Ubuntu – Encrypting/Decrypting a single file in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

12.04

I need to be able to encrypt/decrypt a single text file stored on my external HD in 12.04 LTS, preferably a GUI application, if any, or the command line otherwise. Thank you.

Best Answer

A simple way to encrypt a single file is with openssl:

openssl des3 < youfile.txt > yourfile.txt.des3

This will prompt you for a passphrase, which you will need to enter later when decrypting the file.

openssl des3 -d < yourfile.txt.des3 > yourfile.txt.decrypted

To make this "graphical" you could put it in a Nautilus script and make it accessible from the context menu. (See the docs of Nautilus for that.)

UPDATE

des3 is just an example. Run openssl list-cipher-algorithms to see the full list of ciphers.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to encrypt/decrypt file within gedit

I had to fight a bit with ryran's example until I got what I needed: encrypt using my GPG key to several people. This is the code to encrypt:

#!/bin/sh
gpg -a -e -r test@test.com -r test2@test.com --no-tty -

And to decrypt:

#!/bin/sh
gpg -d --no-tty - 2> /dev/null

And set input to "current document" and output to "replace current document" in both cases.

Best Answer

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Ubuntu – How to encrypt/decrypt file within gedit

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