and RisingWave, a streaming database backend. There's also a new batch backend [ ... ]



Quantum Computers Really Are A One Trick Pony
17/03/2024

Google is offering $5 million if you can think up a use for a quantum computer. Wait, I thought quantum computers were the next big thing, a revolution! Surely we know what they can do?


More News

 

Last Updated ( Monday, 03 February 2014 )