How to Encrypt and Decrypt Strings in Python? - GeeksforGeeks (2024)

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    In this article, we will learn about Encryption, Decryption and implement them with Python.

    Encryption:

    Encryption is the process of encoding the data. i.e converting plain text into ciphertext. This conversion is done with a key called an encryption key.

    Decryption:

    Decryption is the process of decoding the encoded data. Converting the ciphertext into plain text. This process requires a key that we used for encryption.

    We require a key for encryption. There are two main types of keys used for encryption and decryption. They are Symmetric-key and Asymmetric-key.

    Symmetric-key Encryption:

    In symmetric-key encryption, the data is encoded and decoded with the same key. This is the easiest way of encryption, but also less secure. The receiver needs the key for decryption, so a safe way need for transferring keys. Anyone with the key can read the data in the middle.

    Example:

    Install the python cryptography library with the following command.

    pip install cryptography

    Steps:

    • Import Fernet
    • Then generate an encryption key, that can be used for encryption and decryption.
    • Convert the string to a byte string, so that it can be encrypted.
    • Instance the Fernet class with the encryption key.
    • Then encrypt the string with the Fernet instance.
    • Then it can be decrypted with Fernet class instance and it should be instanced with the same key used for encryption.

    Python3

    from cryptography.fernet import Fernet

    # we will be encrypting the below string.

    message = "hello geeks"

    # generate a key for encryption and decryption

    # You can use fernet to generate

    # the key or use random key generator

    # here I'm using fernet to generate key

    key = Fernet.generate_key()

    # Instance the Fernet class with the key

    fernet = Fernet(key)

    # then use the Fernet class instance

    # to encrypt the string string must

    # be encoded to byte string before encryption

    encMessage = fernet.encrypt(message.encode())

    print("original string: ", message)

    print("encrypted string: ", encMessage)

    # decrypt the encrypted string with the

    # Fernet instance of the key,

    # that was used for encrypting the string

    # encoded byte string is returned by decrypt method,

    # so decode it to string with decode methods

    decMessage = fernet.decrypt(encMessage).decode()

    print("decrypted string: ", decMessage)

    Output:

    How to Encrypt and Decrypt Strings in Python? - GeeksforGeeks (2)

    Asymmetric-key Encryption:

    In Asymmetric-key Encryption, we use two keys a public key and a private key. The public key is used to encrypt the data and the private key is used to decrypt the data. By the name, the public key can be public (can be sent to anyone who needs to send data). No one has your private key, so no one in the middle can read your data.

    Example:

    Install the python rsa library with the following command.

    pip install rsa

    Steps:

    • Import rsa library
    • Generate public and private keys with rsa.newkeys() method.
    • Encode the string to byte string.
    • Then encrypt the byte string with the public key.
    • Then the encrypted string can be decrypted with the private key.
    • The public key can only be used for encryption and the private can only be used for decryption.

    Python3

    import rsa

    # generate public and private keys with

    # rsa.newkeys method,this method accepts

    # key length as its parameter

    # key length should be atleast 16

    publicKey, privateKey = rsa.newkeys(512)

    # this is the string that we will be encrypting

    message = "hello geeks"

    # rsa.encrypt method is used to encrypt

    # string with public key string should be

    # encode to byte string before encryption

    # with encode method

    encMessage = rsa.encrypt(message.encode(),

    publicKey)

    print("original string: ", message)

    print("encrypted string: ", encMessage)

    # the encrypted message can be decrypted

    # with ras.decrypt method and private key

    # decrypt method returns encoded byte string,

    # use decode method to convert it to string

    # public key cannot be used for decryption

    decMessage = rsa.decrypt(encMessage, privateKey).decode()

    print("decrypted string: ", decMessage)

    Output:

    How to Encrypt and Decrypt Strings in Python? - GeeksforGeeks (3)


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    Last Updated :08 Jun, 2022

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    How to Encrypt and Decrypt Strings in Python? - GeeksforGeeks (2024)

    FAQs

    How do you encrypt decrypt a string in Python? ›

    To encrypt and decrypt a Python string, install and import the cryptography library, generate a Fernet key, and create a Fernet object with it. You can then encrypt the string using the Fernet. encrypt() method and decrypt the encrypted string using the Fernet. decrypt() method.

