Acknowledgements - Speedcrypt File Encryption

Acknowledgements...

Acknowledgements Credits Authors

If I have been able to create a project like Speedcrypt, it is also thanks to all those who, in the field of cryptography and particularly in Open Source, have shared their expertise, developed reliable code, and provided guidance that made secure and robust projects available to the community. Their work has laid the foundation for innovation and trust in software, and Speedcrypt stands on the shoulders of this collective knowledge.

As already mentioned, Speedcrypt uses only certified Open Source components under Free Licenses, ensuring transparency, security, and compliance with established standards. A heartfelt thank you goes to these contributors for their invaluable support, constructive suggestions, and dedication, which have helped shape Speedcrypt into a dependable tool that respects both users and the principles of Open Source development.

Below is a list, in order of implementation in the Speedcrypt Project, of the libraries, components, and tools used, along with their respective authors. In addition, the licenses released for the use of the material produced by the authors themselves are reported.

Crypto Engines / HASH Acknowledgements

Speedcrypt interfaces with some of the most powerful and widely adopted cryptographic libraries available today: Bouncy Castle – Open-source cryptographic APIs, Gost Cryptography, Konscious Security Cryptography, and OpenGost Security Cryptography.

These libraries have been carefully selected based on their reliability, compliance with established cryptographic standards, and proven robustness in real-world applications. Each of them provides well-tested implementations of critical algorithms, ensuring that Speedcrypt operates on solid and trusted foundations. From an engineering perspective, integrating these components allows Speedcrypt to leverage mature and optimized cryptographic primitives, reducing the risk of implementation errors while maintaining high levels of security and performance. This approach ensures that every operation—whether related to encryption, hashing, or key derivation—is handled through validated and industry-recognized mechanisms.

Bouncy Castle – Open-source cryptographic APIs: Bouncy Castle is a comprehensive and widely used set of open-source cryptographic APIs for C#, providing a broad range of algorithms including encryption, decryption, hashing, and digital signatures. It is designed to offer a flexible and extensible framework, with well-tested implementations that comply with established cryptographic standards, making it a reliable foundation for secure software development. A heartfelt thank you goes to The Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc.

Gost Cryptography: Gost Cryptography is a C# cryptographic library that implements the GOST family of algorithms, including symmetric encryption, hashing, and digital signature mechanisms. It provides standards-compliant and well-tested primitives, making it suitable for secure data processing in environments requiring GOST-based cryptography. A heartfelt thank you goes to Alexander Mezhov;

Konscious Security Cryptography: Konscious Security Cryptography is a C# cryptographic library focused on modern hashing and key derivation algorithms, including Argon2 and Blake2. It provides secure and efficient primitives specifically designed for password hashing, data integrity, and resistance against brute-force and GPU-based attacks. A heartfelt thank you goes to Keef Aragon.

OpenGost Security Cryptography: OpenGost Security Cryptography is a C# library that implements modern GOST cryptographic standards, including symmetric encryption, hashing, and digital signature algorithms. It provides secure, standards-compliant primitives designed for reliable data protection and integration within advanced cryptographic systems. A heartfelt thank you goes to Sergey Zhigunov.

A sincere and respectful thank you goes to the authors and maintainers of these libraries. Their work represents a fundamental pillar for the development of secure software, providing reliable, well-tested, and standards-compliant cryptographic implementations. Their continuous effort, dedication, and commitment to Open Source have made it possible to build robust systems like Speedcrypt on solid and trusted foundations. Without their contribution, achieving the same level of security, stability, and engineering quality would not have been possible.

A heartfelt thank you also goes to Dominik Reichl for his C# implementation of the BLAKE hash algorithm (256 and 512 bit). This well-designed and efficient class provides reliable hashing functionality and reflects a high level of engineering quality. I particularly appreciate working with this hash function for its performance, clarity, and robustness in practical use.

