# kokke/tiny-AES-c

Small portable AES128/192/256 in C

Repository: https://github.com/kokke/tiny-AES-c
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/tiny-aes-c
Language: C
License: Unlicense
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2024-10-04T09:45:23+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5214, "days_push": 698, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 5000, forks 1391 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:04.477954+00:00)

## What it is
A small, portable implementation of AES encryption (128/192/256-bit) in C99, supporting ECB, CBC, and CTR modes. It is designed for minimal code size and memory footprint rather than performance.

## Use cases
- add AES encryption to an embedded firmware project
- encrypt and decrypt data in C with a tiny dependency-free library
- implement AES-CTR or AES-CBC on a microcontroller with limited RAM
- portable AES implementation for cross-platform C/C++ code
- small-footprint cryptography where OpenSSL is too heavy

## When to choose
- you need AES in C with minimal code size and low memory footprint
- you target embedded or resource-constrained platforms
- you want a simple, portable, public-domain implementation

## When to avoid
- you need high performance or hardware acceleration
- you need padding, authenticated encryption (GCM), or protection against malicious input
- you need a broad TLS/crypto toolkit like OpenSSL or Mbed TLS

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: cryptography
- domain: security, embedded-systems
- platform: c, cpp, embedded, cross-platform
- tags: aes, encryption, portable, small-footprint, ecb, cbc, ctr

## Member repositories
- kokke/tiny-AES-c (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:04.477954+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 2026-08-29T18:17:35.730020+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/kokke/tiny-AES-c (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:04.477954+00:00, sha e58418587695)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.