I want to exchange data

We recommend the Hybrid Encryption primitive with the DHKEM_X25519_HKDF_SHA256, HKDF_SHA256, AES_256_GCM key type for most public key encryption use cases.

Public key encryption involves protecting data with two keys: one public and one private. The public key is used for encryption and the private key is used for decryption. This is a good choice if the sender cannot store secrets and needs to encrypt data with a public key.

Caution: Hybrid Encryption does not provide authenticity, which means that the recipient of an encrypted message cannot identify the sender. If you need authentication, see I want to digitally sign data.

The following examples get you started using the Hybrid Encryption primitive:

C++

// A command-line utility for testing Tink Hybrid Encryption.
#include <iostream>
#include <memory>
#include <ostream>
#include <string>

#include "absl/flags/flag.h"
#include "absl/flags/parse.h"
#include "absl/log/check.h"
#include "absl/strings/string_view.h"
#include "tink/config/global_registry.h"
#include "util/util.h"
#ifndef TINK_EXAMPLES_EXCLUDE_HPKE
#include "tink/hybrid/hpke_config.h"
#endif
#include "tink/hybrid/hybrid_config.h"
#include "tink/hybrid_decrypt.h"
#include "tink/hybrid_encrypt.h"
#include "tink/keyset_handle.h"
#include "tink/util/status.h"

ABSL_FLAG(std::string, keyset_filename, "", "Keyset file in JSON format");
ABSL_FLAG(std::string, mode, "", "Mode of operation {encrypt|decrypt}");
ABSL_FLAG(std::string, input_filename, "", "Input file name");
ABSL_FLAG(std::string, output_filename, "", "Output file name");
ABSL_FLAG(std::string, context_info, "",
          "Context info for Hybrid Encryption/Decryption");

namespace {

using ::crypto::tink::HybridDecrypt;
using ::crypto::tink::HybridEncrypt;
using ::crypto::tink::KeysetHandle;
using ::crypto::tink::util::Status;
using ::crypto::tink::util::StatusOr;

constexpr absl::string_view kEncrypt = "encrypt";
constexpr absl::string_view kDecrypt = "decrypt";

void ValidateParams() {
  // ...
}

}  // namespace

namespace tink_cc_examples {

Status HybridCli(absl::string_view mode, const std::string& keyset_filename,
                 const std::string& input_filename,
                 const std::string& output_filename,
                 absl::string_view context_info) {
  Status result = crypto::tink::HybridConfig::Register();
  if (!result.ok()) return result;
#ifndef TINK_EXAMPLES_EXCLUDE_HPKE
  // HPKE isn't supported when using OpenSSL as a backend.
  result = crypto::tink::RegisterHpke();
  if (!result.ok()) return result;
#endif

  // Read the keyset from file.
  StatusOr<std::unique_ptr<KeysetHandle>> keyset_handle =
      ReadJsonCleartextKeyset(keyset_filename);
  if (!keyset_handle.ok()) return keyset_handle.status();

  // Read the input.
  StatusOr<std::string> input_file_content = ReadFile(input_filename);
  if (!input_file_content.ok()) return input_file_content.status();

  // Compute the output.
  std::string output;
  if (mode == kEncrypt) {
    // Get the hybrid encryption primitive.
    StatusOr<std::unique_ptr<HybridEncrypt>> hybrid_encrypt_primitive =
        (*keyset_handle)
            ->GetPrimitive<crypto::tink::HybridEncrypt>(
                crypto::tink::ConfigGlobalRegistry());
    if (!hybrid_encrypt_primitive.ok()) {
      return hybrid_encrypt_primitive.status();
    }
    // Generate the ciphertext.
    StatusOr<std::string> encrypt_result =
        (*hybrid_encrypt_primitive)->Encrypt(*input_file_content, context_info);
    if (!encrypt_result.ok()) return encrypt_result.status();
    output = encrypt_result.value();
  } else {  // operation == kDecrypt.
    // Get the hybrid decryption primitive.
    StatusOr<std::unique_ptr<HybridDecrypt>> hybrid_decrypt_primitive =
        (*keyset_handle)
            ->GetPrimitive<crypto::tink::HybridDecrypt>(
                crypto::tink::ConfigGlobalRegistry());
    if (!hybrid_decrypt_primitive.ok()) {
      return hybrid_decrypt_primitive.status();
    }
    // Recover the plaintext.
    StatusOr<std::string> decrypt_result =
        (*hybrid_decrypt_primitive)->Decrypt(*input_file_content, context_info);
    if (!decrypt_result.ok()) return decrypt_result.status();
    output = decrypt_result.value();
  }

