cipherlib

A pure-Dart symmetric cryptography library with modern stream ciphers, AEAD support, and a broad AES mode set.

cipherlib provides AES (multiple modes), ChaCha20/XChaCha20, Salsa20/XSalsa20, XOR, and Poly1305-based AEAD variants. The only runtime dependency is hashlib.

At a glance

• Pure Dart implementation with no native bindings.
• One-shot and stream APIs for common cipher workflows.
• Broad AES mode coverage, including GCM and XTS.
• Modern AEAD options: ChaCha20-Poly1305, XChaCha20-Poly1305, Salsa20-Poly1305, XSalsa20-Poly1305.
• Cross-library comparisons and benchmark data included.

Features

Ciphers	Public class and methods	Source
AES	AES	NIST.FIPS.197
XOR	XOR, xor, xorStream	Wikipedia
ChaCha20	ChaCha20, chacha20, chacha20Stream	RFC-8439
ChaCha20/Poly1305	ChaCha20Poly1305, chacha20poly1305	RFC-8439
XChaCha20	XChaCha20, xchacha20, xchacha20Stream	libsodium
XChaCha20/Poly1305	XChaCha20Poly1305, xchacha20poly1305	libsodium
Salsa20	Salsa20, salsa20, salsa20Stream	Snuffle-2005
Salsa20/Poly1305	Salsa20Poly1305, salsa20poly1305	Snuffle-2005
XSalsa20	XSalsa20, xsalsa20, xsalsa20Stream	libsodium
XSalsa20/Poly1305	XSalsa20Poly1305, xsalsa20poly1305	libsodium

Available modes for AES:

• ECB : Electronic Codeblock
• CBC : Cipher Block Chaining
• CTR : Counter
• GCM : Galois/Counter Mode
• CFB : Cipher Feedback
• OFB : Output Feedback
• IGE : Infinite Garble Extension
• PCBC : Propagating Cipher Block Chaining
• XTS : XEX (XOR-Encrypt-XOR) Tweakable Block Cipher with Ciphertext Stealing

Getting started

The following import will give you access to all of the algorithms in this package.

import 'package:cipherlib/cipherlib.dart';

API docs: cipherlib library reference

Usage

Start with the full runnable examples in example folder.

import 'package:cipherlib/cipherlib.dart';
import 'package:cipherlib/codecs.dart';
import 'package:cipherlib/random.dart';

void main() {
  print('----- AES -----');
  {
    var plain = 'A not very secret message';
    var key = randomBytes(32);
    var iv = randomBytes(16);
    print('  Text: $plain');
    print('   Key: ${toHex(key)}');
    print(' Nonce: ${toHex(iv)}');
    // different modes
    print('  ECB: ${toHex(AES(key).ecb().encryptString(plain))}');
    print('  CBC: ${toHex(AES(key).cbc(iv).encryptString(plain))}');
    print('  CTR: ${toHex(AES(key).ctr(iv).encryptString(plain))}');
    print('  GCM: ${toHex(AES(key).gcm(iv).encryptString(plain))}');
    print('  CFB: ${toHex(AES(key).cfb(iv).encryptString(plain))}');
    print('  OFB: ${toHex(AES(key).ofb(iv).encryptString(plain))}');
    print('  XTS: ${toHex(AES(key).xts(iv).encryptString(plain))}');
    print('  IGE: ${toHex(AES(key).ige(iv).encryptString(plain))}');
    print(' PCBC: ${toHex(AES(key).pcbc(iv).encryptString(plain))}');
  }
  print('');

  print('----- XChaCha20 -----');
  {
    var text = "Hide me!";
    var key = randomBytes(32);
    var nonce = randomBytes(24);
    // encrypt and sign
    var cipher = xchacha20poly1305(
      toUtf8(text),
      key,
      nonce: nonce,
    );
    // verify and decrypt
    var plain = xchacha20poly1305(
      cipher.data,
      key,
      nonce: nonce,
      mac: cipher.tag.bytes,
    );
    print('  Text: $text');
    print('   Key: ${toHex(key)}');
    print(' Nonce: ${toHex(nonce)}');
    print('Cipher: ${toHex(cipher.data)}');
    print('   Tag: ${cipher.tag.hex()}');
    print(' Plain: ${fromUtf8(plain.data)}');
  }
  print('');
}

Benchmarks

Libraries:

• Cipherlib : https://pub.dev/packages/cipherlib
• PointyCastle : https://pub.dev/packages/pointycastle
• Cryptography : https://pub.dev/packages/cryptography

