Why prefer BoringSSL over LibreSSL?

tptacek · on May 23, 2015

I don't have a strong preference between the two, but have more insight into who's doing crypto work on BoringSSL than I do on LibreSSL.

jarito · on May 23, 2015

LibreSSL removed a significant portion of the optimized ASM from OpenSSL. This means that for key operations it is significantly slower.

zimmerfrei · on May 23, 2015

Optimized ASM means code that only very few people are able to review, and only with considerable time and effort. If security is the primary concern, I would argue that optimized ASM becomes a liability.

tptacek · on May 23, 2015

It's cute that you think people review crypto C code.

jschwartzi · on May 24, 2015

I had to read parts of OpenSSL to figure out how some of the utilities worked. Let me say that it's wonderful that people are trying to write a more readable version and leave it at that.

wolf550e · on May 23, 2015

But people won't use slow code. Look at RSA-1024 on DNSSec.

tptacek · on May 23, 2015

If speed was a motivating factor, DNSSEC would be using fast curves instead of archaic RSA. The reality of DNSSEC is that it's built around the performance concerns of 1997.