  // Write the output to the output file.
  return WriteToFile(output, output_filename);
}

}  // namespace tink_cc_examples

int main(int argc, char** argv) {
  absl::ParseCommandLine(argc, argv);

  ValidateParams();

  std::string mode = absl::GetFlag(FLAGS_mode);
  std::string keyset_filename = absl::GetFlag(FLAGS_keyset_filename);
  std::string input_filename = absl::GetFlag(FLAGS_input_filename);
  std::string output_filename = absl::GetFlag(FLAGS_output_filename);
  std::string context_info = absl::GetFlag(FLAGS_context_info);

  std::clog << "Using keyset from file " << keyset_filename << " to hybrid "
            << mode << " file " << input_filename << " with context info '"
            << context_info << "'." << '\n';
  std::clog << "The resulting output will be written to " << output_filename
            << '\n';

  CHECK_OK(tink_cc_examples::HybridCli(mode, keyset_filename, input_filename,
                                       output_filename, context_info));
  return 0;
}
hybrid_cli.cc

Go

import (
	"bytes"
	"fmt"
	"log"

	"github.com/tink-crypto/tink-go/v2/hybrid"
	"github.com/tink-crypto/tink-go/v2/insecurecleartextkeyset"
	"github.com/tink-crypto/tink-go/v2/keyset"
)

func Example() {
	// A private keyset created with
	// "tinkey create-keyset --key-template=DHKEM_X25519_HKDF_SHA256_HKDF_SHA256_AES_256_GCM --out private_keyset.cfg".
	// Note that this keyset has the secret key information in cleartext.
	privateJSONKeyset := `{
		"key": [{
				"keyData": {
						"keyMaterialType":
								"ASYMMETRIC_PRIVATE",
						"typeUrl":
								"type.googleapis.com/google.crypto.tink.HpkePrivateKey",
						"value":
								"EioSBggBEAEYAhogVWQpmQoz74jcAp5WOD36KiBQ71MVCpn2iWfOzWLtKV4aINfn8qlMbyijNJcCzrafjsgJ493ZZGN256KTfKw0WN+p"
				},
				"keyId": 958452012,
				"outputPrefixType": "TINK",
				"status": "ENABLED"
		}],
		"primaryKeyId": 958452012
  }`

	// The corresponding public keyset created with
	// "tinkey create-public-keyset --in private_keyset.cfg".
	publicJSONKeyset := `{
		"key": [{
				"keyData": {
						"keyMaterialType":
								"ASYMMETRIC_PUBLIC",
						"typeUrl":
								"type.googleapis.com/google.crypto.tink.HpkePublicKey",
						"value":
								"EgYIARABGAIaIFVkKZkKM++I3AKeVjg9+iogUO9TFQqZ9olnzs1i7Sle"
				},
				"keyId": 958452012,
				"outputPrefixType": "TINK",
				"status": "ENABLED"
		}],
		"primaryKeyId": 958452012
  }`

	// Create a keyset handle from the keyset containing the public key. Because the
	// public keyset does not contain any secrets, we can use [keyset.ReadWithNoSecrets].
	publicKeysetHandle, err := keyset.ReadWithNoSecrets(
		keyset.NewJSONReader(bytes.NewBufferString(publicJSONKeyset)))
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}

