# Hurdles for Developers in Cryptography

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2108.07141 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.07141/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 16 Aug 2021.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [ChatGPT's Potential in Cryptography Misuse Detection: A Comparative Analysis with Static Analysis Tools](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.06561/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Prior research has shown that cryptography is hard to use for developers. We aim to understand what cryptography issues developers face in practice. We clustered 91954 cryptography-related questions on the Stack Overflow website, and manually analyzed a significant sample (i.e., 383) of the questions to comprehend the crypto challenges developers commonly face in this domain. We found that either developers have a distinct lack of knowledge in understanding the fundamental concepts, eg OpenSSL, public-key cryptography or password hashing, or the usability of crypto libraries undermined developer performance to correctly realize a crypto scenario. This is alarming and indicates the need for dedicated research to improve the design of crypto APIs.