PHP Mcrypt: How many people use it?

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jack5100nv
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PHP Mcrypt: How many people use it?

Post by jack5100nv »

I am interested in encrypting some text using PHP. I am currently looking at MCrypt Rijndael 256. Example: http://www.w3courses.com/index.php?suba ... isplay=PHP

I read somewhat about Mcrpyt and found that Mcrypt does not come with PHP, it needs to be installed separately. I am developing a script which i want to destribute to other users. I do not want my script to depend on Mcrypt if it is not widely used. Does anyone know what percentage of Apache servers have Mcrypt? It it safe to use or will my users have problems because of Mcrypt?
scriptah
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Re: PHP Mcrypt: How many people use it?

Post by scriptah »

I don't think you'll encounter much of a problem.
Even though mcrypt its not a default module, its widely used, and if your software does rely on it, you shouldn't restrict yourself in not using it.

Whoever wants to get your software to work, wouldn't find it difficult to install/enable mcrypt module.
I do manage a large amount of servers, and about a third of them use the mcrypt extension.

If you don't really use most of the features mcrypt supply, you can find a pure php implementation of the encryption algorithm you're looking to use (in this case, I wouldn't rely too much on the correctness of the implementation unless you're able to fully understand what goes behind the code you find on the internet).
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RobertGonzalez
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Re: PHP Mcrypt: How many people use it?

Post by RobertGonzalez »

The extension ships with PHP but it is not enabled by default.

I tested it out for a while but ended up using one way hashes instead of encryption. Still, it is a very useful tool and is dead easy to use.
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