File And Text Encryption (fate) Files

Fate - file and text encryption version 12.01
22 February 2025
**NOTE: This version is not compatible with previous version!

fate.exe - Windows main user interface
fate_eng.exe - Windows encryption and hashing engine
fate - Linux main user interface
fate_eng - Linux encryption and hashing engine

Some encryption utilities offer more-than-is-necessary options, and Fate was
created to achieve very secure file and text encryption with no confusing
options to consider. To use Fate, simply place fate(.exe) and fate_eng(.exe) in
a directory, and run the main user interface, fate(.exe)

**NOTE: Linux users, fate_eng must be in your $PATH

If you want to know the geeky details, read on:

fate, the main user interface, is a TCL script.
fate_eng, the encryption and hashing engine, is compiled Crystal code, and is
_very_ fast.

The cipher used is Aria(256) in OFB mode for files, and a cascade of Blowfish
and AES(256) in CBC mode for text. Aria is a modern Rindael (AES) style cipher.

Fate uses the encryption and hashing engine, fate_eng(.exe), to:

1) Obtain the hash of the file to be encrypted or of the file just de-ciphered.
(file encryption mode)

2) Generate a 256 bit keystream from the user provide password. (both file and
text encryption mode)

3) Perform file encryption. (Text encryption, because of much smaller input, is
simply handled by the main script)

4) Concatenate the result of the file encryption with several pieces of meta
data.

Because of the speed of fate_eng, the keystream generator now iterates between
100,000 and 200,000, chosen randomly, hundreds of times more than in previous
versions where this was done by the TCL main script.

If you like to use these little scripts that I make, consider writing an email
and tell me where you're from. Have fun!

Dana Booth
danabooth@mail.com



Changelog:

12.01 - fate_eng replaces both OpenSSL and cat. Both file and text encryption
now use fate_eng for ridiculously secure keystream generation. Because of these
changes, 12.01 is not compatible with previous versions.

11.02.1 - Fate was not properly closing the encrypted file upon an unsuccessful
decryption attempt, fixed.

11.02 - OpenSSL version 3.x came with major changes, and Fate v11.x addresses
this; this makes Fate v11.x incompatible with earlier versions. Additionally,
the method of text encryption has changed as well.

10.0 - Text encryption remains unchanged, file encryption is much faster. In
previous versions, the file would be compressed before being encrypted, and I
left that out in this version as, especially with large file, there was a big
speed hit for minimal benefit. Additionally, if you choose to "overwrite" a
file in either encrypt or decrypt mode, Fate will keep you original file safe
by copying it and renaming it before encryption / decryption until it knows
the operation was successful

9.0 - Text enctyption changed from TripleDES to AES-256(cbc)

8.0 - Not compatible with previous versions, Fate now chooses ciphers and modes
at runtime. The salt is now much longer.

5.0 - ** Both file and text output encryption methods have changed, if you have
files created from a previous version, be sure and keep them seperate, or re-
encrypt using this version.

File encryption method of passing the keystream and IV have changed,
additionally, the hash of the original file is stored in the encrypted file,
which the script will use to determine whether or not to overwrite an older
file. Another minor change is that the Linux version of Fate will store file
attributes on filesystems that support it, and write those attributes upon
de-ciphering. On Windows it's kind of a non-issue.

Changed the method of text encryption from TCL native AES-256 to using
OpenSSL Aria-256 just to be consistent. If you've saved text encrypted files
from an older version, keep that older version handy. Ciphertext output is back
to Base64 as it seems to be more universally used.

4.0 - strengthened the password routine, and changed the output from base64 to
ascii85, this will shorten the output ciphertext minimally. This makes this
version incompatible with previous versions

3.01, 07 Aug 2022, It was brought to my attention that encrypting / decrypting
files appeared as plural in the pull down, and I changed that. Also saw no sense
in spawning and deleting openssl.exe each time, so now it just checks to make
sure it's there, and will spawn it if it isn't

3.0, 05 Aug 2022, first public offering

Pre 3.0, was using Fate successfully, adding and subtracting things until I was
satisfied that other people wouldn't absolutely hate it.