[Announce] Libgcrypt 1.4.0 (stable) released

[Werner Koch]

Hello! 

We are pleased to announce the availability of Libgcrypt 1.4.0.  This is
the new stable version of Libgcrypt and upward compatible with the 1.2
series.

The 1.2 series will enter end of life state in 2 years on 2009-12-31.

Libgcrypt is a general purpose library of cryptographic building blocks.
It is originally based on code used by GnuPG.  It does not provide any
implementation of OpenPGP or other protocols.  Thorough understanding of
applied cryptography is required to use Libgcrypt.


Noteworthy changes between 1.2.x and 1.4.0 are:

 * Support for SHA-224 and HMAC using SHA-384 and SHA-512.

 * Support for the SEED cipher.

 * Support for the Camellia cipher. 

 * Support for OFB encryption mode.

 * Support for DSA2.

 * Support for Microsoft Windows.

 * The entire library is now under the LGPLv2+. The helper programs
   and the manual are under the GPLv2+.  Kudos to Peter Gutmann for
   giving permissions to relicense the rndw32 and rndunix modules.

 * The visibility attribute is now used if supported by the toolchain.

 * The ACE engine of VIA processors is now used for AES-128.

 * Changed the way the RNG gets initialized.  This allows to keep it
   uninitialized as long as no random numbers are used.

 * Updated the entropy gatherer for W32.

 * Made the RNG immune against fork without exec.

 * Reading and writing the random seed file is now protected by a
   fcntl style file lock on systems that provide this function.

 * gcry_mpi_rshift does not anymore truncate the shift count.

 * Reserved algorithm ranges for use by applications.

 * The new function gcry_md_debug should be used instead of the
   gcry_md_start_debug and gcry_md_stop_debug macros.

 * Non executable stack support is now used by default on systems
   supporting it.

 * Assembler support for the AMD64 architecture.

 * New configure option --enable-mpi-path for optimized builds.

 * Fixed a bug in the detection of symbol prefixes which inhibited the
   build of optimized assembler code on certain systems.

 * New control code GCRYCTL_PRINT_CONFIG to print the build
   configuration.

 * Experimental support for ECDSA; should only be used for testing.

 * New configure option --enable-random-daemon to support a system
   wide random daemon.  The daemon code is experimental and not yet
   very well working.  It will eventually allow to keep a global
   random pool for the sake of short living processes.

 * Minor changes to some function declarations.  Buffer arguments are
   now typed as void pointer.  This should not affect any compilation.
   Fixed two bugs in return values and clarified documentation.

 * Interface changes relative to the 1.2.0 release:
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   gcry_fast_random_pol       NEW.
   gcry_md_debug              NEW.
   gcry_sexp_nth_string       NEW.
   GCRY_MD_SHA224             NEW.
   GCRY_PK_USAGE_CERT         NEW.
   GCRY_PK_USAGE_AUTH         NEW.
   GCRY_PK_USAGE_UNKN         NEW.
   GCRY_PK_ECDSA              NEW.
   GCRY_CIPHER_SEED           NEW.
   GCRY_CIPHER_CAMELLIA128    NEW.
   GCRY_CIPHER_CAMELLIA192    NEW.
   GCRY_CIPHER_CAMELLIA256    NEW.
   GCRYCTL_FAKED_RANDOM_P     NEW. 
   GCRYCTL_PRINT_CONFIG       NEW.
   GCRYCTL_SET_RNDEGD_SOCKET  NEW.
   gcry_mpi_scan           CHANGED: Argument BUFFER is now void*.
   gcry_pk_algo_name       CHANGED: Returns "?" instead of NULL.
   gcry_cipher_algo_name   CHANGED: Returns "?" instead of "".
   gcry_pk_spec_t          CHANGED: Element ALIASES is now const ptr.
   gcry_md_write_t         CHANGED: Argument BUF is now a const void*.
   gcry_md_ctl             CHANGED: Argument BUFFER is now void*.
   gcry_cipher_encrypt     CHANGED: Arguments IN and OUT are now void*.
   gcry_cipher_decrypt     CHANGED: Arguments IN and OUT are now void*.
   gcry_sexp_sprint        CHANGED: Argument BUFFER is now void*.
   gcry_create_nonce       CHANGED: Argument BUFFER is now void*.
   gcry_randomize          CHANGED: Argument BUFFER is now void*.
   gcry_cipher_register    CHANGED: Argument ALGORITHM_ID is now int*.
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  

Source code is hosted at the GnuPG FTP server and its mirrors as
listed at http://www.gnupg.org/download/mirrors.html .  On the primary
server the source file and its digital signatures is:

 ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/libgcrypt/libgcrypt-1.4.0.tar.bz2 (942k)
 ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/libgcrypt/libgcrypt-1.4.0.tar.bz2.sig

This file is bzip2 compressed.  A gzip compressed version is also
available:

 ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/libgcrypt/libgcrypt-1.4.0.tar.gz (1176k)
 ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/libgcrypt/libgcrypt-1.4.0.tar.gz.sig

The SHA-1 checksums are:

cd1b52e8ecfa361737c6f130ed2f1d850e312c16  libgcrypt-1.4.0.tar.bz2
69183b7100b60da8eb1648f49836a611454541bb  libgcrypt-1.4.0.tar.gz

For help on developing with Libgcrypt you should read the included
manual and optional ask on the gcrypt-devel mailing list [1].

Improving Libgcrypt is costly, but you can help!  We are looking for
organizations that find Libgcrypt useful and wish to contribute back.
You can contribute by reporting bugs, improve the software [2], or by
donating money.

Commercial support contracts for Libgcrypt are available [3], and they
help finance continued maintenance.  g10 Code GmbH, a Duesseldorf
based company, is currently funding Libgcrypt development.  We are
always looking for interesting development projects.

Many thanks to all who contributed to Libgcrypt development, be it bug
fixes, code, documentation, testing or helping users.

Happy hacking,

  Werner


[1] See http://www.gnupg.org/documentation/mailing-lists.html .
[2] Note that copyright assignments to the FSF are required.
[3] See the service directory at http://www.gnupg.org/service.html .

-- 
Die Gedanken sind frei.  Auschnahme regelt ein Bundeschgesetz.
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