With 1MB message:

Algorithms	cipherlib	PointyCastle	cryptography
XOR	9.1 Gbps
Salsa20	2.16 Gbps	356 Mbps 6.07x slow
Salsa20/Poly1305	2.16 Gbps
XSalsa20	2.16 Gbps
XSalsa20/Poly1305	2.15 Gbps
ChaCha20	2.01 Gbps	359 Mbps 5.61x slow
ChaCha20/Poly1305	1.21 Gbps	279 Mbps 4.33x slow	283 Mbps 4.26x slow
XChaCha20	2.01 Gbps
XChaCha20/Poly1305	1.21 Gbps
AES-128/CBC	1.47 Gbps	234 Mbps 6.29x slow	1.41 Gbps 1.05x slow
AES-192/CBC	1.27 Gbps	203 Mbps 6.28x slow	1.22 Gbps 1.05x slow
AES-256/CBC	1.12 Gbps	181 Mbps 6.22x slow	1.07 Gbps 1.05x slow
AES-128/CFB	646 Mbps	4.04 Mbps 159.66x slow
AES-192/CFB	568 Mbps	4.09 Mbps 138.91x slow
AES-256/CFB	506 Mbps	4.06 Mbps 124.59x slow
AES-128/CTR	1.55 Gbps	223 Mbps 6.96x slow	746 Mbps 2.08x slow
AES-192/CTR	1.34 Gbps	195 Mbps 6.84x slow	690 Mbps 1.94x slow
AES-256/CTR	1.17 Gbps	174 Mbps 6.73x slow	642 Mbps 1.82x slow
AES-128/ECB	1.5 Gbps	250 Mbps 6.03x slow
AES-192/ECB	1.29 Gbps	215 Mbps 5.99x slow
AES-256/ECB	1.12 Gbps	189 Mbps 5.96x slow
AES-128/GCM	232 Mbps	12.7 Mbps 18.27x slow	154 Mbps 1.51x slow
AES-192/GCM	226 Mbps	12.61 Mbps 17.95x slow	154 Mbps 1.46x slow
AES-256/GCM	221 Mbps	12.49 Mbps 17.7x slow	146 Mbps 1.51x slow
AES-128/IGE	1.43 Gbps	212 Mbps 6.74x slow
AES-192/IGE	1.24 Gbps	187 Mbps 6.63x slow
AES-256/IGE	1.09 Gbps	166 Mbps 6.55x slow
AES-128/OFB	641 Mbps	122 Mbps 5.25x slow
AES-192/OFB	560 Mbps	106 Mbps 5.31x slow
AES-256/OFB	503 Mbps	93.16 Mbps 5.4x slow
AES-128/PCBC	1.47 Gbps
AES-192/PCBC	1.27 Gbps
AES-256/PCBC	1.12 Gbps
AES-128/XTS	1.42 Gbps
AES-192/XTS	1.24 Gbps
AES-256/XTS	1.1 Gbps

With 1KB message:

Algorithms	cipherlib	PointyCastle	cryptography
XOR	9.22 Gbps
Salsa20	2.15 Gbps	348 Mbps 6.17x slow
Salsa20/Poly1305	2.03 Gbps
XSalsa20	2.01 Gbps
XSalsa20/Poly1305	1.9 Gbps
ChaCha20	2 Gbps	353 Mbps 5.68x slow
ChaCha20/Poly1305	1.13 Gbps	258 Mbps 4.38x slow	261 Mbps 4.33x slow
XChaCha20	1.88 Gbps
XChaCha20/Poly1305	1.09 Gbps
AES-128/CBC	1.34 Gbps	206 Mbps 6.51x slow	1.02 Gbps 1.31x slow
AES-192/CBC	1.17 Gbps	180 Mbps 6.49x slow	893 Mbps 1.31x slow
AES-256/CBC	1.03 Gbps	160 Mbps 6.41x slow	785 Mbps 1.31x slow
AES-128/CFB	635 Mbps	109 Mbps 5.85x slow
AES-192/CFB	558 Mbps	94.94 Mbps 5.88x slow
AES-256/CFB	498 Mbps	84.55 Mbps 5.89x slow
AES-128/CTR	1.45 Gbps	201 Mbps 7.21x slow	594 Mbps 2.44x slow
AES-192/CTR	1.25 Gbps	175 Mbps 7.15x slow	556 Mbps 2.25x slow
AES-256/CTR	1.09 Gbps	157 Mbps 6.95x slow	517 Mbps 2.12x slow
AES-128/ECB	1.36 Gbps	219 Mbps 6.18x slow
AES-192/ECB	1.18 Gbps	190 Mbps 6.2x slow
AES-256/ECB	1.04 Gbps	168 Mbps 6.17x slow
AES-128/GCM	364 Mbps	15.14 Mbps 24.06x slow	248 Mbps 1.47x slow
AES-192/GCM	352 Mbps	14.51 Mbps 24.27x slow	242 Mbps 1.45x slow
AES-256/GCM	335 Mbps	14.51 Mbps 23.06x slow	227 Mbps 1.47x slow
AES-128/IGE	1.31 Gbps	189 Mbps 6.94x slow
AES-192/IGE	1.15 Gbps	166 Mbps 6.89x slow
AES-256/IGE	1.01 Gbps	150 Mbps 6.71x slow
AES-128/OFB	630 Mbps	115 Mbps 5.48x slow
AES-192/OFB	555 Mbps	99.45 Mbps 5.58x slow
AES-256/OFB	494 Mbps	88.28 Mbps 5.59x slow
AES-128/PCBC	1.35 Gbps
AES-192/PCBC	1.18 Gbps
AES-256/PCBC	1.04 Gbps
AES-128/XTS	1.29 Gbps
AES-192/XTS	1.13 Gbps
AES-256/XTS	994 Mbps