    How do you encrypt and decrypt a text file in Python? ›

    Let's start off by installing cryptography :
    1. pip3 install cryptography. ...
    2. def write_key(): """ Generates a key and save it into a file """ key = Fernet. ...
    3. # generate and write a new key write_key() ...
    4. # load the previously generated key key = load_key() ...
    5. message = "some secret message". ...
    6. # encrypt the message encrypted = f.

    How do I encrypt and decrypt a string? ›

    A string is encrypted with the following process:
    1. For each character c in the string, we find the index i satisfying keys[i] == c in keys .
    2. Replace c with values[i] in the string.

    How do you encrypt and decrypt Python code? ›

    How to encrypt and decrypt data in Python
    1. from cryptography. fernet import Fernet.
    2. key = Fernet. generate_key() f = Fernet(key)
    3. print(encrypted_data)
    4. print(decrypted_data. decode())
    5. from cryptography. fernet import Fernet key = Fernet. generate_key() print("Key : ", key. decode()) f = Fernet(key) encrypted_data = f.
    Feb 11, 2021

    How do you encrypt a string code? ›

    For encrypting a string, key-value '2' is added to the ASCII value of the characters in the string. Similarly, for decrypting a string, key-value '2' is subtracted from the ASCII value of the characters. In the above program, if you change the value of key then the encrypted value will be different.

    How do I encrypt and decrypt a text file? ›

    Right-click (or press and hold) a file or folder and select Properties. Select the Advanced button and select the Encrypt contents to secure data check box. Select OK to close the Advanced Attributes window, select Apply, and then select OK.

    How do you encrypt a message in Python? ›

    Create an empty string called encrypt to hold the new encrypted message. message = input (“Enter your message, your secret is safe with me: “) numkey = input(“What is your name?

    How to decrypt string with private key? ›

    How to Decrypt an RSA Private Key Using OpenSSL
    1. Open terminal.
    2. Run the open ssl command to decrypt the file $ openssl rsa -in <encrypted_private.key> -out <decrypted_private.key> Enter pass phrase for encrypted_private.key: <enter the password> writing RSA key.
    Feb 22, 2021

    What are the main methods to encrypt and decrypt information? ›

    The two types of data encryption methods are Symmetric Encryption and Asymmetric Encryption. Symmetric encryption is also known as private-key cryptography or secret key algorithm and requires both the parties of sender and receiver to have access to the same key to decrypt the data.

    Which algorithm is best for encryption and decryption in Python? ›

    Cryptography with Python - Caesar Cipher
    • Caesar Cipher Technique is the simple and easy method of encryption technique.
    • It is simple type of substitution cipher.
    • Each letter of plain text is replaced by a letter with some fixed number of positions down with alphabet.

    How do you handle strings in Python? ›

    String Handling in Python
    1. Examples: string1= 'This is single quoted string'; string2= “This is double quoted string”; string3= “””This is triple quoted string”””; print (string1); ...
    2. print (a); print (b); print (c); print (d); print (e); ...
    3. use Forward Slash (/) to avoid Syntax errors…
    4. Python Step by Step Tutorial.
    Jul 28, 2021

    How to encrypt and decrypt using public and private key in Python? ›

    We will implement this using the code below:
    1. def generateKeys(): (publicKey, privateKey) = rsa. ...
    2. def loadKeys(): with open('keys/publicKey.pem', 'rb') as p: publicKey = rsa. ...
    3. def encrypt(message, key): return rsa. ...
    4. def decrypt(ciphertext, key): try: return rsa. ...
    5. def sign(message, key): return rsa.
    Jan 28, 2022

    How to encrypt and decrypt using AES Python? ›

    And that is all there is to encrypting and decrypting a file using AES in python. We need to generate or obtain a key, create the initialization vector and write the original file size followed by the IV into the output file. This is followed by the encrypted data. Finally decryption does the same process in reverse.

    What is 3 using the same key to encrypt and decrypt a message? ›

    In symmetric key encryption, the same key used to encrypt the data is used to decrypt the data. In asymmetric key encryption, one key is used to only encrypt the data (the public key) and another key is used to decrypt (the private key).

