Best Crypt:: for Certain Situations

[r.joseph]

Hey all! I am writing a quick program that is going to encypt sensitive client data (very sensitve) and store it in a text data file. My question is: on search.cpan.org, there is a multitude of Crypt:: modules that implement many different encyption algorithims, all of which I assume are very useful. But I need to know which is best for my situation: encrypting what could end up being large amounts of text which can quickly and easily be decypted for display later on. Which module would my knowledgeable brethren recommend? Thanks a ton!

R.Joseph

[kschwab]

You didn't really give a lot of detail on your needs. Here's my take:

Since you are working with a client, and not a company-internal data exchange, this sounds like a job for public key encryption.

The de-facto standard for this (AFAIK) is GnuPG.

There are two modules on CPAN for GnuPG, GnuPG and GnuPG::Interface. Personally, I've used the former, and had good luck with it.

Update:Looks like there is another option: Crypt::GPG.

[r.joseph]

Sorry about that, I guess I didn't provide enough detail.

Here is what I am doing: The encrypted data file will be read by this program only, so I don't think I have a need for public key encryption. It is actually going to end up being a CGI program that allows the client to log in, enter some data, and retrieve this data later, all of which will be stored in this encypted data file.

Hope that helps a little more - thanks!

R.Joseph

Update: I have found that using Crypt::Blowfish for the encryption along with Crypt::CBC to allow me to encrypt large files without having to manually break them into 8-byte chunks work wonderfully. And it is fast, too!