Navigation:  Files Editing Features > Cryptography > Cryptography

Cryptography is a feature of Sprintbit File Manager that lets you encrypt or decrypt files.
To open its window, please go to the software main window and click the Tools page and then click the Cryptography button located at Main toolbar > Tools tab  > Editors group

File Encryption is scrambling process in which files are made unreadable until the specific decryption method has been employed.
The most common use is to protect your private files, documents and information. Once encrypted, your files would be unreadable.
The files can be brought back to a readable state by decrypting.

Please be aware that many implementations of encryption algorithms exist on the market. While they all employ the same ideas they don't necessarily have to be binary compatible.

Usually they are not. Therefore, data encrypted by this software will not be decrypted by other software or vice versa.

 

The window is divided into a four groups of controls:

 

The following commands and controls are available on the toolbar:

 

Cryptography

---

A group commands that you can execute either to encrypt or decrypt files:

 

 
Encrypt File To File

This command encrypts file.

You can encrypt one or more selected files at once.

A new file will be created and renamed with _ENCRYPTED extension if in the Options group Overwrite source files option is not checked

After the file is successfully encrypted you can delete or shred source file yourself.

If in the Options group Overwrite source files option is checked then source file will be shredded and deleted automatically

 

Decrypt File To File

This command decrypts previously encrypted file.

You can decrypt one or more selected files at once.

A new file will be created and renamed with _DECRYPTED extension if in the Options group Overwrite target files option is not checked

If in the Options group Overwrite target files option is checked then the target if exists will be overwritten

 

Options

---

 

All of cryptography methods takes following parameters:
 

 

Overwrite source files
If option is not checked then after the file is successfully encrypted or decrypted you can delete or shred source file yourself.

If is checked then source file will be shredded and deleted automatically

 

Overwrite target files
If option is not checked then after the file is decrypted a new file will be created and renamed with _DECRYPTED extension

If is checked then the target if exists will be overwritten

 

Expiration date
If option is checked then a file will be encrypted and will expire after the certain date.
After a file expire it cannot be viewed or opened anymore. Also there will be no way to decrypt a file again.

So, when creating expired files be sure that you have some original files.

Set the date on which a file expire in the date picker located on the right side of this check mark

Software while creating expired files will not overwrite source files even you have set that in the cryptography options.

 

Recursively
If option is not checked then only visible selected files will be processed

If is checked then all files in selected folders will be processed too

 

 

Algorithms

---

A list of available encryption algorithms:
Here we give only a little information on algorithms. Cryptography is a deep and complex knowledge. If you want to learn more please search the Internet
 

AES
Known as Rijndael symmetric encryption. Rijndael (pronounced rain-dahl) is the algorithm that has been selected by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as the candidate for the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). It was selected from a list of five finalists, that were themselves selected from an original list of more than 15 submissions. Rijndael will begin to supplant the Data Encryption Standard (DES) - and later Triple DES - over the next few years in many cryptography applications.

Rijndael is the most popular symmetric key block cipher used today. It uses a block size of 128 bits with a variable key length of 128 bits to 256 bits. While DES and many other ciphers used a Feistel network, Rijndael uses a substitution-permutation network. This substitution-permutation network allows Rijndael to perform fast in both software and hardware applications. Rijndael is simple to implement and uses very little system memory.

Rijndael is used for both classified and non-classified government information today and is seen as being practically crack-proof. While the algorithm is seen as being theoretically able to be cracked, it is not a realistic threat with today's level of technology. Brute force attacks against Rijndael have proven ineffective to date

We strongly recommend to use this algorithm with 256 key size as your default algorithm.
 
DES
Data Encryption Standard (DES) is a widely-used method of data encryption using a private (secret) key.
DES applies a 56-bit key to each 64-bit block of data. The process can run in several modes and involves 16 rounds or operations.
Although this is considered "strong" encryption, many companies use "triple DES", which applies three keys in succession. This is not to say that a DES-encrypted message cannot be "broken."

 

TripleDES
Triple DES (3DES[1]) is the common name for the Triple Data Encryption Algorithm (TDEA) block cipher, which applies the Data Encryption Standard (DES) cipher algorithm three times to each data block. Because of the availability of increasing computational power, the key size of the original DES cipher was becoming subject to brute force attacks; Triple DES was designed to provide a relatively simple method of increasing the key size of DES to protect against such attacks, without designing a completely new block cipher algorithm.

 
RC2
RC2 is a 64-bit block cipher with a variable key size. We however provide three sizes of keys to use 40, 64, 90, 128

 

Password

---

Password is required for all encryption or decryption methods. Enter your password into this text box  and into a Confirm Password box too

The software offers options to remember your password. For more information please refer to Cryptography Options topic

 

 

File Properties

---

 

Here you can view selected file properties. After you select a file in File Browser the property grid will show you whether file is encrypted or not, what algorithm and key size was used.

Some other basic file properties are shown as well.

 

Read another topic Using Encrypted Files

 

See also Sign Files topic about other security features provided by Sprintbit File Manager