	// Retrieve the HybridEncrypt primitive from publicKeysetHandle.
	encPrimitive, err := hybrid.NewHybridEncrypt(publicKeysetHandle)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}

	plaintext := []byte("message")
	encryptionContext := []byte("encryption context")
	ciphertext, err := encPrimitive.Encrypt(plaintext, encryptionContext)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}

	// Create a keyset handle from the cleartext private keyset in the previous
	// step. The keyset handle provides abstract access to the underlying keyset to
	// limit the access of the raw key material. WARNING: In practice,
	// it is unlikely you will want to use a insecurecleartextkeyset, as it implies
	// that your key material is passed in cleartext, which is a security risk.
	// Consider encrypting it with a remote key in Cloud KMS, AWS KMS or HashiCorp Vault.
	// See https://github.com/google/tink/blob/master/docs/GOLANG-HOWTO.md#storing-and-loading-existing-keysets.
	privateKeysetHandle, err := insecurecleartextkeyset.Read(
		keyset.NewJSONReader(bytes.NewBufferString(privateJSONKeyset)))
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}

	// Retrieve the HybridDecrypt primitive from privateKeysetHandle.
	decPrimitive, err := hybrid.NewHybridDecrypt(privateKeysetHandle)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}

	decrypted, err := decPrimitive.Decrypt(ciphertext, encryptionContext)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}

	fmt.Println(string(decrypted))
	// Output: message
}
hybrid_test.go

Java

package hybrid;

import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.UTF_8;

import com.google.crypto.tink.HybridDecrypt;
import com.google.crypto.tink.HybridEncrypt;
import com.google.crypto.tink.InsecureSecretKeyAccess;
import com.google.crypto.tink.KeysetHandle;
import com.google.crypto.tink.TinkJsonProtoKeysetFormat;
import com.google.crypto.tink.hybrid.HybridConfig;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;

/**
 * A command-line utility for hybrid encryption.
 *
 * <p>It loads cleartext keys from disk - this is not recommended!
 *
 * <p>It requires the following arguments:
 *
 * <ul>
 *   <li>mode: either 'encrypt' or 'decrypt'.
 *   <li>key-file: Read the key material from this file.
 *   <li>input-file: Read the input from this file.
 *   <li>output-file: Write the result to this file.
 *   <li>[optional] contex-info: Bind the encryption to this context info.
 */
public final class HybridExample {
  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    if (args.length != 4 && args.length != 5) {
      System.err.printf("Expected 4 or 5 parameters, got %d\n", args.length);
      System.err.println(
          "Usage: java HybridExample encrypt/decrypt key-file input-file output-file context-info");
      System.exit(1);
    }

    String mode = args[0];
    if (!mode.equals("encrypt") && !mode.equals("decrypt")) {
      System.err.println("Incorrect mode. Please select encrypt or decrypt.");
      System.exit(1);
    }
    Path keyFile = Paths.get(args[1]);
    Path inputFile = Paths.get(args[2]);
    byte[] input = Files.readAllBytes(inputFile);
    Path outputFile = Paths.get(args[3]);
    byte[] contextInfo = new byte[0];
    if (args.length == 5) {
      contextInfo = args[4].getBytes(UTF_8);
    }

    // Register all hybrid encryption key types with the Tink runtime.
    HybridConfig.register();

    // Read the keyset into a KeysetHandle.
    KeysetHandle handle =
        TinkJsonProtoKeysetFormat.parseKeyset(
            new String(Files.readAllBytes(keyFile), UTF_8), InsecureSecretKeyAccess.get());

    if (mode.equals("encrypt")) {
      // Get the primitive.
      HybridEncrypt encryptor = handle.getPrimitive(HybridEncrypt.class);

      // Use the primitive to encrypt data.
      byte[] ciphertext = encryptor.encrypt(input, contextInfo);
      Files.write(outputFile, ciphertext);
    } else {
      HybridDecrypt decryptor = handle.getPrimitive(HybridDecrypt.class);

