Alkindi is named in honor of the 9th-century Arab Muslim scholar Al-Kindi, a pioneer in cryptography, mathematics, and philosophy. He is often credited as one of the earliest figures in the history of cryptanalysis, and his contributions represent significant milestones in the evolution of secure communication and information security.
As quantum computing continues to evolve, the cryptographic algorithms securing today's digital world are increasingly vulnerable. Alkindi is a Python library that delivers NIST-standardized, quantum-safe cryptographic solutions, including secure key generation, encryption, and digital signatures.
Alkindi is a high-level Python binding to the liboqs C library, part of the Open Quantum Safe project. It provides access to vetted post-quantum algorithms through a clean interface.
Designed with developer productivity in mind, Alkindi abstracts away complex low-level operations, enabling the use of advanced post-quantum cryptography through a clean and intuitive Python API—no C code, compilation, or build configuration required.
Alkindi supports two post-quantum cryptographic algorithms standardized by NIST:
-
ML-KEM (Kyber): Security levels 512, 768, and 1024. A lattice-based key encapsulation mechanism used for secure key exchange and public-key encryption.
See FIPS 203 for full specifications and implementation details. -
ML-DSA (Dilithium): Variants 44, 65, and 87. A lattice-based digital signature algorithm used for authenticating messages, documents, and software.
See FIPS 204 for full specifications and implementation details.
- Quantum‑Safe Cryptography: Defends against quantum attacks using NIST-standardized key encapsulation and digital signature algorithms. Built on trusted libraries—see liboqs for contributors and implementation details.
- Zero-Hassle Integration: Easily integrates into Python projects with no native compilation or low-level build steps required.
- Secure by Design: Implements strict memory handling practices for sensitive materials (e.g., key erasure, context management).
Quantum computing is advancing rapidly—putting today’s encryption at risk. Transitioning to quantum-safe security is not optional, but inevitable. Alkindi helps you prepare before vulnerabilities become liabilities.
Use Alkindi to protect:
- Communications – Email, messaging, VoIP
- Finance – Banking, blockchain, digital contracts
- Healthcare – Patient records, regulatory compliance
- Government & Defense – Confidential data, secure transmissions
- Cloud Services – Encrypted storage, secure APIs
Don't wait until the last minute—future-proof your systems today.
pip install alkindiAlkindi exposes high-level classes for working with Key Encapsulation Mechanisms (KEM) and Digital Signatures. These classes wrap native cryptographic operations and manage sensitive resources such as memory and keys.
Important: Always use
withwhen working withKEMorSignatureinstances. This ensures proper cleanup of native resources and secure erasure of sensitive data.
from alkindi import KEM
with KEM("ML-KEM-1024") as kem:
public_key, secret_key = kem.generate_keypair()
ciphertext, shared_secret_sender = kem.encaps(public_key)
shared_secret_recipient = kem.decaps(ciphertext, secret_key)
print("Shared Secret Match:", shared_secret_sender == shared_secret_recipient)from alkindi import Signature
with Signature("ML-DSA-87") as sig:
public_key, secret_key = sig.generate_keypair()
message = b"Hello, World!"
signature = sig.sign(message, secret_key)
is_valid = sig.verify(message, signature, public_key)
print("Signature valid:", is_valid)Whether it’s a bug fix, documentation improvement, or a new feature, your contributions are welcome. To get involved, please open an issue or submit a pull request.
Alkindi is licensed under the LGPLv3 license.
All rights are reserved to their respective authors and contributors. This applies to all source code, documentation,
bindings, tests, cryptographic implementations, and other content included in the Alkindi project.
Alkindi stands on the shoulders of giants—built on the groundbreaking work of countless teams and individual contributors, notably the Open Quantum Safe project and its associated libraries and researchers. We extend our sincere gratitude to all those whose dedication and innovation have laid the foundation for today’s post-quantum security tools.
For inquiries, contributions, or collaboration opportunities, feel free to connect via LinkedIn.