aescrypt-gui update to use keyfiles

Discussion related to AES Crypt, the file encryption software for Windows, Linux, Mac, and Java.
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rpcook
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Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2020 8:52 pm

aescrypt-gui update to use keyfiles

Post by rpcook »

Wonderful tool, thank you. I like the new GUI but it only prompts for a password, not a keyfile. That would be nice to have.

I have just upgraded to version 3.14 on Ubuntu 18.04 without issue.
I create a folder at ~/.aescrypt and generated a keyfile in there for use for a specific person.
When I installed the GUI and tried it in nautilus it prompted me for a password only. I have bash scripts to to the work for me but would be nice to have the GUI use keyfiles as well.

I envision an environment variable or command line parameter for the keyfile folder and then have the prompt ask for either a password or a keyfile.

Is the GUI available in github as well? I could try this myself (retired s/w engineer with little Java knowledge).
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paulej
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Re: aescrypt-gui update to use keyfiles

Post by paulej »

That's in my long list of to-do items. But my plan in the end would be to collapse they key file concept into aescrypt so that separate key generation is not necessary.

But, it won't be addressed soon. There are pros and cons with the approach, the biggest con being that the keyfile sits in the clear. It's useful on trusted machines where the data of concern is already accessible. But, careless use of key files could lead to hackers getting data that should have been secured.

One possibility might be to introduce a concept like PGP where there's a public and private key, with all private keys encrypted all the time. This would require a more complex GUI, of course.

Anyway, nothing for now and I'm thinking of what I want to do. But, yeah, all the code is out there. I personally don't use the github repo. All my published source comes from my private repo. But both should work.
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