Support `CryptoProvider` like plugin mechanism

Open
  • Is something wrong?
#228 8 comments 3 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

@jgreeer is already working on this.

Since Sep 2, 2026.

  • #450 by @jgreeer — open

Assessment

Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Newbie friendliness
25/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Needs clarification
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
rust
Domain
cryptography, security

Research direction

Start by reading rustls issue 1540 and comparing its CryptoProvider mechanism with rcgen's current ring and aws_lc_rs support. The issue does not name files or tests, so first define the provider API and compatibility scope; done should mean rcgen supports arbitrary out-of-tree providers without losing existing provider support.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

https://github.com/rustls/rustls/issues/1540 in rustls provides a mechanism to plug in arbitrary crypto providers. While the in-tree ones only have ring and aws_lc_rs, mirroring rcgen, there are out of tree providers that can be used. However, if an application depends on rcgen, these benefits are negated (assuming a project requires all crypto to be done by a specific implementation).

It would be nice to have a pluggable model.

Dominant language
Rust
Stars
516
Forks
160
No merged PRs in 30d

Getting set up

This project ships no dev container, Dockerfile or contributing guide, so setting up is up to you: start from its README, and see our first-contribution guide for the general steps.

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

More from rustls/rcgen

All issues in rustls/rcgen

Similar issues

More Rust issues

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.