SubtleCrypto
BaselineWidely available *
This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since September 2017.
* Some parts of this feature may have varying levels of support.
Secure context: This feature is available only insecure contexts (HTTPS), in some or allsupporting browsers.
Note: This feature is available inWeb Workers.
TheSubtleCrypto
interface of theWeb Crypto API provides a number of low-level cryptographic functions.
The interface name includes the term "subtle" to indicate that many of its algorithms have subtle usage requirements, and hence that it must be used carefully in order to provide suitable security guarantees.
An instance ofSubtleCrypto
is available as thesubtle
property of theCrypto
interface, which in turn is available in windows through theWindow.crypto
property and in workers through theWorkerGlobalScope.crypto
property.
Warning:This API provides a number of low-level cryptographic primitives. It's very easy to misuse them, and the pitfalls involved can be very subtle.
Even assuming you use the basic cryptographic functions correctly, secure key management and overall security system design are extremely hard to get right, and are generally the domain of specialist security experts.
Errors in security system design and implementation can make the security of the system completely ineffective.
Please learn and experiment, but don't guarantee or imply the security of your work before an individual knowledgeable in this subject matter thoroughly reviews it. TheCrypto 101 Course can be a great place to start learning about the design and implementation of secure systems.
Instance properties
This interface doesn't inherit any properties, as it has no parent interface.
Instance methods
This interface doesn't inherit any methods, as it has no parent interface.
SubtleCrypto.encrypt()
Returns a
Promise
that fulfills with the encrypted data corresponding to the clear text, algorithm, and key given as parameters.SubtleCrypto.decrypt()
Returns a
Promise
that fulfills with the clear data corresponding to the encrypted text, algorithm, and key given as parameters.SubtleCrypto.sign()
Returns a
Promise
that fulfills with the signature corresponding to the text, algorithm, and key given as parameters.SubtleCrypto.verify()
Returns a
Promise
that fulfills with a boolean value indicating if the signature given as a parameter matches the text, algorithm, and key that are also given as parameters.SubtleCrypto.digest()
Returns a
Promise
that fulfills with a digest generated from the algorithm and text given as parameters.SubtleCrypto.generateKey()
Returns a
Promise
that fulfills with a newly-generatedCryptoKey
, for symmetrical algorithms, or aCryptoKeyPair
, containing two newly generated keys, for asymmetrical algorithms. These will match the algorithm, usages, and extractability given as parameters.SubtleCrypto.deriveKey()
Returns a
Promise
that fulfills with a newly generatedCryptoKey
derived from the master key and specific algorithm given as parameters.SubtleCrypto.deriveBits()
Returns a
Promise
that fulfills with a newly generated buffer of pseudo-random bits derived from the master key and specific algorithm given as parameters.SubtleCrypto.importKey()
Returns a
Promise
that fulfills with aCryptoKey
corresponding to the format, the algorithm, raw key data, usages, and extractability given as parameters.SubtleCrypto.exportKey()
Returns a
Promise
that fulfills with the raw key data containing the key in the requested format.SubtleCrypto.wrapKey()
Returns a
Promise
that fulfills with a wrapped symmetric key for usage (transfer and storage) in insecure environments. The wrapped key matches the format specified in the given parameters, and wrapping is done by the given wrapping key, using the specified algorithm.SubtleCrypto.unwrapKey()
Returns a
Promise
that fulfills with aCryptoKey
corresponding to the wrapped key given in the parameter.
Using SubtleCrypto
We can split the functions implemented by this API into two groups: cryptography functions and key management functions.
Cryptography functions
These are the functions you can use to implement security features such as privacy and authentication in a system. TheSubtleCrypto
API provides the following cryptography functions:
Key management functions
Except fordigest()
, all the cryptography functions in the API use cryptographic keys. In theSubtleCrypto
API a cryptographic key is represented using aCryptoKey
object. To perform operations like signing and encrypting, you pass aCryptoKey
object into thesign()
orencrypt()
function.
Generating and deriving keys
ThegenerateKey()
andderiveKey()
functions both create a newCryptoKey
object.
The difference is thatgenerateKey()
will generate a new distinct key value each time you call it, whilederiveKey()
derives a key from some initial keying material. If you provide the same keying material to two separate calls toderiveKey()
, you will get twoCryptoKey
objects that have the same underlying value. This is useful if, for example, you want to derive an encryption key from a password and later derive the same key from the same password to decrypt the data.
Importing and exporting keys
To make keys available outside your app, you need to export the key, and that's whatexportKey()
is for. You can choose one of a number of export formats.
The inverse ofexportKey()
isimportKey()
. You can import keys from other systems, and support for standard formats likePKCS #8 andJSON Web Key helps you do this. TheexportKey()
function exports the key in an unencrypted format.
If the key is sensitive you should usewrapKey()
, which exports the key and then encrypts it using another key; the API calls a "key-wrapping key".
The inverse ofwrapKey()
isunwrapKey()
, which decrypts then imports the key.
Storing keys
CryptoKey
is aserializable object, which allows keys to be stored and retrieved using standard web storage APIs.
The specification expects that most developers will use theIndexedDB API, storingCryptoKey
objects against some key string identifier that is meaningful to the application, along with any other metadata it finds useful.This allows the storage and retrieval of theCryptoKey
without having to expose its underlying key material to the application or the JavaScript environment.
Supported algorithms
The cryptographic functions provided by the Web Crypto API can be performed by one or more differentcryptographic algorithms: thealgorithm
argument to the function indicates which algorithm to use. Some algorithms need extra parameters: in these cases thealgorithm
argument is a dictionary object that includes the extra parameters.
The table below summarizes which algorithms are suitable for which cryptographic operations:
Specifications
Specification |
---|
Web Cryptography Level 2 # subtlecrypto-interface |
Browser compatibility
See also
- Web Crypto API
- Non-cryptographic uses of SubtleCrypto
- Web security
- Privacy, permissions, and information security
Crypto
andCrypto.subtle
.- Crypto 101: an introductory course on cryptography.