rtty-soda 0.6.0

A PyNaCl frontend with custom encodings, compression, and key derivation

rtty-soda

A PyNaCl frontend with custom encodings, compression, and key derivation.

Features

• Public key encryption (Curve25519-XSalsa20-Poly1305)
• Secret key encryption (XSalsa20-Poly1305)
• Key derivation (Argon2id-Blake2b)
• Text compression (brotli, zstd, zlib, bz2, lzma)
• Custom encodings:
  • Base10 (Decimal)
  • Base26 (Latin)
  • Base31 (Cyrillic)
  • Base32 (RFC 4648)
  • Base36 (Latin with numbers)
  • Base64 (RFC 4648)
  • Base94 (ASCII printable)
  • Binary

Installation

Package manager

1. Install uv
2. Install rtty-soda:

   % uv tool install "rtty-soda[cli]"
   

3. Remove rtty-soda:

   % uv tool uninstall rtty-soda
   

Docker

% docker run -it --rm -h rtty-soda -v .:/app/host nett/rtty-soda:0.6.0
% docker run -it --rm -h rtty-soda -v .:/app/host nett/rtty-soda:0.6.0-tools

Getting help

All commands have [-h | --help] option.

% soda
Usage: soda [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Options:
  --version   Show the version and exit.
  -h, --help  Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  compression            List supported compression libs.
  decrypt-password (dp)  Decrypt Message (Password).
  decrypt-public (d)     Decrypt Message (Public).
  decrypt-secret (ds)    Decrypt Message (Secret).
  encode                 Encode File.
  encodings              List supported encodings.
  encrypt-password (ep)  Encrypt Message (Password).
  encrypt-public (e)     Encrypt Message (Public).
  encrypt-secret (es)    Encrypt Message (Secret).
  genkey                 Generate Private Key.
  google-auth (ga)       Google Authenticator TOTP.
  kdf                    Key Derivation Function.
  kdf-profiles           List supported KDF profiles.
  pubkey                 Get Public Key.

Some commands have aliases, so % soda encrypt-password ... and % soda ep ... are equivalent.

Public key encryption

Key generation

% soda genkey | tee alice | soda pubkey - | tee alice_pub
iEMYcstMIKdqx00YpAchg8snksQSZmgvv50euagKK0c=

% soda genkey | tee bob | soda pubkey - | tee bob_pub
GQM/Xbap6E5OdSAB0l94Ii/p9+HCpUPIATmNdB33zHs=

% soda genkey -h
Usage: soda genkey [OPTIONS]

  Generate Private Key.

Options:
  -s, --key-passphrase TEXT  Private Key passphrase.
  -e, --encoding ENCODING    See `soda encodings`.  [default: base64]
  -o, --output-file FILE     Write output to file.
  -g, --group-len INTEGER    [default: 0]
  --line-len INTEGER         [default: 80]
  --padding INTEGER          [default: 0]
  -v, --verbose              Show verbose output.
  -h, --help                 Show this message and exit.

Encryption

Alice sends the message to Bob:

% cat message
A telegraph key is a specialized electrical switch used by a trained operator to
transmit text messages in Morse code in a telegraphy system.
The first telegraph key was invented by Alfred Vail, an associate of Samuel Morse.
(c) Wikipedia

% soda encrypt-public alice bob_pub message | tee encrypted | cut -c 1-80
1SV7RXHycN5N3xVK38KeUJYIDSjaOHOojI5pSaIVvXSbXF+cFWovKCsCR934HbECYqLsmNHEEia+9GAK

% soda encrypt-public -h
Usage: soda encrypt-public [OPTIONS] PRIVATE_KEY_FILE PUBLIC_KEY_FILE
                           MESSAGE_FILE

  Encrypt Message (Public).

Options:
  -t, --text                     Treat message as text (binary if not
                                 specified).
  -s, --key-passphrase TEXT      Private Key passphrase.
  --key-encoding ENCODING        See `soda encodings`.  [default: base64]
  -e, --data-encoding ENCODING   See `soda encodings`.  [default: base64]
  -c, --compression COMPRESSION  See `soda compression`.  [default: brotli]
  -o, --output-file FILE         Write output to file.
  -g, --group-len INTEGER        [default: 0]
  --line-len INTEGER             [default: 80]
  --padding INTEGER              [default: 0]
  -v, --verbose                  Show verbose output.
  -h, --help                     Show this message and exit.

Decryption

% soda decrypt-public bob alice_pub encrypted
A telegraph key is a specialized electrical switch used by a trained operator to
transmit text messages in Morse code in a telegraphy system.
The first telegraph key was invented by Alfred Vail, an associate of Samuel Morse.
(c) Wikipedia

Secret key encryption

Alice and Bob share a key for symmetric encryption:

% soda genkey > shared
% soda encrypt-secret shared message -o encrypted
% soda decrypt-secret shared encrypted -o message

Another day, they share a password:

% echo qwerty | soda encrypt-password - message -p interactive -o encrypted
% echo qwerty | soda decrypt-password - encrypted -p interactive -o message

Key derivation

The KDF function derives the key from the password. It accepts different profiles: interactive, moderate, and sensitive.

rtty-soda intentionally uses deterministic key derivation. The tool does not embed metadata, salt, or format headers into ciphertext in order to avoid recognizable message structure. As a result, identical passwords derive identical keys.

% echo qwerty | soda kdf - -p interactive
HqbvUXflAG+no3YS9njezZ3leyr8IwERAyeNoG2l41U=

% soda kdf -h
Usage: soda kdf [OPTIONS] PASSWORD_FILE

  Key Derivation Function.

