Zeta uses the latest security standards to safeguard your hard
work, protecting selected files from prying eyes. The Crypto lib
encrypt the content using different cryptation technologies, and
lets you as the user choose the technology you rely on! Crypt-O-Magic
is a graphical front-end for this lib.
The application is both used to decode and encode the files that
you want to keep closed for others, but doesn't prevent others from
deleting them.
The files and folders that you want to decode or encode can simply
be dragged and dropped
on to the Source Files area of the application, and the same
goes with paths. You can even type in the paths. An other approach,
is to add the files through Select Files.

In the Destination Folder you can set your preferred folder
for the files you decode. By default the folder is /boot/home.
After having chosen the where to place the files that you would
like to encrypt, you must give it a password. The password must
at least be of 5 digits.
At last you must choose what Protocol you would like to
encrypt them in.
The decode process starts when you click Go, and you will
then first be asked to confirm the password by writing it in to
a dialog box that pops up.

You will be notified with yet another dialog box when decode process
is completed.

The files that you have decrypted appears as generic files. When
double-clicking on them, they will be opened in the application
QuickRes. Once you have encoded the files again with this application,
you will be able to open them again with their default applications.

The Various Protocols
- DES stands for Data Encryption Standard. The cryptographic
algorithm specified in this standard transforms a 64-bit binary
value into a unique 64-bit binary value based on a 56-bit variable.
If the complete 64-bit input is used (i.e., none of the input
bits should be predetermined from block to block) and if the 56-bit
variable is randomly chosen, no technique other than trying all
possible keys using known input and output for the DES will guarantee
finding the chosen key. As there are over 70,000,000,000,000,000
(seventy quadrillion) possible keys of 56 bits, the feasibility
of deriving a particular key in this way is extremely unlikely
in typical threat environments. Moreover, if the key is changed
frequently, the risk of this event is greatly diminished.
DES has become vulnerable as computers got more powerful and
simple DES is no longer secure and has been cracked. So NIST defined
3DES or Triple DES in 1999. 3DES uses three stages of DES so it
is much more secure and suffices for most applications currently.
In 2001, NIST replaced DES by AES.
- RC2 (RFC
2268) is a conventional (secret-key) block encryption algorithm
and was considered as a proposal for a DES replacement. The input
and output block sizes are 64 bits each. The key size is variable,
from one byte up to 128 bytes, although the current implementation
uses eight bytes.
- 3DES (RFC
3217) stands for Triple DES encryption algorithm (168-bit),
and is concidered to be a strong form of encryption that allows
sensitive information to be transmitted over untrusted networks.
The protocol is a combined cipher that uses three iterations of
the Data Encryption Standard (DES) cipher to improve the security
(at the cost of speed) of plain DES.
- RC4 is a stream cipher developed by Ron Rivest. Until 1994,
RC4 was a trade secret of RSA Data Security, Inc., when it was
released anonymously to a mailing list. This version is a descendent
of that code, and since there is no proof that the leaked version
was in fact RC4 and because "RC4" is a trademark, it is called
"ARCFOUR", short for Allegedly RC4.
- AES 128 CBC encryption (Advanced Encryption Standard - FIPS-197).
AES was developed by two Belgian cryptographers, Joan Daemen and
Vincent Rijmen.
Strictly speaking, AES is not precisely Rijndael, as Rijndael
supports a larger range of block and key sizes); AES has a fixed
block size of 128 bits and a key size of 128, 192 or 256 bits.
It is hoped that AES will remain strong enough for the next 10-20
years.
- RSA is an acronym
formed from the names of its inventors, Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir
and Leonard Aldeman. It is a Public-key algorithm that uses large
prime numbers to achieve security.
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