Nacl makes it hard to screw up the constructions. It doesn't make it hard to make invalid assumptions about what a signed encrypted blob actually means.
+ makes it easy to add two numbers. It doesn't make it hard to make invalid assumptions about what adding two numbers together actually means.
Nacl is a good thing. But crypto is just a tool. It's not a magic wand. People have already built vulnerable systems by making bogus assumptions about what Nacl can do.
Re:Libsodium 1.0.0 released
by sarciszewski on Sunday September 28, 2014 @01:00AM
(#8378974)
That's a shame :(
Nacl was built to provide an API that is incredibly hard to screw up. That was one of djbs primary motivations. If you just need asymmetric encryption, or signing, or hashing, then it's the bees knees. These broad concepts aren't difficult to comprehend, and every developer should strive to understand and be able to use them. We shouldn't be encouraging people to be afraid... especially when things like dumb, plaintext username and password authentication is routinely implemented by developers without a second thought already.