secure-string-cipher 1.0.3

A secure AES-GCM encryption utility with user-friendly features

secure-string-cipher

Interactive AES-GCM Encrypt/Decrypt Tool

Features

• 🔐 Encrypt or decrypt text or files using a passphrase
• 🛡️ AES-256-GCM with PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256 key derivation (390,000 iterations)
• ⚡ Streams file encryption/decryption in 64 KiB chunks (low memory footprint)
• 📋 Text mode wraps ciphertext/tag in Base64 for easy copy/paste
• 📎 Optional clipboard copy via pyperclip in text mode
• 🎨 Colourised, menu-driven interactive wizard with clear operation descriptions
• ✅ Test-friendly CLI with dependency injection support

Installation

Via pipx (recommended)

pipx install secure-string-cipher

This installs a globally available cipher-start command in an isolated environment.

From source

git clone https://github.com/TheRedTower/secure-string-cipher.git
cd secure-string-cipher
pip install .

Usage

Run the interactive wizard:

cipher-start

The CLI will present you with a clear menu of operations:

Available Operations:
  1. Encrypt text
  2. Decrypt text
  3. Encrypt file
  4. Decrypt file
  5. Exit

Select operation [1]:

Or use flags:

cipher-start --help

Programmatic use and test-friendly CLI

The CLI entry point is available as a Python function for tests and programmatic usage:

from io import StringIO
from secure_string_cipher.cli import main

# Provide input/output streams and disable exiting on completion
mock_in = StringIO("1\nHello, World!\nStrongP@ssw0rd!#\nStrongP@ssw0rd!#\n")
mock_out = StringIO()
main(in_stream=mock_in, out_stream=mock_out, exit_on_completion=False)
print(mock_out.getvalue())

• in_stream/out_stream: file-like objects used for input/output (default to sys.stdin/sys.stdout).
• exit_on_completion: when True (default), the CLI exits the process on success or error; when False, it returns 0 (success) or 1 (error).

This design makes the CLI deterministic and easy to unit test without relying on global stdout patches.

Docker

Alternatively, run via Docker without installing anything locally:

# Build the image (once)
cd secure-string-cipher
docker build -t yourusername/secure-string-cipher .

# Run interactively
docker run --rm -it yourusername/secure-string-cipher

# Encrypt a file (bind current directory)
docker run --rm -it -v "$PWD":/data yourusername/secure-string-cipher encrypt-file /data/secret.txt
docker run --rm -it -v "$PWD":/data yourusername/secure-string-cipher decrypt-file /data/secret.txt.enc

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.