[X4U] New toy!

[Xavier Noria]

On Nov 25, 2005, at 18:13, Charles Howse wrote:

> My nephew gave me an IMB 512MB USB 2.0 Memory Key!
> Cool, it's the first memory stick I've had.
>
> I just love my PowerMac...I inserted the stick, noticed that the  
> lights
> inside started blinking, and Bam! there it was on the desktop,  
> mounted and
> ready!
>
> It came with several Windoze apps to encrypt the contents, which,  
> of course
> I can't use.
>
> I'd like to be able to somehow secure the contents, and be able to  
> use the
> stick on any computer (Mac, Windows, Linux, etc.).
>
> Any suggestions for strategy and applications?

I use a command-line utility that works on the Mac, Linux, and  
Windows, at least, called mcrypt():

     % file foo.pl
     foo.pl: ASCII text
     % mcrypt -a rijndael-256 foo.pl
     Enter the passphrase (maximum of 512 characters)
     Please use a combination of upper and lower case letters and  
numbers.
     Enter passphrase:

     Enter passphrase:


     File foo.pl was encrypted.
     % file foo.pl.nc
     foo.pl.nc: mcrypt 2.5 encrypted data, algorithm: rijndael-256,  
keysize: 32 bytes, mode: cbc,

To decrypt:

     % mcrypt -d foo.pl.nc
     Enter passphrase:

     File foo.pl.nc was decrypted.

mcrypt know which algorithm was used to encrypt, so -d is enough.

This utility has an Emacs mode that provides transparent edition of  
encrypted files, that's the way I maintain my passwords file.

-- fxn