Examples

Encrypt data with AES

The following code generates a new AES128 key and encrypts a piece of data into a file. We use the EAX mode because it allows the receiver to detect any unauthorized modification (similarly, we could have used other authenticated encryption modes like GCM, CCM or SIV).

from Crypto.Cipher import AES
from Crypto.Random import get_random_bytes

key = get_random_bytes(16)
cipher = AES.new(key, AES.MODE_EAX)
ciphertext, tag = cipher.encrypt_and_digest(data)

file_out = open("encrypted.bin", "wb")
[ file_out.write(x) for x in (cipher.nonce, tag, ciphertext) ]
file_out.close()

At the other end, the receiver can securely load the piece of data back (if they know the key!). Note that the code generates a ValueError exception when tampering is detected.

from Crypto.Cipher import AES

file_in = open("encrypted.bin", "rb")
nonce, tag, ciphertext = [ file_in.read(x) for x in (16, 16, -1) ]

# let's assume that the key is somehow available again
cipher = AES.new(key, AES.MODE_EAX, nonce)
data = cipher.decrypt_and_verify(ciphertext, tag)

Generate an RSA key

The following code generates a new RSA key pair (secret) and saves it into a file, protected by a password. We use the scrypt key derivation function to thwart dictionary attacks. At the end, the code prints our the RSA public key in ASCII/PEM format:

from Crypto.PublicKey import RSA

secret_code = "Unguessable"
key = RSA.generate(2048)
encrypted_key = key.export_key(passphrase=secret_code, pkcs=8,
                              protection="scryptAndAES128-CBC")

file_out = open("rsa_key.bin", "wb")
file_out.write(encrypted_key)
file_out.close()

print(key.publickey().export_key())

The following code reads the private RSA key back in, and then prints again the public key:

from Crypto.PublicKey import RSA

secret_code = "Unguessable"
encoded_key = open("rsa_key.bin", "rb").read()
key = RSA.import_key(encoded_key, passphrase=secret_code)

print(key.publickey().export_key())

Generate public key and private key

The following code generates public key stored in receiver.pem and private key stored in private.pem. These files will be used in the examples below. Every time, it generates different public key and private key pair.

from Crypto.PublicKey import RSA

key = RSA.generate(2048)
private_key = key.export_key()
file_out = open("private.pem", "wb")
file_out.write(private_key)
file_out.close()

public_key = key.publickey().export_key()
file_out = open("receiver.pem", "wb")
file_out.write(public_key)
file_out.close()

Encrypt data with RSA

The following code encrypts a piece of data for a receiver we have the RSA public key of. The RSA public key is stored in a file called receiver.pem.

Since we want to be able to encrypt an arbitrary amount of data, we use a hybrid encryption scheme. We use RSA with PKCS#1 OAEP for asymmetric encryption of an AES session key. The session key can then be used to encrypt all the actual data.

As in the first example, we use the EAX mode to allow detection of unauthorized modifications.

from Crypto.PublicKey import RSA
from Crypto.Random import get_random_bytes
from Crypto.Cipher import AES, PKCS1_OAEP

data = "I met aliens in UFO. Here is the map.".encode("utf-8")
file_out = open("encrypted_data.bin", "wb")

recipient_key = RSA.import_key(open("receiver.pem").read())
session_key = get_random_bytes(16)

# Encrypt the session key with the public RSA key
cipher_rsa = PKCS1_OAEP.new(recipient_key)
enc_session_key = cipher_rsa.encrypt(session_key)

# Encrypt the data with the AES session key
cipher_aes = AES.new(session_key, AES.MODE_EAX)
ciphertext, tag = cipher_aes.encrypt_and_digest(data)
[ file_out.write(x) for x in (enc_session_key, cipher_aes.nonce, tag, ciphertext) ]
file_out.close()

The receiver has the private RSA key. They will use it to decrypt the session key first, and with that the rest of the file:

from Crypto.PublicKey import RSA
from Crypto.Cipher import AES, PKCS1_OAEP

file_in = open("encrypted_data.bin", "rb")

private_key = RSA.import_key(open("private.pem").read())

enc_session_key, nonce, tag, ciphertext = \
   [ file_in.read(x) for x in (private_key.size_in_bytes(), 16, 16, -1) ]

# Decrypt the session key with the private RSA key
cipher_rsa = PKCS1_OAEP.new(private_key)
session_key = cipher_rsa.decrypt(enc_session_key)

# Decrypt the data with the AES session key
cipher_aes = AES.new(session_key, AES.MODE_EAX, nonce)
data = cipher_aes.decrypt_and_verify(ciphertext, tag)
print(data.decode("utf-8"))