Looking for a quick, easy, and secure method to protect your files? Well, there is a simple shell utility called "Cryptr" that helps you to encrypt and decrypt files. All from command line, and you don't need to be a security ninja or Linux expert to learn how to secure your data. Cryptr uses OpenSSL AES-256 cipher block chaining method to encrypt files. It is free to use and is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.
Encrypt And Decrypt Files Using Cryptr
Installation is not a big deal. Git clone Cryptr repository using command:
$ git clone https://github.com/nodesocket/cryptr.git
This command will clone the contents of Cryptr repository in a folder called cryptr in your current working directory.
Then link the cryptr.bash file to your bin folder using command:
$ sudo ln -s "$PWD"/cryptr/cryptr.bash /usr/local/bin/cryptr
That's it. It's time to see some usage examples.
Let us encrypt a file called "test.txt". To do so, run the following command from your Terminal. Cryptr will ask you to enter the password to the file twice.
$ cryptr encrypt test.txt enter aes-256-cbc encryption password: Verifying - enter aes-256-cbc encryption password:
The above command will encrypt the given file (I.e test.txt) using AES-256-CBC encryption method and save it with an extension .aes. You can use "ls" command to verify if the file is really encrypted or not.
If there is .aes extension at the end of the file name, it means that the file has been encrypted.
To decrypt an encrypted file, use the following command. Enter the correct password and voila!
$ cryptr decrypt test.txt.aes enter aes-256-cbc decryption password:
You can also define the password to use when encrypting a file using the CRYPTR_PASSWORD environment variable like below.
$ CRYPTR_PASSWORD=BC1rO7K7SspYcLChMr28M cryptr encrypt test.txt Using environment variable CRYPTR_PASSWORD for the password
Here, BC1rO7K7SspYcLChMr28M is the password to the file.
Similarly, to decrypt an encrypted file, use:
$ CRYPTR_PASSWORD=BC1rO7K7SspYcLChMr28M cryptr decrypt test.txt.aes Using environment variable CRYPTR_PASSWORD for the password
This can be helpful in scripts and batch operations.
To view the help, run:
$ cryptr help Usage: cryptr command <command-specific-options> encrypt <file> Encrypt file decrypt <file.aes> Decrypt encrypted file help Displays help version Displays the current version
If you're looking for a simple utility that just works out of the box without much hassle, give Cryptr a try.
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4 comments
Come on, guys. This utility is a very trivial exercise in beginning shell programming.
Not everyone is a “guru” like you my dear Sir.
Great script and flows well. However, where I think is falls short is that the input file remains in clear text. So perhaps adding a function using the “wipe” utility (if available) and then when decrypting, restore the original file. So basically always remove the input file after encrypting then restore when decrypting.
Great script and flows well. However, where I think is falls short is that the input file remains in clear text. So perhaps adding a function using the “wipe” utility (if available) and then when decrypting, restore the original file. So basically always remove the input file after encrypting then restore when decrypting.
Maybe something like this: wipe -ceifr “$_file” & wipe -ceifr *.aes
Thank you for sharing!!!