ABOUT -- Bcrypt is a cross platform file encryption utility. Encrypted files are portable across all supported operating systems and processors. Passphrases are between 8 and 56 characters and are hashed internally to a 448 bit key. However, all characters supplied are significant. The stronger your passphrase, the more secure your data. Bcrypt uses the blowfish encryption algorithm published by Bruce Schneier in 1993. More information on the algorithm can be found at: http://www.counterpane.com/blowfish.html Specifically, bcrypt uses Paul Kocher's implementation of the algorithm. The source distributed with bcrypt has been slightly altered from the original. Original source code can be obtained from: http://www.counterpane.com/bfsh-koc.zip SUPPORTED PLATFORMS -- Bcrypt has been successfully tested on the following platforms: x86 FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Linux, Cygwin, Win32 Sparc R220 Solaris 2.7, 2.8 Sparc Ultra60 Linux 2.4 Alpha Linux 2.4 PPC G4 MacOS X 10.1 SERVER PPC RS/6000 Linux 2.4 No other operating systems have been tested, but most should work with minimal modifications. If you get bcrypt to compile without errors on any other platform / architecture, I'd like to know about it. If patches are necessary to get bcrypt work on your OS, I will try to incorporate them into the main distribution. If you have a machine not listed above that is incapable of compiling bcrypt and are willing to give me access to the machine, I will make an attempt to port it to your OS. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS -- zlib - http://www.gzip.org/zlib/ INSTALLATION -- If you're so inclined, edit config.h and change the defaults to whatever you think is appropriate for your needs. If you choose not to have bcrypt remove input files after processing, or set SECUREDELETE to 0, you are likely to have data on your hard drive that can be recovered even after deletion. All of these options can be set on the command line as well. When you're satisfied with the default settings, simply type: make then su and type: make install It would be wise to test the installation on a few unimportant files before encrypting anything you value and removing the only copy. USAGE -- bcrypt [-orc][-sN] file ... Encrypted files will be saved with an extension of .bfe. Any files ending in .bfe will be assumed to be encrypted with bcrypt and will attempt to decrypt them. Any other input files will be encrypted. If more than one type of file is given, bcrypt will process all files which are the same as the first filetype given. By default, bcrypt will compress input files before encryption, remove input files after they are processed (assuming they are processed successfully) and overwrite input files with random data to prevent data recovery. Passphrases may be between 8 and 56 characters. Regardless of the passphrase size, the key is hashed internally to 448 bits - the largest keysize supported by the blowfish algorithm. However, it is still wise to use a strong passphrase. OPTIONS -o print output to standard out. Implies -r. -c DO NOT compress files before encryption. -r DO NOT remove input files after processing -sN How many times to overwrite input files with random data before processing. The default number of overwrites is 3. Use -s0 to disable this feature. No effect if -r is supplied. The options o,c and r each have the opposite effects if the appropriate settings are altered from the default in config.h. To determine what effect each of these have, run bcrypt without any options. Encrypted files should be compatible between most systems. Binary compatibility has been tested for all systems listed above. /* ==================================================================== * Copyright (c) 2002 Johnny Shelley. All rights reserved. * * Bcrypt is licensed under the BSD software license. See the file * called 'LICENSE' that you should have received with this software * for details * ==================================================================== */