PySkein is an extension module for Python 3.0 or later, implementing the Skein hash algorithm, one of the Second Round Candidates in the NIST SHA-3 Competition. While originally based on the optimized version of the reference implementation by Doug Whiting, PySkein has since evolved into a feature-rich and pythonic module. It is released as free software under the GNU General Public License. Its highlights are:

  • A simple interface following the hash algorithms in the Python standard library (like hashlib.sha1 or hashlib.sha256)
  • Many features of the Skein specification (such as tree hashing, various parameters and output sizes etc.)
  • High hashing performance through efficient implementation in C (370 MB/s in sequential hashing and 579 MB/s in tree hashing on two cores, measured on a 2.8 GHz Opteron)
  • Threefish, the tweakable block cipher used in Skein, available for encrytion and decryption on its own

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