% cifra(1) | cifra usage documentation

NAME

cifra — Library and console command to crypt and decrypt texts using classic methods.

SYNOPSIS

| $ cifra MODE [-h | --help ]

DESCRIPTION

cifra is a console command and a python library to cipher and decipher texts using classic methods. It also performs cryptoattacks against those methods.

I've implemented this while I read Al Sweigart's "Cracking Codes with Python". While doing it I also developed and alternative Python implementation to assess implementations differences between Python and Rust. Structure of both implementations is almost identical, so it is interesting to compare side-to-side functions of both implementation to realize how the same things must be expressed in Python and Rust.

Some conclusions are evident: Python is extremely expressive and can implement in just few lines what Rust requires many more; on the other hand Rust is extremely performant and can execute the same calculations many times quicker than Python. However, I've found out a really useful conclusion: Python is a great prototyping language for Rust, reflexion topics apart the vast majority of everything else that you can do in Python can be easily implemented in Rust too.

Be aware that cryptographics operations are inherently slow. Cifra does not return any visual feedback until it has finished its work, so if you run a command and it keeps waiting for many seconds don't think it is stuck and finish execution, chances are that command is simply doing its calculations silently. Be patient and eventualy command will return its result.

MODES

Dictionary

Manage dictionaries to perform crypto attacks.

| $ cifra dictionary ACTION

Possible actions:

• create: Create a dictionary of unique words.

  | $ cifra dictionary create NEW_DICTIONARY_NAME

  • positional arguments:
    • NEWDICTIONARYNAME: Name for the dictionary to create.
  • optional arguments:
    • -i PATHTO FILEWITHWORDS | --initialwordsfile PATHTO FILEWITHWORDS: Optionally you can load in the dictionary words located in a file. File can be a regular text file, like a book. Redundant words are ignored by ingestion process.

• delete: Remove an existing dictionary.

  | $ cifra dictionary delete DICTIONARY_NAME_TO_DELETE

  • positional arguments:
    • DICTIONARYNAMETO_DELETE: Name for the dictionary to delete.

• update: Add words to an existing dictionary.

  | $ cifra dictionary update DICTIONARY_NAME_TO_UPDATE PATH_TO_FILE_WITH_WORDS

  • positional arguments:
    • DICTIONARYNAMETO_UPDATE: Name for the dictionary to update with additional words.
    • PATHTOFILEWITHWORDS: Pathname to a file with words to add to dictionary. File can be a regular text file, like a book. Redundant words are ignored by ingestion process.

• list: Show existing dictionaries.

  | $ cifra dictionary list

Cipher

Cipher a text using a key.

| $ cifra cipher ALGORITHM_NAME CIPHERING_KEY FILE_TO_CIPHER

• positional arguments:

  • ALGORITHM_NAME: Algorithm to use to cipher.
  • CIPHERING_KEY: Key to use to cipher.
  • FILETOCIPHER: Path to file with text to cipher.

• optional arguments:

  • -o OUTPUTCIPHEREDFILE, --cipheredfile OUTPUTCIPHERED_FILE: Path to output file to place ciphered text. If not used then ciphered text will be dumped to console.
  • -c CHARSET, --charset CHARSET: Default charset is ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefgh ijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890 !?., but you can set here another.

Decipher

Decipher a text using a key.

| $ cifra decipher ALGORITHM_NAME CIPHERING_KEY FILE_TO_DECIPHER

• positional arguments:

  • ALGORITHM_NAME: Algorithm to use to cipher.
  • CIPHERING_KEY: Key to use to cipher.
  • FILETOCIPHER: Path to file with text to cipher.

• optional arguments:

  • -o OUTPUTCIPHEREDFILE, --cipheredfile OUTPUTCIPHERED_FILE: Path to output file to place ciphered text. If not used then deciphered text will be dumped to console.
  • -c CHARSET, --charset CHARSET: Default charset is: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefgh ijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890 !?., but you can set here another.

Attack

Attack a ciphered text to get its plain text.

| $ cifra attack ALGORITHM_NAME FILE_TO_ATTACK

• positional arguments:

  • ALGORITHM_NAME: Algorithm to attack.
  • FILETOATTACK: Path to file with text to attack.

• optional arguments:

  • -o OUTPUTCIPHEREDFILE, --cipheredfile OUTPUTCIPHERED_FILE: Path to output file to place deciphered text. If not used then deciphered text will be dumped to console.
  • -k, --outputrecoveredkey: Include guessed key in output. If not used only recovered text is output.
  • -c CHARSET, --charset CHARSET: Default charset is: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefgh ijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890 !?., but you can set here another.

ALGORITHMS

Currently these algorithms are available:

• caesar
• substitution
• transposition
• affine
• vigenere

BUGS

Report issues at: https://github.com/dante-signal31/cifra-rust/issues

INSTALLATION

To install Cifra refer to its installation instructions: https://github.com/dante-signal31/cifra/wiki/Installation

AUTHOR

Dante Signal31 dante.signal31@gmail.com

SEE ALSO

Website: https://github.com/dante-signal31/cifra-rust

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2021 Dante-Signal31 dante.signal31@gmail.com. All rights reserved.

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