filecrypt

A tool to encrypt and decrypt files. This project has been developed as part of a module at my university.

filecrypt --help

Symmetric key

Encrypting

To encrypt the file secret.txt, run the following command:

filecrypt secret.txt

This will result in 3 files:

1. The encrypted file secret.txt.bin
2. A key file secret.txt.bin.key.yaml
3. A metadata file secret.txt.bin.meta.yaml

The actual data is contained in secret.txt.bin. To decrypt secret.txt.bin, the key contained in secret.txt.bin.key.yaml is needed. The file secret.txt.bin.meta.yaml contains all the other necessary parameters to decrypt the file.

Decrypting

In order to decrypt the file secret.txt.bin, use the following command:

filecrypt secret.txt.bin --decrypt

The result is the decrypted file decrypted_secret.txt. This command expects the files secret.txt.bin.key.yaml and secret.txt.bin.meta.yaml to be present. If your key file and metadata file have different names, you have to specify them explicitly:

filecrypt
secret.txt.bin
--decrypt
--key-file=secret.txt.bin.key.yaml
--metadata=secret.txt.bin.meta.yaml

Password based

Encrypting

To encrypt secret.txt using a password, run the following command:

filecrypt secret.txt --password

You will be asked for a password which you need to enter. If you want to specify the password via the command line arguments, that is possible as well:

filecrypt secret.txt --password=supersecret

Decrypting

To decrypt the resulting secret.txt.bin, you need to enter the password again.

filecrypt secret.txt --decrypt --password

Verifying file contents

If you want to verify that a file has not been corrupted, use the --verification option when encrypting.

filecrypt secret.txt --verification

As long as you keep the metadata file, the file contents will be verified automatically on decryption.

filecrypt secret.txt --decrypt

Signing file contents

If you want to sign the file contents, use the --signature option when encrypting.

filecrypt secret.txt --signature

As long as you keep the metadata file, the signature will be verified automatically on decryption.

filecrypt secret.txt --decrypt