    What is an algorithm used to encrypt and decrypt text? ›

    The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is the algorithm trusted as the standard by the U.S. Government and numerous organizations. Although it is highly efficient in 128-bit form, AES also uses keys of 192 and 256 bits for heavy-duty encryption purposes.

    How do you check if a string is encrypted Python? ›

    a simple way of doing the latter is to see if any character occurs more than (N/256) + 5 * sqrt(N/256) times (where you have a total of N characters), in which case it's likely a natural language (unencrypted).

    How do you encrypt a connection string in Python? ›

    In python you can do it using packages like secureconfig or encrypted-config or DIY with some standard encryption techniques. Keeping the encryption keys outside is the next challenge, which you can tackle by making it a injected config via environmental variables or a command-line-parameter .

    What is an example of encryption and decryption? ›

    Public, Private, Pre-Shared and Symmetric are important keys used in cryptography. An employee is sending essential documents to his/her manager is an example of an encryption method. The manager is receiving the essential encrypted documents from his/her employee and decrypting it is an example of a decryption method.

    How do I decrypt a text file? ›

    You can also navigate to the Decrypt File(s) dialog by going to File : Encryption : Decrypt File. You may type the file to decrypt or browse to the file by clicking on the browse button to the right of the “File(s) to Decrypt” field.

    Which files do you need to encrypt a text? ›

    Below are some of the most common use cases and file types that require encryption.
    • Banking documents. One obvious use case for file encryption is banking documents. ...
    • Work files. ...
    • Hard drive backups. ...
    • Images. ...
    • Videos. ...
    • Documents. ...
    • PDFs. ...
    • Spreadsheets.
    Nov 25, 2022

    How do I manually encrypt a message? ›

    choose Options >Trust Center > Trust Center Settings. On the Email Security tab, under Encrypted email, select the Encrypt contents and attachments for outgoing messages check box. To change additional settings, such as choosing a specific certificate to use, click Settings.

    How do you decode messages in Python? ›

    Steps to develop message encode-decode project
    1. Import Libraries. Plain text. Copy to clipboard. ...
    2. Initialize Window. Plain text. ...
    3. Define variables. Plain text. ...
    4. Function to encode. Plain text. ...
    5. Function to decode. Plain text. ...
    6. Function to set mode. Plain text. ...
    7. Function to exit window. Plain text. ...
    8. Function to reset window. Plain text.

    Is it possible to encrypt a Python file? ›

    Python has a cryptography library with which you can encrypt and decrypt your files. This library implements the AES symmetric encryption algorithm and uses the same key to encrypt and decrypt data. The methods that implement the encryption algorithm are in the Fernet module.

    How to encrypt password in code Python? ›

    It's set to work with bytes data, so if you want to encrypt strings or use string passwords make sure you encode() them with a proper codec before passing them to the methods. If you leave the encode parameter to True the encrypt() output will be base64 encoded string, and decrypt() source should be also base64 string.

    Is it possible to decrypt a message without a key? ›

    The answer to how to decrypt encrypted files without key is you can't.

    Can a private key decrypt a message? ›

    Private key encryption systems use a single key that is shared between the sender and the receiver. Both must have the key; the sender encrypts the message by using the key, and the receiver decrypts the message with the same key.

    Can you encrypt and decrypt with private key? ›

    The private key is used to decrypt, as well as to encrypt, so using it for symmetric encryption requires a key exchange to share that key securely with trusted parties authorized to exchange secured data. Cryptographic software is usually used to automate this process. Key management.

    What are three 3 methods for encrypting data? ›

    3 Types of Encryption to Protect Your Data
    • Symmetric. The symmetric encryption method uses a single key both to encrypt and decrypt the data. ...
    • Asymmetric. The second major encryption method is asymmetric encryption, also sometimes known as public key encryption. ...
    • Hashing.

    What are the 3 types of data that can be encrypted? ›

    Here are three key types that you should definitely encrypt.
    • HR data. Unless you're a sole trader, every company has employees, and this comes with a large amount of sensitive data that must be protected. ...
    • Commercial information. ...
    • Legal information.
    Dec 1, 2016

    What are the 2 types of data encryption? ›

    There are two types of encryption in widespread use today: symmetric and asymmetric encryption. The name derives from whether or not the same key is used for encryption and decryption.

