PySkein 1.0 - The Skein Hash Algorithm for Python
PySkein is an extension module for Python, implementing the
Skein hash algorithm, one of the five finalists of the
NIST SHA-3 Competition. While ultimately not selected
as the winner of that competition, Skein may still be
useful as an alternative hash algorithm, offering flexible
hashing modes with various parameters. PySkein provides all
features of Skein through a Pythonic interface and is released
as free software under the GNU General Public License.
Its highlights are:
- Simple interface following the hash algorithms in the
Python standard library (like hashlib.sha1 or
hashlib.sha256)
- All features of the Skein specification
(flexible digest sizes, MAC generation, tree hashing, and
various others)
- High performance through optimized C implementation
(7.1 cycles/byte for sequential hashing and 4.2 cycles/byte
for tree hashing on two cores, measured on an Athlon 64 X2)
- Threefish, the tweakable block cipher used in Skein,
available for encryption and decryption on its own
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