Options:
  -s, --key-passphrase TEXT  Private Key passphrase.
  -e, --encoding ENCODING    See `soda encodings`.  [default: base64]
  -p, --profile PROFILE      See `soda kdf-profiles`.  [default: sensitive]
  -o, --output-file FILE     Write output to file.
  -g, --group-len INTEGER    [default: 0]
  --line-len INTEGER         [default: 80]
  --padding INTEGER          [default: 0]
  -v, --verbose              Show verbose output.
  -h, --help                 Show this message and exit.

Text compression

That works as follows:

1. The plaintext is prepared:
   • In binary mode (default), the message is read as bytes
   • In text mode (-t, --text), the message is read as a string, stripped, and encoded with SCSU, reducing the size of Unicode messages by 15–50%
2. The plaintext is compressed with the compression lib
3. The 16-byte MAC and 24-byte nonce are added
4. The result is encoded with Base64, which adds ~33% overhead

% soda es shared message -t -v -c brotli > /dev/null
Plaintext: 238
Ciphertext: 216
Overhead: 0.908
Groups: 1
% soda es shared message -t -v -c zstd > /dev/null
Plaintext: 238
Ciphertext: 276
Overhead: 1.160
Groups: 1
% soda es shared message -t -v -c zlib > /dev/null
Plaintext: 238
Ciphertext: 280
Overhead: 1.176
Groups: 1
% soda es shared message -t -v -c bz2 > /dev/null
Plaintext: 238
Ciphertext: 336
Overhead: 1.412
Groups: 1
% soda es shared message -t -v -c lzma > /dev/null
Plaintext: 238
Ciphertext: 320
Overhead: 1.345
Groups: 1
% soda es shared message -t -v -c raw > /dev/null
Plaintext: 238
Ciphertext: 372
Overhead: 1.563
Groups: 1

Encoding

The rtty-soda supports various encodings:

% soda encrypt-public alice bob_pub message --data-encoding base36 --group-len 5 --text
5NCEH YMX53 9OAWO VPK60 IYDCQ L57CT AH5DP K2UZ7 QM0TJ QEHSB 49JHG HCUX5 UW4MC
FO097 A0L45 YNWNJ 2JXS7 7OHM8 QV31N EVDLU Z1F1B BFSVX C6TFS BAMCQ VKC3V K8B9B
10WK6 MH7SG 2UKSF AAI08 9LEBM V3IQ3 F5MOV HHQHR IP6WU W8937 JV9QK 8VB0N 5U717
V79T2 BJIP5 YLXTU 3DN05 LZ7OL ANAB9 7GCEG K3DLY 8N3RF ABQ3N 9GT

Environment variables

Common options can be set in the environment variables:

% cat ~/.soda/example.env
SODA_TEXT=0
SODA_KEY_PASSPHRASE="Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary, that's what gets you."
SODA_KEY_ENCODING=binary
SODA_DATA_ENCODING=binary
SODA_COMPRESSION=brotli
SODA_KDF_PROFILE=sensitive
SODA_GROUP_LEN=0
SODA_LINE_LEN=0
SODA_PADDING=0
SODA_VERBOSE=0

Private/Secret key passphrase

The key can be protected with an additional passphrase, similar to SSH keys. When --key-passphrase <passphrase> is used, the private key is automatically encrypted or decrypted using the same parameters as the following command:

% soda encrypt-password <passphrase> <key> --kdf-profile sensitive --data-encoding binary --compression raw

This process is slow, and there is limited room for making it faster. RFC 9106 recommends using Argon2id with 2 GiB of memory and 1 pass, while soda uses half that memory (1 GiB) and compensates with 4 passes.

Alternative usage

• Password source

  % echo "A line from a book or a poem" | soda kdf - -e base94 -p interactive
  x\R9"~8Ujh^_uh:Ty<!t(ZNzK=5w^ukew~#-x!n
  

• WireGuard keyer

  % echo "A line from a book or a poem" | soda kdf - -p interactive -o privkey
  % cat privkey
  uIoBJdgaz8ZP3/n/9KzdUNvFi7DxbUQdQ9t8ujwGnMk=
  % soda pubkey privkey
  F2B674kXVcTznnRPWCVasx1miCT+yUtXQ3P5Ecee4zI=
  % cat privkey | wg pubkey
  F2B674kXVcTznnRPWCVasx1miCT+yUtXQ3P5Ecee4zI=
  

• Secure storage

  % echo "A remarkable example of misplaced confidence" > sensitive_data
  % echo "Blessed with opinions, cursed with thought" > data_password
  % soda ep data_password sensitive_data -e binary -p interactive -o encrypted_data
  % echo "Too serious to be wise" > offset_password
  % soda kdf offset_password -e base10 -p interactive -g 10 | head -1
  6174465709 4962164854 2541023297 3274271197 5950333784 2118297875 9632383288
  % sudo dd if=./encrypted_data of=/dev/sdb1 bs=1 seek=6174465709
  75+0 records in
  75+0 records out
  75 bytes transferred in 0.000769 secs (97529 bytes/sec)
  

  

• Google Authenticator keyer

  % soda genkey -e base32 | tee totp_key
  JPULDHN3DOON2B327RQHT4ZEOULCCJ6UXDCTFNOW5LGTF5PNMWOQ====
  % soda ga totp_key
  857 273 (expires in 28s)
  

Compatibility

During the initial development (versions prior to 1.0.0), I can break backwards compatibility.

Releases

This project follows a rolling release cycle. Each version bump represents where I completed a full test cycle. When testing passes successfully, I commit and release - so every release is a verified stable point.