Benchmarking safari 4 javascript with dropsecret

As a follow up to my earlier benchmark post I'm adding numbers for Safari 4 on a mac. Note that this is a completely different box than the previous benchmarks so really shouldn't be compared, however firefox 3.0 is also here to give some ability to compare.

Firefox 3.0: 10.802 seconds
Safari 4: 14.025 seconds

Of course this is still only one test, but it's arguably a real world test.

Benchmarking javascript with dropsecret.com

Decrypting a message on dropsecret.com can take a noticeable amount of time. This is because there are a fair amount of operations involved in decrypting an rsa message. But there is also a noticeable amount of difference between the time it takes different browsers. So I added a simple benchmarking ability to dropsecret.

Simply go to your drop page on dropsecret (if you don't have one you can create one for free) and add the hash #benchmark to the url; ie

http://dropsecret.com/{drop page name}/#benchmark

(You may have to the page to get the new js file). Then decrypt one of your messages. The time it takes will appear the in the top left corner.

Some of my results in Windows 7 are:
IE 8: 61.147 seconds (after telling it not to abort the javascript several times)
Safari 3.2: 57.813 seconds (after telling it not to abort the javascript several times)
Opera 9.6: 37.426 seconds
Firefox 3.0: 27.759 seconds
Chrome 1.0: 1.616 seconds (no really, 1.616 seconds).

Of course your results will vary based on your machine speed and the message length. But now you can test out new browsers claims to have fancy fast js.

Send passwords securely

It has always bothered me that there has only been two ways to use encryption to send secure information around. Either you do it the hard way which means both the sender and the receiver have to use special tools and copy and paste long ugly base64 strings.

Or you can trust a 3rd party with your information and he will take care of all the encryption mess. But the whole point of encryption is you don't want a 3rd party to have your information. You should not have to trust your email provider with your secure communications.

So I created a website to solve this.

DropSecret is the easy and secure way to send passwords, credit card numbers, or any other sensitive information to those whom you trust.

How easy? To send a message you don't need to know any crypto information, have a password, or even have an account. To receive your messages all you need to keep track of is your pass phrase.

How secure? So secure that even with complete control of the server we don't know what your messages are. A drop secret page has a 1024 bit public key that the web browser will use to encrypt your messages. Then the only way to decrypt the message is to use your with your pass phrase.

And why should you trust me that I've implemented everything securely? You shouldn't. That's why I've open sourced the Drop secret encryption library. People should check it out and make sure there are no mistakes (or back doors for that matter). And if you like the library but don't like dropsecret then feel free to use the library make something new yourself.