Random Number Generator Acknowledgements

Speedcrypt employs multiple cryptographically secure random number generators, including BCRYPT and FORTUNA, alongside custom-designed implementations such as AES-CTR DRBG, CRYPTO-RANDOM, and BLUM-BLUM-SHUB (BBS). The integration of both established and internally developed generators ensures flexibility, robustness, and full control over entropy sources and random data generation processes. Custom implementations have been engineered to meet strict security and reliability requirements, allowing Speedcrypt to maintain consistent behavior across different operational scenarios. A heartfelt thank you goes to the author of the Fortuna C# implementation (Smithc on GitHub), whose work has provided a reliable and well-structured implementation of this cryptographically secure random number generator.

A sincere thank you goes to all the authors and designers of the random number generation algorithms integrated into Speedcrypt. Their work provides the fundamental building blocks for secure entropy, reliable key generation, and robust cryptographic operations.

By sharing their algorithms and methodologies, they have enabled Speedcrypt to implement trustworthy and high-quality random number generators, ensuring that every cryptographic process—from hashing to encryption—relies on solid and well-tested sources of randomness. Their dedication to rigor and security allows users to confidently protect their data across all operational scenarios.

Icon Acknowledgements

The graphical user interface of the Speedcrypt Project makes use of a refined set of icons created by one of the most well-known Italian graphic designers in the world. These icons contribute significantly to the overall user experience, making the interface not only visually appealing but also intuitive and easy to navigate.

From a design and engineering perspective, the choice of a consistent and well-structured icon set improves usability, reduces cognitive load, and enhances the clarity of user interactions. The icon collection stands out for its balance between aesthetic elegance and functional clarity, supporting the user in understanding features and operations at a glance.

Many thanks to David Vignoni for creating the beautiful and elegant "Nuvola" icon theme. This remarkable set has been widely appreciated for its quality and attention to detail, and it plays an important role in defining the visual identity of Speedcrypt. Both the application and its website make use of icons from this collection. You can find the original images on the author's website and the license here.

Tools Acknowledgements

The Speedcrypt Project includes numerous tools designed to perform specific and critical procedures, contributing to the overall reliability and completeness of the system. These tools cover a wide range of functionalities, including secure file deletion, password strength evaluation, and other essential operations required for the correct and safe functioning of the project.

From an engineering standpoint, each component has been selected or developed to meet strict requirements in terms of security, consistency, and performance. These tools operate as integral parts of the system, supporting core processes and ensuring that all operations are executed in a controlled and predictable manner.

Josip Habjan: Files Secure Deletion. Quick, Random, DoD-3, DoD-7, Gutmann 35 Passes
Rod Stephens: Display icons next to ListView sub-items in C#
Dan Wheeler: zxcvbn. Realistic Password Strength Estimation
Dominik Reich: Quality Progress Bar (KeePass project). PrivateXmlConfig c# Config Class. Very good!
Tharindu Patikirikorala: Password Strength Control
Jordan Russell: Inno Setup. This tool is used to create the Speedcrypt installation program.

A sincere thank you goes to all the authors and contributors whose work has made these implementations possible. Their efforts have provided solid and dependable building blocks, allowing Speedcrypt to offer advanced features while maintaining a high standard of quality and reliability.

Hosting/Distribution Acknowledgements

Many thanks to SourceForge for hosting the Speedcrypt downloads free of charge. As one of the largest and most established platforms for Open Source software distribution, SourceForge provides a reliable and accessible environment for developers to share their projects with a global audience. Its infrastructure ensures availability, version management, and secure distribution, allowing users to download software with confidence.

Being hosted on such a well-known platform also increases visibility and trust, helping Speedcrypt reach users and contributors worldwide. This support plays an important role in making the project easily accessible, contributing to its diffusion and adoption within the Open Source community.