      // Use the primitive to decrypt data.
      byte[] plaintext = decryptor.decrypt(input, contextInfo);
      Files.write(outputFile, plaintext);
    }
  }

  private HybridExample() {}
}
HybridExample.java

Obj-C

HOW-TO

Python

import tink
from tink import hybrid
from tink import secret_key_access


def example():
  """Encrypt and decrypt using hybrid encryption."""
  # Register the hybrid encryption key managers. This is needed to create
  # HybridEncrypt and HybridDecrypt primitives later.
  hybrid.register()

  # A private keyset created with
  # tinkey create-keyset \
  #   --key-template=DHKEM_X25519_HKDF_SHA256_HKDF_SHA256_AES_256_GCM \
  #   --out private_keyset.cfg
  # Note that this keyset has the secret key information in cleartext.
  private_keyset = r"""{
      "key": [{
          "keyData": {
              "keyMaterialType":
                  "ASYMMETRIC_PRIVATE",
              "typeUrl":
                  "type.googleapis.com/google.crypto.tink.HpkePrivateKey",
              "value":
                  "EioSBggBEAEYAhogVWQpmQoz74jcAp5WOD36KiBQ71MVCpn2iWfOzWLtKV4aINfn8qlMbyijNJcCzrafjsgJ493ZZGN256KTfKw0WN+p"
          },
          "keyId": 958452012,
          "outputPrefixType": "TINK",
          "status": "ENABLED"
      }],
      "primaryKeyId": 958452012
  }"""

  # The corresponding public keyset created with
  # "tinkey create-public-keyset --in private_keyset.cfg"
  public_keyset = r"""{
      "key": [{
          "keyData": {
              "keyMaterialType":
                  "ASYMMETRIC_PUBLIC",
              "typeUrl":
                  "type.googleapis.com/google.crypto.tink.HpkePublicKey",
              "value":
                  "EgYIARABGAIaIFVkKZkKM++I3AKeVjg9+iogUO9TFQqZ9olnzs1i7Sle"          },
          "keyId": 958452012,
          "outputPrefixType": "TINK",
          "status": "ENABLED"
      }],
      "primaryKeyId": 958452012
  }"""

  # Create a keyset handle from the keyset containing the public key. Because
  # this keyset does not contain any secrets, we can use
  # `parse_without_secret`.
  public_keyset_handle = tink.json_proto_keyset_format.parse_without_secret(
      public_keyset
  )

  # Retrieve the HybridEncrypt primitive from the keyset handle.
  enc_primitive = public_keyset_handle.primitive(hybrid.HybridEncrypt)

  # Use enc_primitive to encrypt a message. In this case the primary key of the
  # keyset will be used (which is also the only key in this example).
  ciphertext = enc_primitive.encrypt(b'message', b'context_info')

  # Create a keyset handle from the private keyset. The keyset handle provides
  # abstract access to the underlying keyset to limit the exposure of accessing
  # the raw key material. WARNING: In practice, it is unlikely you will want to
  # use a tink.json_proto_keyset_format.parse, as it implies that your key
  # material is passed in cleartext which is a security risk.
  private_keyset_handle = tink.json_proto_keyset_format.parse(
      private_keyset, secret_key_access.TOKEN
  )

  # Retrieve the HybridDecrypt primitive from the private keyset handle.
  dec_primitive = private_keyset_handle.primitive(hybrid.HybridDecrypt)

  # Use dec_primitive to decrypt the message. Decrypt finds the correct key in
  # the keyset and decrypts the ciphertext. If no key is found or decryption
  # fails, it raises an error.
  decrypted = dec_primitive.decrypt(ciphertext, b'context_info')
hybrid_basic.py

Hybrid Encryption

The Hybrid Encryption primitive combines the efficiency of symmetric encryption with the convenience of public key (asymmetric) cryptography. Anyone can encrypt data using the public key, but only users with the private key can decrypt the data.

