diff --git a/jwt.php b/jwt.php
index 6b9f784..c59d294 100644
--- a/jwt.php
+++ b/jwt.php
@@ -35,11 +35,13 @@ class jwt
     * @param string|null $alg The algorithm to use to sign the token (default
     *   is HS256)
     * Allowed algorithms : HS256, HS512, HS384
-    * @param string|null $ckey The cipher key to encrypt the payload (24 chars
-    * length)
+    * @param string|null $ckey The cipher key to encrypt the payload
+    * @param string|null $cipherMethod The method to cipher the payload
+    * des-ede3-cbc by default
     * @return string The Token
     */
-  public function encode ($payload, $key, $alg = "HS256", $ckey = null)
+  public function encode ($payload, $key, $alg = "HS256", $ckey = null,
+    $cipherMethod = "des-ede3-cbc")
   // {{{
   {
     if (! key_exists ($alg, $this->supportedAlgs))
@@ -52,7 +54,7 @@ class jwt
     if ($ckey)
     {
       $encrypt = new encrypt ();
-      $payload = $encrypt->encrypt ($payload, $ckey);
+      $payload = $encrypt->encrypt ($payload, $ckey, $cipherMethod);
     }
     $segments[] = $this->urlsafeB64Encode ($payload);
     $toBeSigned = implode ('.', $segments);
@@ -67,13 +69,15 @@ class jwt
     * @param string $key The key used to sign the message
     * @param array|null $allowedAlg List of allowed algorithms. If null, all the
     * algorithms defined in $this->supportedAlgs are allowed
-    * @param string|null $ckey The cipher key to decrypt the payload (24 chars
-    * length)
+    * @param string|null $ckey The cipher key to decrypt the payload
+    * @param string|null $cipherMethod The method to cipher the payload
+    * des-ede3-cbc by default
     * @return array the decoded payload
     * @throw Exception if the key is not able to verify the token with the
     * provided password
     */
-  public function decode ($jwt, $key, $allowedAlg = null, $ckey = null)
+  public function decode ($jwt, $key, $allowedAlg = null, $ckey = null,
+    $cipherMethod = "des-ede3-cbc")
   // {{{
   {
     if ($allowedAlg === null)