diff --git a/src/storagebackend.cpp b/src/storagebackend.cpp
index ec87e33b3c2ae08eb8632a855408034138b8a032..ce27dfae0e46cb7914b86e68977b3befb73e2f27 100644
--- a/src/storagebackend.cpp
+++ b/src/storagebackend.cpp
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@
 #include "transport/mysqlbackend.h"
 #include "transport/pqxxbackend.h"
 
+#include "Swiften/Swiften.h"
+
 namespace Transport {
 
 StorageBackend *StorageBackend::createBackend(Config *config, std::string &error) {
@@ -47,4 +49,56 @@ StorageBackend *StorageBackend::createBackend(Config *config, std::string &error
 	return storageBackend;
 }
 
+std::string StorageBackend::encryptPassword(const std::string &password, const std::string &key) {
+	std::string encrypted;
+	encrypted.resize(password.size());
+	for (int i = 0; i < password.size(); i++) {
+		char c = password[i];
+		char keychar = key[i % key.size()];
+		c += keychar;
+		encrypted[i] = c;
+	}
+
+	encrypted = Swift::Base64::encode(Swift::createByteArray(encrypted));
+	return encrypted;
+}
+
+std::string StorageBackend::decryptPassword(std::string &encrypted, const std::string &key) {
+	encrypted = Swift::byteArrayToString(Swift::Base64::decode(encrypted));
+	std::string password;
+	password.resize(encrypted.size());
+	for (int i = 0; i < encrypted.size(); i++) {
+		char c = encrypted[i];
+		char keychar = key[i % key.size()];
+		c -= keychar;
+		password[i] = c;
+	}
+
+	return password;
+}
+
+std::string StorageBackend::serializeGroups(const std::vector<std::string> &groups) {
+	std::string ret;
+	BOOST_FOREACH(const std::string &group, groups) {
+		ret += group + "\n";
+	}
+	if (!ret.empty()) {
+		ret.erase(ret.end() - 1);
+	}
+	return ret;
+}
+
+std::vector<std::string> StorageBackend::deserializeGroups(std::string &groups) {
+	std::vector<std::string> ret;
+	if (groups.empty()) {
+		return ret;
+	}
+
+	boost::split(ret, groups, boost::is_any_of("\n"));
+	if (ret.back().empty()) {
+		ret.erase(ret.end() - 1);
+	}
+	return ret;
+}
+
 }