For Hybrid Encryption, the sender generates a fresh symmetric key to encrypt the plaintext of each message to produce a ciphertext. That symmetric key is encapsulated with the recipient's public key. For Hybrid Decryption, the symmetric key is decapsulated by the recipient and then used to decrypt the ciphertext to recover the original plaintext. See Tink Hybrid Encryption wire format for details on how to store or transmit the ciphertext along with the key encapsulation.

Hybrid Encryption has the following properties:

• Secrecy: No one is able to get any information about the encrypted plaintext (except the length), unless they have access to the private key.
• Asymmetry: Encrypting the ciphertext can be done with the public key, but for decryption, the private key is required.
• Randomization: The encryption is randomized. Two messages with the same plaintext will not yield the same ciphertext. This prevents attackers from knowing which ciphertext corresponds to a given plaintext.

Hybrid Encryption is represented in Tink as a pair of primitives:

• HybridEncrypt for encryption
• HybridDecrypt for decryption

Context info parameter

In addition to the plaintext, Hybrid Encryption accepts an extra parameter, context_info, which is usually public data implicit from the context, but should be bound to the resulting ciphertext. This means that the ciphertext allows you to confirm the integrity of the context info but there are no guarantees for its secrecy or authenticity. The actual context info can be empty or null, but to ensure the correct decryption of the resulting ciphertext, the same context info value must be provided for decryption.

A concrete implementation of Hybrid Encryption can bind context info to the ciphertext in various ways, for example:

• Use context_info as associated data input for AEAD symmetric encryption (cf. RFC 5116).
• Use context_info as “CtxInfo" input for HKDF (if the implementation uses HKDF as key derivation function, cf. RFC 5869).

Choose a key type

We recommend using the DHKEM_X25519_HKDF_SHA256_HKDF_SHA256_AES_256_GCM key type for most use cases. This key type implements the Hybrid Public Key Encryption (HPKE) standard as specified in RFC 9180. HPKE consists of a key encapsulation mechanism (KEM), a key derivation function (KDF), and an authenticated encryption with associated data (AEAD) algorithm.

DHKEM_X25519_HKDF_SHA256_HKDF_SHA256_AES_256_GCM specifically employs:

• KEM: Diffie–Hellman over Curve25519 with HKDF-SHA-256 to derive the shared secret.
• KDF: HKDF-SHA-256 to derive the sender and receiver context.
• AEAD: AES-256-GCM with 12-byte nonces generated according to the HPKE standard.

Other supported HPKE key types include, but are not limited to, the following:

• DHKEM_X25519_HKDF_SHA256_HKDF_SHA256_AES_128_GCM
• DHKEM_X25519_HKDF_SHA256_HKDF_SHA256_CHACHA20_POLY1305
• DHKEM_P256_HKDF_SHA256_HKDF_SHA256_AES_128_GCM
• DHKEM_P521_HKDF_SHA512_HKDF_SHA512_AES_256_GCM

See RFC 9180 for more details on the algorithm choices for the KEM, KDF, and AEAD.

Although no longer recommended, Tink also supports some variations of ECIES as described in Victor Shoup's ISO 18033-2 standard. Some supported ECIES key types are listed below:

• ECIES_P256_HKDF_HMAC_SHA256_AES128_GCM
• ECIES_P256_COMPRESSED_HKDF_HMAC_SHA256_AES128_GCM
• ECIES_P256_HKDF_HMAC_SHA256_AES128_CTR_HMAC_SHA256
• ECIES_P256_COMPRESSED_HKDF_HMAC_SHA256_AES128_CTR_HMAC_SHA256

Minimal properties

Caution: Hybrid Encryption only provides privacy, not authenticity. It is only secure if the recipient can accept anonymous messages or rely on other mechanisms to authenticate the sender.

• Plaintext and context info can have arbitrary length (within the range 0..2³² bytes)
• Secure against adaptive chosen ciphertext attacks
• 128-bit security for elliptic curve based schemes