Don't Roll Your Own
The article emphasizes the importance of not creating custom cryptographic solutions in software development. It highlights the risks associated with implementing one's own cryptographic algorithms and encourages the use of established tools instead. Additionally, the author discusses the pitfalls of custom web design elements that can disrupt user experience.
- ▪Developers should avoid rolling their own cryptography for security-sensitive applications.
- ▪Using established cryptographic tools is essential to protect users' sensitive data.
- ▪Custom web design elements can negatively impact user experience, such as altered scrolling and navigation behaviors.
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Don't Roll Your Own ... By Susam Pal on 23 May 2026 Among computer programmers, and especially among those who work on security-sensitive systems, there is a well-known maxim: Don't roll your own crypto. Of course, you can roll your own crypto for learning purposes. But if you are going to use cryptography in software or services that serve others, you must never implement the cryptographic primitives yourself, or, worse, develop your own cryptographic algorithms and use them in your software. I have seen several flawed home-grown RC4 implementations early in my career, with issues like improper initialisation vectors, predictable keystreams and partial leakage of plaintext into ciphertext, putting users' sensitive data at risk.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Susam.
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