How to encrypt my folder？

[PastorNick]

hey, sir. I have a file that needs to be encrypted, and it contains some important things. Do you have any advice? How can I save this folder？

I share some resources.

• Newbies - Read before posting
• [General] Bitcoin Wallets - Which, what, why?
• [Guide] Secure air-gapped crypto wallet storage method
• How to Install Tails OS on USB flash drive for Wallet Purpose
• [GUIDE] How to Create a Strong/Secure Password
• 2FA HW security keys, Yubikey & such.
• Crypto Security: Passwords and Authentication - Livestream aantonop
• [GUIDES] on Bitcointalk. Index thread (Find more topics in Bitcoin section)

I found some methods, but none of them seem to be specific to folders...

thanks everyone！

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[bakasabo]

If you want to encrypt, hide and etc, I would suggest to use TrueCrypt or VeraCrypt software. This wont really help if you want to encrypt and hide it from police and their IT/hacking departments specialists. But in most cases that will do. Just use strong password when you encrypt and it will takes lots of time and resources to bruteforce it.

[mocacinno]

There are dozens of ways to do this...
Personally, i'd think the easyest way to encrypt a file/folder would be:

In case you're encrypting a folder, i'd personally create a tar.gz or a zip from that folder, so i'd end up with a file.

Then i'd use gpg for asymetric encryption: There are dozens of tutorials, instead of writing out all commands, i just googled and here's the first link: https://www.howtogeek.com/427982/how-to-encrypt-and-decrypt-files-with-gpg-on-linux/

An alternative i'd use would be to use openssl directly for symmetric encryption (you'll be prompted for a password)
openssl aes-256-cbc -a -salt -in yourfile.txt -out yourencryptedfile.txt.enc
and to decrypt:
openssl aes-256-cbc -d -a -in yourencryptedfile.txt.enc -out yourfile.txt.new

Don't get me wrong, bakasabo's advice is equally valid (i do think truecrypt is no longer in active development, so i'd go with veracrypt). I'm just detailing what i would do if i was faced with your problem.

[PastorNick]

If you want to encrypt, hide and etc, I would suggest to use TrueCrypt or VeraCrypt software. This wont really help if you want to encrypt and hide it from police and their IT/hacking departments specialists. But in most cases that will do. Just use strong password when you encrypt and it will takes lots of time and resources to bruteforce it.

Thank you for your help, I just want to encrypt some of my personal important files, such as passwords. I want to store them in a folder. Of course, the folder I want to encrypt does not violate the law, and the things I want to encrypt are worthless to hackers.

~

Thanks, I will try it later. I have used Kleopatra for asymmetric encryption, but I think it can only encrypt messages.

[mocacinno]

--snip--
Thanks, I will try it later. I have used Kleopatra for asymmetric encryption, but I think it can only encrypt messages.

So you're using windows and have Kleopatra installed.
IIRC, you should be able to encrypt files with Kleopatra aswell, that being said it has been a long time since i used this tool, so i might be mistaking.

An other option would be to just install openssl. It's open source and the sourcecode can be downloaded here: https://www.openssl.org/source/
Or if you prefer a binary, so you don't have to compile it yourself, you can look over here: https://wiki.openssl.org/index.php/Binaries

But like i said previously, there are dozens of ways to solve your question...Some might be superior to others, some might be using unmaintained code, some might be ideal to use in scripts, some might have a nice gui, some might use only tools available in a standard windows distribution... Many roads lead to rome for this one

A thirth option just popped in my mind (i'm sure many more options will come up over the day): you could use 7zip and just create a password protected archive right away . I think similar tools offer a similar option (i know winrar used to include encryption in it's gui aswell, same for winzip... DYOR before using these features tough, check if there weren't any vulnerability's found in the encryption mechanism before using them)

[NeuroticFish]

I guess that what @mocacinno has shown is probably perfect.

However, as a super-simple method with similar results, isn't 7zip with AES 256 encryption good enough? Imho it's much easier to use...

[nakamura12]

I guess that what @mocacinno has shown is probably perfect.

However, as a super-simple method with similar results, isn't 7zip with AES 256 encryption good enough? Imho it's much easier to use...

7zip is easy to use and it does use that encryption type. If op is not satisfied with the result then why not use multiple encryption app like winrar too. To make it more secured, encrypt the file using 7zip with password enabled then encrypt it using winrar and add password too then back to 7zip to encrypt it again with password.

[NeuroticFish]

Easy, but takes time and annoying if you want to update the file inside encrypted archive.

Whenever I needed that I unpacked everything, updated the file, packed everything again... and it was not slow.
But again, this is not the "pro" solution, I clearly know that.

[PastorNick]

Easy, but takes time and annoying if you want to update the file inside encrypted archive.

Whenever I needed that I unpacked everything, updated the file, packed everything again... and it was not slow.

As long as the directory size is small or doesn't have much file. But we don't know what kind of directory OP wants to encrypt.

I have encrypted my files with 7-zip before asking the question, sorry for not mentioning in my topic, 7-zip is enough for me. But I want to find and learn some other encryption methods, thank you for sharing.