diff --git a/google/auth/_helpers.py b/google/auth/_helpers.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2d3b653
--- /dev/null
+++ b/google/auth/_helpers.py
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+# Copyright 2015 Google Inc.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+"""Helper functions for commonly used utilities."""
+
+import six
+
+
+def to_bytes(value, encoding='utf-8'):
+    """Converts a string value to bytes, if necessary.
+
+    Unfortunately, ``six.b`` is insufficient for this task since in
+    Python 2 because it does not modify ``unicode`` objects.
+
+    Args:
+        value (Union[str, bytes]): The value to be converted.
+        encoding (str): The encoding to use to convert unicode to bytes.
+            Defaults to "utf-8".
+
+    Returns:
+        bytes: The original value converted to bytes (if unicode) or as
+            passed in if it started out as bytes.
+
+    Raises:
+        ValueError: If the value could not be converted to bytes.
+    """
+    result = (value.encode(encoding)
+              if isinstance(value, six.text_type) else value)
+    if isinstance(result, six.binary_type):
+        return result
+    else:
+        raise ValueError('{0!r} could not be converted to bytes'.format(value))
+
+
+def from_bytes(value):
+    """Converts bytes to a string value, if necessary.
+
+    Args:
+        value (Union[str, bytes]): The value to be converted.
+
+    Returns:
+        str: The original value converted to unicode (if bytes) or as passed in
+            if it started out as unicode.
+
+    Raises:
+        ValueError: If the value could not be converted to unicode.
+    """
+    result = (value.decode('utf-8')
+              if isinstance(value, six.binary_type) else value)
+    if isinstance(result, six.text_type):
+        return result
+    else:
+        raise ValueError(
+            '{0!r} could not be converted to unicode'.format(value))
diff --git a/google/auth/crypt.py b/google/auth/crypt.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d347600
--- /dev/null
+++ b/google/auth/crypt.py
@@ -0,0 +1,229 @@
+# Copyright 2016 Google Inc.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+"""Cryptography helpers for verifying and signing messages.
+
+Uses the ``rsa``, ``pyasn1`` and ``pyasn1_modules`` packages
+to parse PEM files storing PKCS#1 or PKCS#8 keys as well as
+certificates. There is no support for p12 files.
+
+The simplest way to verify signatures is using :func:`verify_signature`::
+
+    cert = open('certs.pem').read()
+    valid = crypt.verify_signature(message, signature, cert)
+
+If you're going to verify many messages with the same certificate, you can use
+:class:`Verifier`::
+
+    cert = open('certs.pem').read()
+    verifier = crypt.Verifier.from_string(cert)
+    valid = verifier.verify(message, signature)
+
+
+To sign messages use :class:`Signer` with a private key::
+
+    private_key = open('private_key.pem').read()
+    signer = crypt.Signer(private_key)
+    signature = signer.sign(message)
+
+"""
+
+from pyasn1.codec.der import decoder
+from pyasn1_modules import pem
+from pyasn1_modules.rfc2459 import Certificate
+from pyasn1_modules.rfc5208 import PrivateKeyInfo
+import rsa
+import six
+
+from google.auth import _helpers
+
+_POW2 = (128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1)
+_CERTIFICATE_MARKER = b'-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----'
+_PKCS1_MARKER = ('-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----',
+                 '-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----')
+_PKCS8_MARKER = ('-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----',
+                 '-----END PRIVATE KEY-----')
+_PKCS8_SPEC = PrivateKeyInfo()
+
+
+def _bit_list_to_bytes(bit_list):
+    """Converts an iterable of 1s and 0s to bytes.
+
+    Combines the list 8 at a time, treating each group of 8 bits
+    as a single byte.
+
+    Args:
+        bit_list (Sequence): Sequence of 1s and 0s.
+
+    Returns:
+        bytes: The decoded bytes.
+    """
+    num_bits = len(bit_list)
+    byte_vals = bytearray()
+    for start in six.moves.xrange(0, num_bits, 8):
+        curr_bits = bit_list[start:start + 8]
+        char_val = sum(val * digit
+                       for val, digit in six.moves.zip(_POW2, curr_bits))
+        byte_vals.append(char_val)
+    return bytes(byte_vals)
+
+
+class Verifier(object):
+    """This object is used to verify cryptographic signatures.
+
+    Args:
+        public_key (rsa.key.PublicKey): The public key used to verify
+            signatures.
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self, public_key):
+        self._pubkey = public_key
+
+    def verify(self, message, signature):
+        """Verifies a message against a cryptographic signature.
+
+        Args:
+            message (Union[str, bytes]): The message to verify.
