# Request for built-in encryption in HDF5

**URL:** <https://forum.hdfgroup.org/t/request-for-built-in-encryption-in-hdf5/13592>\
**Category:** HDF5 Library\
**Created:** [November 14, 2025, 4:11pm UTC](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/t/request-for-built-in-encryption-in-hdf5/13592 "2025-11-14T16:11:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dejan.lekic](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/user_avatar/forum.hdfgroup.org/dejan.lekic/32/2093_2.png) [@dejan.lekic](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/u/dejan.lekic)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2025, 4:11pm UTC](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/t/request-for-built-in-encryption-in-hdf5/13592/1 "2025-11-14T16:11:54Z")

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Can we please finally have built-in encryption? I expected it to be introduced in 1.14 as someone somewhere mentioned, but I can’t find it anywhere either in source or in documentation.

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**Author:** ![hyoklee](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/user_avatar/forum.hdfgroup.org/hyoklee/32/1528_2.png) [@hyoklee](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/u/hyoklee)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2025, 4:14pm UTC](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/t/request-for-built-in-encryption-in-hdf5/13592/2 "2025-11-14T16:14:19Z")

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Hi @dejan.lekic, do you have any specific encryption algorithm that you need?

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**Author:** ![dejan.lekic](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/user_avatar/forum.hdfgroup.org/dejan.lekic/32/2093_2.png) [@dejan.lekic](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/u/dejan.lekic)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2025, 4:25pm UTC](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/t/request-for-built-in-encryption-in-hdf5/13592/3 "2025-11-14T16:25:43Z")

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AES-256-GCM or similar would be more than enough for my use-case.

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**Author:** ![epourmal1](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/82dd89/32.png) [@epourmal1](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/u/epourmal1)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2025, 7:40pm UTC](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/t/request-for-built-in-encryption-in-hdf5/13592/4 "2025-11-14T19:40:33Z")

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Hi Dejan,

Lifeboat, LLC ([https://www.lifeboat.llc](https://www.lifeboat.llc)) received DOE SBIR Phase I and II funding to implement encryption in HDF5. As part of this effort, we plan to contribute portions of our code to the open source HDF5 project.

If you’re interested, please take a look at our working prototype [GitHub - LifeboatLLC/HDF5-Encryption](https://github.com/LifeboatLLC/HDF5-Encryption) . It implements AES and Twofish encryption methods using the GNU gcrypt library.

All sequential features should be supported, with the exception of VDS.

We plan to release the prototype as open source after we complete a mechanism to configure the VFD stack and pass compression parameters via a configuration file (otherwise HDF5 tools will not work).

Please let me know if you have any questions about the encryption demo. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Elena

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**Author:** ![dejan.lekic](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/user_avatar/forum.hdfgroup.org/dejan.lekic/32/2093_2.png) [@dejan.lekic](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/u/dejan.lekic)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 10:38pm UTC](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/t/request-for-built-in-encryption-in-hdf5/13592/5 "2025-12-11T22:38:14Z")

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Elena, I am aware of that project as it popped up when I searched for HDF5+encryption. 🙂 I haven’t had the chance to give it a try.