RexOps / RexOps/Rex

Offer stronger digest algorithm(s) than MD5

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#721 4 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Dominant language
Perl
Stars
737
Forks
214
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

Description

Digest::MD5 is available as a core module on all supported perl versions, which makes it a convenient choice for checksumming e.g. to detect changes before/after file operations. However it would be very nice to offer other, stronger algorithms to do the same. SHA2 and SHA3 comes into mind particularly.

At first glance this would also mean having some "smart default chooser" based on the perl version used and/or module availability in general, plus configuration options to enforce using a specific algorithm (and probably failing it not posssible, or at least falling back to other methods, but notifying the user about the fact).

credits: topic originally brought up by stephanj on IRC

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First steps

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Research direction

Start by locating the repository's uses of Digest::MD5 and inspect how checksums are used around file operations. Then determine the supported SHA2 or SHA3 options, configuration needs, fallback behavior, and how success or failure should be tested; the issue does not name specific files or tests.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
perl
Domain
security
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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