+            signature (Union[str, bytes]): The cryptography signature to check.
+
+        Returns:
+            bool: True if message was signed by the private key associated
+            with the public key that this object was constructed with.
+        """
+        message = _helpers.to_bytes(message)
+        try:
+            return rsa.pkcs1.verify(message, signature, self._pubkey)
+        except (ValueError, rsa.pkcs1.VerificationError):
+            return False
+
+    @classmethod
+    def from_string(cls, public_key):
+        """Construct an Verifier instance from a public key or public
+        certificate string.
+
+        Args:
+            public_key (Union[str, bytes]): The public key in PEM format or the
+                x509 public key certificate.
+
+        Returns:
+            Verifier: The constructed verifier.
+
+        Raises:
+            ValueError: If the public_key can't be parsed.
+        """
+        public_key = _helpers.to_bytes(public_key)
+        is_x509_cert = _CERTIFICATE_MARKER in public_key
+
+        # If this is a certificate, extract the public key info.
+        if is_x509_cert:
+            der = rsa.pem.load_pem(public_key, 'CERTIFICATE')
+            asn1_cert, remaining = decoder.decode(der, asn1Spec=Certificate())
+            if remaining != b'':
+                raise ValueError('Unused bytes', remaining)
+
+            cert_info = asn1_cert['tbsCertificate']['subjectPublicKeyInfo']
+            key_bytes = _bit_list_to_bytes(cert_info['subjectPublicKey'])
+            pubkey = rsa.PublicKey.load_pkcs1(key_bytes, 'DER')
+        else:
+            pubkey = rsa.PublicKey.load_pkcs1(public_key, 'PEM')
+        return cls(pubkey)
+
+
+def verify_signature(message, signature, certs):
+    """Verify a cryptographic signature.
+
+    Checks that the provided ``signature`` was generated from ``bytes`` using
+    the private key associated with the ``cert``.
+
+    Args:
+        message (Union[str, bytes]): The plaintext message.
+        signature (Union[str, bytes]): The cryptographic signature to check.
+        certs (Union[Sequence, str, bytes]): The certificate or certificates
+            to use to check the signature.
+
+    Returns:
+        bool: True if the signature is valid, otherwise False.
+    """
+    if isinstance(certs, (six.text_type, six.binary_type)):
+        certs = [certs]
+
+    for cert in certs:
+        verifier = Verifier.from_string(cert)
+        if verifier.verify(message, signature):
+            return True
+    return False
+
+
+class Signer(object):
+    """Signs messages with a private key.
+
+    Args:
+        private_key (rsa.key.PrivateKey): The private key to sign with.
+        key_id (str): Optional key ID used to identify this private key. This
+            can be useful to associate the private key with its associated
+            public key or certificate.
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self, private_key, key_id=None):
+        self._key = private_key
+        self.key_id = key_id
+
+    def sign(self, message):
+        """Signs a message.
+
+        Args:
+            message (Union[str, bytes]): The message to be signed.
+
+        Returns:
+            bytes: The signature of the message for the given key.
+        """
+        message = _helpers.to_bytes(message)
+        return rsa.pkcs1.sign(message, self._key, 'SHA-256')
+
+    @classmethod
+    def from_string(cls, key, key_id=None):
+        """Construct an Signer instance from a private key in PEM format.
+
+        Args:
+            key (str): Private key in PEM format.
+            key_id (str): An optional key id used to identify the private key.
+
+        Returns:
+            Signer: The constructed signer.
+
+        Raises:
+            ValueError: If the key cannot be parsed as PKCS#1 or PKCS#8 in
+                PEM format.
+        """
+        key = _helpers.from_bytes(key)  # PEM expects str in Python 3
+        marker_id, key_bytes = pem.readPemBlocksFromFile(
+            six.StringIO(key), _PKCS1_MARKER, _PKCS8_MARKER)
+
+        # Key is in pkcs1 format.
+        if marker_id == 0:
+            private_key = rsa.key.PrivateKey.load_pkcs1(
+                key_bytes, format='DER')
+        # Key is in pkcs8.
+        elif marker_id == 1:
+            key_info, remaining = decoder.decode(
+                key_bytes, asn1Spec=_PKCS8_SPEC)
+            if remaining != b'':
+                raise ValueError('Unused bytes', remaining)
+            private_key_info = key_info.getComponentByName('privateKey')
+            private_key = rsa.key.PrivateKey.load_pkcs1(
+                private_key_info.asOctets(), format='DER')
+        else:
+            raise ValueError('No key could be detected.')
+
+        return cls(private_key, key_id=key_id)