Simple file encryption/decryption utility

XORCrypt is a simple command-line utility which allows you to encrypt files using a password.
As it's name implies, it uses XOR encryption.

⚠️ Warning

This utility is not designed to protect sensitive data.
Do NOT use this utility to protect sensitive information as XOR encryption not secure enough for such application.

If you're looking for a secure alternative, try the free and open-source rclone or Cryptomator.

Dependencies

• clap
  • For command-line argument parsing
• rpassword
  • Allows reading passwords from the command-line
• spinoff
  • Allows displaying cool spinners.

Parts

• main.rs
  • The main part of the app.
• crypto.rs
  • Provides functions for encryption/decryption.

Usage

Simple encrypt, password will be requested from stdin.

xorcrypt data.txt -o data.txt.encrypted

Or you can pass a password as an argument.

xorcrypt -p superpassword123 data.txt -o data.txt.encrypted

Decryption: (-p can also be used here)

xorcrypt -r data.txt.encrypted -o data.txt

For help use xorcrypt --help.

Building from source

You can simply clone this repo and use cargo run to build the app. No additional configuration is needed.

Compatibility

• ✅ Windows
• ✅ macOS (x86 & ARM)
• ✅ Linux (x86 & ARM)

Encryption details

XORCrypt reads N bytes from the source file in a loop. N is the length of the password. Next, each byte from the N-sized buffer is XORed with a byte (ASCII code) from the password.

Example:

Let's define a password: code.
Let's say the data we're trying to encrypt (in hexadecimal) is FE ED BE EF.

FE ED BE EF
^^ ^^ ^^ ^^
|  |  |  |- XOR with 'e' (0x65)
|  |  |- XOR with 'd' (0x6E)
|  |- XOR with 'o' (0x6F)
|- XOR with 'c' (0x63)

End result is:

FE ^ 63 = 9D
ED ^ 6F = 82
BE ^ 6E = D0
EF ^ 65 = 8A

The encrypted data is 9D 82 D0 8A.

Additional notes

Files encrypted using XORCrypt will start with a "magic byte". This is used to allow XORCrypt to detect whether this file was encrypted or not. This magic byte is defined here.