This document presents instructions and Python code snippets for common tasks in Tink.
The Tink Python implementation is a wrapper around the C++ implementation using pybind11. It is therefore necessary to compile the project before the Python implementation is ready to use.
Bazel is used to build and test Tink.
To build the Python implementation:
cd python bazel build ...
A setup script is provided which allows building a Python package using pip.
The setup script requires:
To build and install the Python package:
cd python pip3 install .
To run all tests, you can:
cd python bazel test ...
Tink provides customizable initialization, which allows for choosing specific implementations (identified by key types) of desired primitives. This initialization happens via registration of the implementations.
For example, if you want to use all standard implementations of all primitives in the current release of Tink, the initialization would look as follows:
import tink from tink import tink_config tink_config.register()
To use standard implementations of only one primitive, say AEAD:
import tink from tink import aead aead.register()
The registration of custom key managers can proceed directly via the core.Registry
class:
import tink from tink import core core.Registry.register_key_manager(CustomAeadKeyManager())
Each KeyManager
implementation provides a new_key_data(key_template)
method that generates new keys of the corresponding key type. However, to avoid accidental leakage of sensitive key material you should avoid mixing key(set) generation with key(set) usage in code.
To support the separation between these activities Tink package provides a command-line tool called Tinkey, which can be used for common key management tasks.
Still, if there is a need to generate a KeysetHandle with fresh key material directly in Python code, you can use tink.new_keyset_handle
:
import tink from tink import aead key_template = aead.aead_key_templates.AES128_EAX keyset_handle = tink.new_keyset_handle(key_template) # use the keyset...
where key_template
can be obtained from util classes corresponding to Tink primitives, e.g. mac_key_templates, aead_key_templates, or hybrid_key_templates.
To load encrypted keysets, use tink.read_keyset_handle
and an appropriate KeysetReader
, depending on the wire format of the stored keyset, for example a tink.BinaryKeysetReader
or a tink.JsonKeysetReader
.
import tink json_encrypted_keyset = ... reader = tink.JsonKeysetReader(json_encrypted_keyset) keyset_handle = tink.read_keyset_handle(reader, master_key_aead)
To load cleartext keysets, use cleartext_keyset_handle
and an appropriate KeysetReader
.
import tink from tink import cleartext_keyset_handle json_keyset = ... reader = tink.JsonKeysetReader(json_keyset) keyset_handle = cleartext_keyset_handle.read(reader)
Primitives represent cryptographic operations offered by Tink, hence they form the core of the Tink API. A primitive is just an interface that specifies what operations are offered by the primitive. A primitive can have multiple implementations, and you choose a desired implementation by using a key of corresponding type (see this section for further details).
Tink for Python supports the same primitives as Tink for C++. A list of primitives and their implementations currently supported by Tink in C++ can be found here.
You obtain a primitive by calling the method primitive
of the KeysetHandle
.
You can obtain and use an AEAD (Authenticated Encryption with Associated Data) primitive to encrypt or decrypt data:
# 1. Get a handle to the key material. keyset_handle = ... # 2. Get the primitive. aead_primitive = keyset_handle.primitive(aead.Aead) # 3. Use the primitive. ciphertext = aead_primitive.encrypt(plaintext, associated data)
Via the AEAD interface, Tink supports envelope encryption.
For example, you can perform envelope encryption with a Google Cloud KMS key at gcp-kms://projects/tink-examples/locations/global/keyRings/foo/cryptoKeys/bar
using the credentials in credentials.json
as follows:
import tink from google3.third_party.tink.python.tink import aead from google3.third_party.tink.python.tink.integration import gcpkms key_uri = 'gcp-kms://projects/tink-examples/locations/global/keyRings/foo/cryptoKeys/bar' gcp_credentials = 'credentials.json' # Read the GCP credentials and setup client try: gcp_client = gcpkms.GcpKmsClient(key_uri, gcp_credentials) gcp_aead = gcp_client.get_aead(key_uri) except tink.TinkError as e: logging.error('Error initializing GCP client: %s', e) return 1 # Create envelope AEAD primitive using AES256 GCM for encrypting the data try: key_template = aead.aead_key_templates.AES256_GCM env_aead = aead.KmsEnvelopeAead(key_template, gcp_aead) except tink.TinkError as e: logging.error('Error creating primitive: %s', e) return 1 # Use env_aead to encrypt data ciphertext = env_aead.encrypt(plaintext, associated data)