In 2016, Proton Mail became the maintainer of OpenPGP.js, the world’s most widely used Javascript email encryption library. Since then we have updated the library with new features, such as streaming encryption; assisted developers(new window) to adopt the library in their own applications; and submitted the library to independent security audits.
Today, we are happy to announce another open source project that will be maintained by Proton Mail: GopenPGP(new window). This project consists of a high-level OpenPGP library, as well as a fork of the golang crypto library. We started this project to make it easier for mobile and desktop developers to use OpenPGP encryption in their apps.
We’re excited about GopenPGP for two main reasons. First, we believe more people should have access to encrypted communications, and an easy-to-use encryption library for mobile developers is an important step forward in that mission. Second, the release of GopenPGP paves the way to open sourcing the Proton Mail mobile and desktop apps, which has been a high priority for our team and for our users (our web app has already been open sourced since 2015).
What is GopenPGP?
GopenPGP (a portmanteau of Go and OpenPGP) is a high-level OpenPGP library(new window) that we have developed for use in our own Android and iOS(new window), Bridge(new window), and Import-Export apps, as well as a fork of the golang crypto library(new window), which the high-level library is built on.
The GopenPGP library makes it easy to perform simple operations, such as encrypt, decrypt, sign and verify messages, manage keys, etc., without having to deal with complicated cryptographic concepts. This high-level interface is compatible with go-mobile, a popular tool for building mobile apps written in Go.
Meanwhile, our fork contains a number of new features, bug fixes, and security improvements. It supports elliptic curve cryptography, providing more efficient and secure encryption on mobile devices. We’re working with the maintainers of the golang OpenPGP library to contribute these changes back.
Both of these libraries have been audited by SEC Consult(new window) and will always be available from our new web portal at gopenpgp.org and on Github(new window). GopenPGP is a free and open source software released under the MIT license.
GopenPGP roadmap
Over the last few weeks, we have been in discussions with the maintainers of the golang OpenPGP library about including our improvements there. Either way, we will continue to maintain our fork and the GopenPGP wrapper library on gopenpgp.org.
We invite the developer community to join us and help us to make GopenPGP as successful as OpenPGP.js has been. Already, millions of end users rely on GopenPGP for secure mobile communications via the Proton Mail apps. Our mission is to help more developers start encrypting and spread access to online privacy.
We invite your feedback, contributions, and questions at https://github.com/ProtonMail/gopenpgp(new window) and https://github.com/ProtonMail/crypto(new window).
Best Regards,
The Proton Mail Team
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