Special Acknowledgements

♥️ A heartfelt thank you to Emily Halberg, my colleague from the United States, who worked alongside me through an intense and demanding development process. Together, we spent countless hours analyzing complex issues, refining class structures, and carefully designing the data flow architecture of a large-scale project such as Speedcrypt. Our collaboration was grounded in rigorous software engineering principles, where every component was evaluated with precision, consistency, and attention to detail. We approached the system not just as code, but as a structured and coherent architecture, ensuring that each module—especially those related to cryptography and data handling—integrated seamlessly within the overall design. This shared effort allowed us to build a solid, reliable, and maintainable system, applying disciplined engineering methodologies to meet the challenges of a project of significant scale and complexity.

A heartfelt thank you also goes to the long-standing collaborators, all those who, since the earliest versions, have contributed their time, ideas, and expertise to help Speedcrypt evolve into the project it is today. Their continuous feedback, testing activities, and technical insights have played a fundamental role in refining the architecture, improving stability, and strengthening the overall reliability of the system. Through their support, many critical aspects—ranging from usability to internal consistency—have been carefully evaluated and progressively enhanced. This collective effort, built over time, has been essential in transforming Speedcrypt from an initial concept into a mature and structured project, grounded in solid engineering principles and shared commitment.

♥️ A heartfelt thank you to our long-time collaborators:

Pierluigi Ortu

Giancarlo Fiori

Manuel Martano

Stefano Scarpello

Palmerio Nughedu

Giambattista Attene

♥️ Finally, a heartfelt thank you to Davide Ortu for the new graphical interface of Speedcrypt. A splendid work carried out with great refinement and attention to detail!

Licenses of Libraries, Components, Tools

✒️The Legion of Bouncy Castle

📖 LICENSE

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

✒️ Gost Cryptograpy

📖 LICENSE

MIT License

✒️ Konscious Security Cryptography

📖 LICENSE

MIT License

✒️ OpenGost Security Cryptography

📖 LICENSE

MIT License

✒️ Fortuna Implementation

📖 LICENSE

MIT License

✒️ Blake Implementation

📖 LICENSE

BlakeSharp - Blake256 BlakeSharp - Blake512

Public domain implementation of the BLAKE hash algorithm
by 👉Dominik Reichl <dominik.reichl@t-online.de>
Web:http://www.dominik-reichl.de/

If you're using this class, it would be nice if you'd mention
me somewhere in the documentation of your program, but it's
not required.

BLAKE was designed by Jean-Philippe Aumasson, Luca Henzen,
Willi Meier and Raphael C.-W. Phan.
BlakeSharp was derived from the reference C implementation.

Version 1.0 - 2011-11-20
- Initial release (implementing BLAKE v1.4).

✒️ File Secure Deletion Implementation

LICENSE

Mit License

✒️ Quality Progress Bar Implementation

📖 LICENSE

KeePass Password Safe - The Open-Source Password Manager
👉 Copyright(C) 2003 - 2019 Dominik Reichl<dominik.reichl@t-online.de>

GNU General Public License

✒️ Inno Setup installation tool

📖 LICENSE

Inno Setup License
==================

Except where otherwise noted, all of the documentation and software included in the Inno Setup
package is 👉 copyrighted by Jordan Russell.

This software is provided "as-is," without any express or implied warranty. In no event shall the
author be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this software.

Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose, including commercial
applications, and to alter and redistribute it, provided that the following conditions are met:

1. All redistributions of source code files must retain all copyright notices that are currently in
place, and this list of conditions without modification.

2. All redistributions in binary form must retain all occurrences of the above copyright notice and
web site addresses that are currently in place (for example, in the About boxes).

3. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not claim that you wrote the
original software. If you use this software to distribute a product, an acknowledgment in the
product documentation would be appreciated but is not required.

4. Modified versions in source or binary form must be plainly marked as such, and must not be
misrepresented as being the original software.

Jordan Russell
jr-2020 AT jrsoftware.org
https://jrsoftware.org/