Summary
In this short chapter, we explored the world of cryptography in the Python standard library. We learned how to create a hash (or digest) for a message using different cryptographic functions. We also learned how to create tokens and deal with random data when it comes to the cryptography context.
We then took a small tour outside the standard library to learn about JSON Web Tokens, which are commonly used in authentication and claims-related functionalities by modern systems and applications.
The most important thing is to understand that doing things manually can be very risky when it comes to cryptography, so it's always best to leave it to the professionals and simply use the tools we have available.
The next chapter will be about testing our code so that we can be confident that it works the way it is supposed to.
