Modern Cryptography Tools: Guide 2026
Free browser-based crypto tools — Argon2, bcrypt, PBKDF2, OpenPGP, AES, and HMAC for developers.
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Modern Cryptography Tools for Developers Every application that handles user data, API secrets, or sensitive files needs cryptographic primitives. This guide maps the available tools — Argon2, bcrypt, PBKDF2, AES-GCM, HMAC, and OpenPGP — to the specific problems they solve, with code examples and OWASP-aligned parameter recommendations. --- Why Developers Need Multiple Cryptographic Primitives? Cryptography is not one tool — it is a toolkit. Each primitive solves a different problem: | Problem | Primitive | Example | |---------|-----------|---------| | Store a password without knowing the plaintext | Password hashing (Argon2, bcrypt, PBKDF2) | User login | | Encrypt data so only the holder of a key can read it | Symmetric encryption (AES-256-GCM) | Database field encryption | |…
Frequently Asked Questions
What cryptographic tools do developers need?
Most applications require at minimum a password hashing function (Argon2 or bcrypt), a symmetric cipher (AES-256-GCM) for data encryption, an HMAC function for message authentication, and asymmetric tools (OpenPGP or RSA) for key exchange and signing. These four categories cover the majority of security requirements.
What is the difference between Argon2, bcrypt, and PBKDF2?
All three are password hashing functions (key derivation functions), but they differ in resistance to hardware attacks. Argon2 is memory-hard and can consume gigabytes of RAM, making GPU and ASIC attacks expensive. bcrypt is CPU-bound with a tunable cost factor. PBKDF2 is the oldest and most widely deployed, but the least resistant to GPU attacks because it can be parallelized efficiently.
How do I encrypt files with OpenPGP?
Generate a key pair with a tool like GPG or the free browser-based OpenPGP Key Generator. Export your public key and share it. When someone wants to send you a file, they encrypt it with your public key. You decrypt with your private key. The OpenPGP standard (RFC 4880) is implemented by GPG, ProtonMail, and numerous libraries.
What is AES encryption?
AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) is a symmetric block cipher standardized by NIST in 2001. It uses the same key for both encryption and decryption. AES-256-GCM is the recommended mode — GCM provides both confidentiality and authenticated integrity checking, so tampering is detected at decryption time.
How do I generate an HMAC?
HMAC (Hash-based Message Authentication Code) combines a secret key with a hash function. In JavaScript, use the Web Crypto API: `crypto.subtle.sign('HMAC', key, data)`. In Python, use `hmac.new(key, msg, hashlib.sha256).hexdigest()`. The HMAC-SHA256 variant is the standard choice for API request signing.
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