With 32B message:

Algorithms	cipherlib	PointyCastle	cryptography
XOR	7.99 Gbps
Salsa20	1.01 Gbps	135 Mbps 7.49x slow
Salsa20/Poly1305	541 Mbps
XSalsa20	513 Mbps
XSalsa20/Poly1305	352 Mbps
ChaCha20	941 Mbps	135 Mbps 6.95x slow
ChaCha20/Poly1305	322 Mbps	116 Mbps 2.79x slow	67.32 Mbps 4.79x slow
XChaCha20	489 Mbps
XChaCha20/Poly1305	243 Mbps
AES-128/CBC	334 Mbps	44.76 Mbps 7.47x slow	107 Mbps 3.13x slow
AES-192/CBC	307 Mbps	39.74 Mbps 7.72x slow	96.84 Mbps 3.17x slow
AES-256/CBC	267 Mbps	36.82 Mbps 7.25x slow	87.24 Mbps 3.06x slow
AES-128/CFB	416 Mbps	42.35 Mbps 9.83x slow
AES-192/CFB	390 Mbps	36.98 Mbps 10.55x slow
AES-256/CFB	334 Mbps	34.58 Mbps 9.67x slow
AES-128/CTR	456 Mbps	48.93 Mbps 9.32x slow	78.98 Mbps 5.77x slow
AES-192/CTR	419 Mbps	43.64 Mbps 9.6x slow	79.12 Mbps 5.3x slow
AES-256/CTR	358 Mbps	40.93 Mbps 8.74x slow	75.85 Mbps 4.72x slow
AES-128/ECB	356 Mbps	47.47 Mbps 7.5x slow
AES-192/ECB	324 Mbps	41.55 Mbps 7.81x slow
AES-256/ECB	281 Mbps	38.22 Mbps 7.36x slow
AES-128/GCM	64.09 Mbps	5.03 Mbps 12.75x slow	50.56 Mbps 1.27x slow
AES-192/GCM	62.52 Mbps	4.9 Mbps 12.75x slow	48.56 Mbps 1.29x slow
AES-256/GCM	60.84 Mbps	4.8 Mbps 12.66x slow	45.88 Mbps 1.33x slow
AES-128/IGE	363 Mbps	43.78 Mbps 8.3x slow
AES-192/IGE	331 Mbps	38.58 Mbps 8.59x slow
AES-256/IGE	284 Mbps	36.19 Mbps 7.85x slow
AES-128/OFB	428 Mbps	43.09 Mbps 9.94x slow
AES-192/OFB	406 Mbps	37.56 Mbps 10.8x slow
AES-256/OFB	345 Mbps	34.85 Mbps 9.91x slow
AES-128/PCBC	386 Mbps
AES-192/PCBC	354 Mbps
AES-256/PCBC	300 Mbps
AES-128/XTS	329 Mbps
AES-192/XTS	306 Mbps
AES-256/XTS	254 Mbps

All benchmarks are done on 36GB Apple M3 Pro using compiled exe

Dart SDK version: 3.8.1 (stable) (Wed May 28 00:47:25 2025 -0700) on "macos_arm64"