Encrypt and decrypt files with password

Question

I'm using linux and I basically want to encrypt a file using a password.

I've tried using gpg -c myfile for encryption, and that works fine, it asks me for a password and encrypts it. But it only asks for a password when encrypting.

I want a way to encrypt a file and if you want to decrypt it you have to give the same password that it was encrypted with.

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If there's a python library that would work too since I can put that on a script.

Answer 1

There are several alternatives to create passowrd protected files under Linux.

GnuPG

GnuPG can be used to encrypt data and create digital signatures.

To encrypt and decrypt a data.txt file, use gpg command as follows:

$ gpg -c data.txt
$ gpg data.txt.gpg

mcrypt

mcrypt allows you to create password protected files similarly to GnuPG

To encrypt and decrypt a data.txt file, use mcrypt command as follows:

$ mcrypt data.txt
$ mcrypt -d data.txt.nc

OpenSSL

The OpenSSl Cryptography Toolkit can also be used to encrypt and decrypt files and messages.

To encrypt and decrypt a data.txt file, use the openssl command as follows:

$ openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -salt -in data.txt -out data.txt.enc
$ openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -d -in data.txt.enc -out data.txt