Nice and easy file encryption in Linux using openssl

Providing you’ve got openssl installed then command line file encryption and decryption is a breeze on Linux. And since almost all web servers have openssl installed this is a more robust solution than relying on bcrypt or gpg.

To encrypt a file:

openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -e -in /file/to/encrypt -out /file/to/save

To decrypt a file:

openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -d -in ~/file/to/decrypt -out ~/file/to/save

It’s worth noting that openssl does not delete the original file when encrypting or decrypting, so you’ll need to make sure that you do that afterwards. It’s also worth mentioning that you can use almost any type of encryption you could dream of. Simply replace -aes-256-cbc with one of the values below:

 base64             Base 64

 bf-cbc             Blowfish in CBC mode
 bf                 Alias for bf-cbc
 bf-cfb             Blowfish in CFB mode
 bf-ecb             Blowfish in ECB mode
 bf-ofb             Blowfish in OFB mode

 cast-cbc           CAST in CBC mode
 cast               Alias for cast-cbc
 cast5-cbc          CAST5 in CBC mode
 cast5-cfb          CAST5 in CFB mode
 cast5-ecb          CAST5 in ECB mode
 cast5-ofb          CAST5 in OFB mode

 des-cbc            DES in CBC mode
 des                Alias for des-cbc
 des-cfb            DES in CBC mode
 des-ofb            DES in OFB mode
 des-ecb            DES in ECB mode

 des-ede-cbc        Two key triple DES EDE in CBC mode
 des-ede            Two key triple DES EDE in ECB mode
 des-ede-cfb        Two key triple DES EDE in CFB mode
 des-ede-ofb        Two key triple DES EDE in OFB mode

 des-ede3-cbc       Three key triple DES EDE in CBC mode
 des-ede3           Three key triple DES EDE in ECB mode
 des3               Alias for des-ede3-cbc
 des-ede3-cfb       Three key triple DES EDE CFB mode
 des-ede3-ofb       Three key triple DES EDE in OFB mode

 desx               DESX algorithm.

 gost89             GOST 28147-89 in CFB mode (provided by ccgost engine)
 gost89-cnt        `GOST 28147-89 in CNT mode (provided by ccgost engine)

 idea-cbc           IDEA algorithm in CBC mode
 idea               same as idea-cbc
 idea-cfb           IDEA in CFB mode
 idea-ecb           IDEA in ECB mode
 idea-ofb           IDEA in OFB mode

 rc2-cbc            128 bit RC2 in CBC mode
 rc2                Alias for rc2-cbc
 rc2-cfb            128 bit RC2 in CFB mode
 rc2-ecb            128 bit RC2 in ECB mode
 rc2-ofb            128 bit RC2 in OFB mode
 rc2-64-cbc         64 bit RC2 in CBC mode
 rc2-40-cbc         40 bit RC2 in CBC mode

 rc4                128 bit RC4
 rc4-64             64 bit RC4
 rc4-40             40 bit RC4

 rc5-cbc            RC5 cipher in CBC mode
 rc5                Alias for rc5-cbc
 rc5-cfb            RC5 cipher in CFB mode
 rc5-ecb            RC5 cipher in ECB mode
 rc5-ofb            RC5 cipher in OFB mode

 aes-[128|192|256]-cbc  128/192/256 bit AES in CBC mode
 aes-[128|192|256]      Alias for aes-[128|192|256]-cbc
 aes-[128|192|256]-cfb  128/192/256 bit AES in 128 bit CFB mode
 aes-[128|192|256]-cfb1 128/192/256 bit AES in 1 bit CFB mode
 aes-[128|192|256]-cfb8 128/192/256 bit AES in 8 bit CFB mode
 aes-[128|192|256]-ecb  128/192/256 bit AES in ECB mode
 aes-[128|192|256]-ofb  128/192/256 bit AES in OFB mode