Eksblowfish is a variant of the Blowfish cipher, modified to make the key setup very expensive. ("Eks" stands for "expensive key schedule".) This doesn't make it significantly cryptographically stronger, but is intended to hinder brute-force attacks. It also makes it unsuitable for any application requiring key agility. It was designed by Niels Provos and David Mazieres for password hashing in OpenBSD. See Crypt::Eksblowfish::Bcrypt for the hash algorithm. See Crypt::Eksblowfish::Blowfish for the unmodified Blowfish cipher. Eksblowfish is a parameterised (family-keyed) cipher. It takes a cost parameter that controls how expensive the key scheduling is. It also takes a family key, known as the "salt". Cost and salt parameters together define a cipher family. Within each family, a key determines an encryption function in the usual way. See Crypt::Eksblowfish::Family for a way to encapsulate an Eksblowfish cipher family.