    What data encryption can you use with Python? ›

    Some of the most common and widely used algorithms are AES, RSA, and Fernet. AES is a symmetric algorithm that uses the same key for encryption and decryption, and it is fast and efficient for large data.

    What is the best data encryption in Python? ›

    Best Python Cryptography Libraries for Secure Data Encryption
    • Table of Contents.
    • PyCryptodome. A self-contained cryptographic library, PyCryptodome is a popular choice for developers who want to implement encryption algorithms in Python. ...
    • Cryptography. ...
    • PyNaCl. ...
    • PyOpenSSL. ...
    • Fernet. ...
    • Keyczar. ...
    • M2Crypto.
    Apr 22, 2023

    What is the best way to manipulate strings in Python? ›

    To perform string manipulation in Python, you can use the syntax string_name[ start_index : end_index ] to get a substring of a string. Here, the slicing operation gives us a substring containing characters from start_index to end_index-1 of the string string_name.

    How to break a string in Python? ›

    Python String split() Method

    The split() method splits a string into a list. You can specify the separator, default separator is any whitespace. Note: When maxsplit is specified, the list will contain the specified number of elements plus one.

    What is the best way to join strings in Python? ›

    One of the most popular methods to concatenate two strings in Python (or more) is using the + operator. The + operator, when used with two strings, concatenates the strings together to form one.

    What is an example of public and private key encryption? ›

    Public and private keys: an example

    Bob wants to send Alice an encrypted email. To do this, Bob takes Alice's public key and encrypts his message to her. Then, when Alice receives the message, she takes the private key that is known only to her in order to decrypt the message from Bob.

    What is the difference between encryption private key and public key? ›

    To conclude, private keys can be used for both encryption and decryption, while Public keys are used only for the purpose of encrypting the sensitive data. Private keys are shared between the sender and the receiver, whereas public keys can be freely circulated among multiple users.

    Do you use public key to encrypt or decrypt? ›

    The sender uses a public key to encrypt the message. The recipient uses its private key to decrypt the message. Public key infrastructure (PKI) is a set of hardware, software, organizations, and policies to public key encryption work on the Internet.

    How do you encrypt a sentence in Python? ›

    Use the Cryptography Package to Encrypt a String in Python

    Symmetric-key Encryption is a way in which we use the same key for the encoding and decoding process. The Cryptography library needs to be installed in order to use this method for encryption; this can be done by using the pip command.

    How do I encrypt a Python file in Python? ›

    Encrypting a File
    1. We initialize the Fernet object as store is as a local variable f.
    2. Next, we read our original data (grades. csv file) into original.
    3. Then we encrypt the data using the Fernet object and store it as encrypted.
    4. And finally, we write it into a new . csv file called “enc_grades. csv”

    What is an example sentence for encrypt? ›

    (1) Account details are encrypted to protect privacy. (2) Your financial information is fully encrypted and cannot be accessed. (3) Messages encrypted using the public key can be decrypted only by someone with the private key. (4) Do you need to encrypt - if so, how?

    How does string encryption work? ›

    Encryption works by encoding “plaintext” into “ciphertext,” typically through the use of cryptographic mathematical models known as algorithms. To decode the data back to plaintext requires the use of a decryption key, a string of numbers or a password also created by an algorithm.

    What does it mean to encrypt string? ›

    Encrypts a string, using a symmetric key-based algorithm, in which the same key is used to encrypt and decrypt a string. The security of the encrypted string depends on maintaining the secrecy of the key, and the algorithm choice.

    How to decrypt a text file? ›

    You can also navigate to the Decrypt File(s) dialog by going to File : Encryption : Decrypt File. You may type the file to decrypt or browse to the file by clicking on the browse button to the right of the “File(s) to Decrypt” field.

    Can I decrypt using private key? ›

    Information encrypted using the private key can be decrypted only with the public key. Only the holder of the private key can encrypt information that can be decrypted with the public key.

    Can Python be used for encryption? ›

    In Python, it is possible to encrypt and decrypt files before transmitting to a communication channel. For this, you will have to use the plugin PyCrypto.

    Is Python good for encryption? ›

    Python: Another well-liked language for cryptography is Python. Its “cryptography” library, one of its libraries, has secure primitives. The most basic and minimal data type is primitive. The Fernet implementation, which supports “secret key” cryptography, is a well-liked secure primitive.

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