# randombit/botan

Cryptography Toolkit

Repository: https://github.com/randombit/botan
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/botan
Homepage: https://botan.randombit.net
Language: C++
License: BSD-2-Clause
License Family: permissive
Topics: crypto, cryptography, cryptography-library, tls, x509, c-plus-plus
Last push: 2026-08-26T22:37:34+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 77/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4928, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases, no_readme
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 3307, forks 658 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:55.881924+00:00)

## What it is
Botan is a C++ cryptography library offering TLS 1.2/1.3, X.509 PKI, modern AEAD ciphers, post-quantum algorithms, and hardware token support, with C, C++, and Python APIs plus a CLI. It is BSD-licensed, heavily tested including automated side-channel detection, and released quarterly.

## Use cases
- implement TLS 1.3 client and server in C++
- X.509 certificate parsing and PKI operations
- encrypt data with modern AEAD ciphers
- memory-hard password hashing
- post-quantum key exchange with ML-KEM
- PKCS#11 and TPM hardware token integration
- command-line crypto operations

## When to choose
- you need a comprehensive, permissively-licensed crypto library in C++
- you want TLS, PKI, and post-quantum support from one library
- you need fine-grained build configuration or amalgamation builds
- side-channel resistance and extensive testing matter

## When to avoid
- you need a minimal, single-purpose crypto primitive
- your stack requires a different language without bindings
- you rely on Botan 2.x, which is end-of-life

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: cryptography, security, http-client, http-server, cli
- domain: security, developer-tools, backend
- platform: cpp, c, python, cross-platform, windows
- tags: tls, x509, pki, post-quantum-cryptography, aead, pkcs11, tpm, password-hashing, side-channel-detection, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- randombit/botan (main) score 77

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:55.881924+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:42:38.458747+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - homepage: https://botan.randombit.net (fetched 2026-08-29T09:35:19.487496+00:00, sha df182888de7c)
  - site_page: https://botan.randombit.net/handbook (fetched 2026-08-29T09:35:19.496962+00:00, sha fe18cc3f8b25)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.