C speedup extension
Created originally on Bitbucket by Anonymous
===== //(Imported from Google Code)//
It would be useful to add an (optional) C extension to passlib which could speed up some of the core routines, ala how simplejson does things.
C backends for mdes_encrypt_block() and pbkdf2() would speed up a number of hashes all by themselves.
Additionally, hash-specific backends could be written for: bcrypt, sha1_crypt, (apr_)?md5_crypt, sun_md5_crypt, sha(256~|512)_crypt, phpass.
However, this would make passlib no longer pure-python, and introduce a number of build-related issues, so would need to be done right if done at all.