Re: [Quickfix-developers] Encryption

[Joerg T. <Joe...@ma...>]

an...@rh... wrote:
> Does QuickFIX support encryption or do I need to use something like
> stunnel?  If the latter is the case;  are there any good
> samples/documentation of implementing it?  Any recommendations for the
> best encryption tool to use? (Stunnel or another).

At moment, QuickFIX does not implement any encryption mechanism, neither encrypted or 
signed data fields/messages nor an SSL layer.

But since version 1.5 binary data fields containing any character including the field 
delimiter are supported, so you can store/retrieve encrypted binary data if you implement 
the encryption methods yourself.

If you want to encrypt the transport layer, stunnel is probably the easiest approach. 
Personally, I have no experience in using it, but others in this mailing list may have it.

It would be good to have SSL based socket acceptors/initiators, but there are none in the 
current QF code base. Jon Dahl asked some questions in the list in 2003; I am not aware of 
further efforts/implementations other QF users may have.

See also these links on the FPL site:

* http://www.fixprotocol.org/specifications/TechDoc-InfoSecurity
* http://fixprotocol.org/discuss/read/9ca77960

The latter thread contains the excellent posting of Ryan Pierce, leader of the "Global 
Technical Information Security" sub-committee of FPL.

HTH

Cheers, Jörg

-- 
Joerg Thoennes
                                http://macd.com
Tel.: +49 (0)241 44597-24      Macdonald Associates GmbH
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