BigIntegers and RSA in JavaScript
The jsbn
library is a pure JavaScript implementation
of arbitrary-precision integer arithmetic.
Demos
Source Code
The API for the jsbn
library closely resembles that of the
java.math.BigInteger
class in Java.
For example:
x = new BigInteger("abcd1234", 16);
y = new BigInteger("beef", 16);
z = x.mod(y);
alert(z.toString(16));
will print b60c
.
jsbn.js
- basic BigInteger implementation, just enough for RSA encryption and not much more.
jsbn2.js
- the rest of the library, including most public BigInteger
methods.
rsa.js
- implementation of RSA encryption, does not require jsbn2.js
.
rsa2.js
- rest of RSA algorithm, including decryption and keygen.
rng.js
- rudimentary entropy collector and RNG interface, requires a PRNG backend to define prng_newstate()
.
prng4.js
- ARC4-based PRNG backend for rng.js
, very small.
base64.js
- Base64 encoding and decoding routines.
Interoperability
The demo encrypts strings directly using PKCS#1 encryption-style
padding (type 2), which is currently the only supported format.
To show interoperability with a potential OpenSSL-based backend
that decrypts strings, try the following on any system with the
OpenSSL command line tool installed:
- Generate a new public/private keypair:
$ openssl genrsa -out key.pem
Generating RSA private key, 512 bit long modulus
..++++++++++++
..............++++++++++++
e is 65537 (0x10001)
$
- Extract the modulus from your key:
$ openssl rsa -in key.pem -noout -modulus
Modulus=DA3BB4C40E3C7E76F7DBDD8BF3DF0714CA39D3A0F7F9D7C2E4FEDF8C7B28C2875F7EB98950B22AE82D539C1ABC1AB550BA0B2D52E3EF7BDFB78A5E817D74BBDB
$
- Go to the RSA Encryption demo and paste the modulus value into the "Modulus (hex)" field at the bottom.
- Make sure the value in the "Public exponent" field is "10001",
or whatever value your public key uses.
- Type in a short string (e.g.
testing
) into the "Plaintext (string)" field and click on "encrypt".
The result should appear in the "Ciphertext" fields.
- Copy the base64 version of the ciphertext and paste it as the input of
the following command:
$ openssl base64 -d | openssl rsautl -inkey key.pem -decrypt
1JW24UMKntVhmmDilAYC1AjLxgiWHBzTzZsCVAejLjVri92abLHkSyLisVyAdYVr
fiS7FchtI9vupe9JF/m3Kg==
Hit ctrl-D or whatever your OS uses for end-of-file.
Your original plaintext should appear:
testing$
Performance
Since jsbn
is pure JavaScript, its performance will
depend on the hardware as well as the quality of the JavaScript
execution environment, but will be considerably slower than native
implementations in languages such as C/C++ or Java.
On a 1GHz Intel PC running Mozilla:
Key type | Encryption time | Decryption time |
RSA 512-bit (e=3) | 23ms | 1.0s |
RSA 512-bit (e=F4) | 86ms | 1.0s |
RSA 1024-bit (e=3) | 56ms | 6.0s |
RSA 1024-bit (e=F4) | 310ms | 6.0s |
On similar hardware, running IE6:
Key type | Encryption time | Decryption time |
RSA 512-bit (e=3) | 50ms | 0.7s |
RSA 512-bit (e=F4) | 60ms | 0.7s |
RSA 1024-bit (e=3) | 60ms | 4.3s |
RSA 1024-bit (e=F4) | 220ms | 4.3s |
Timing measurememnts, especially under IE, appear to have limited
precision for faster operations.
Licensing
jsbn
is released under a BSD license.
See LICENSE
for details.
Tom Wu
Last modified: Sat Dec 10 18:30:31 PST 2005