Password-protect a directory (SOLVED)

[hansol]

Hi guys,

Just wondering if anyone can help me figure out how to password-protect a directory/folder in puppy? Bcrypt will do files no problem but not folders, and truecrypt won't work for my purposes.

[trapster]

tar your directory first to turn it into a file.

tar -cvzf /mnt/home/some_folder_name.tar.gz /mnt/home/some_folder_name


Here's how I added it to my right click menu

[hansol]

Ahh okay I see the logic here. That makes sense.

I guess the second part of the question then is I would like to automate the "encryption" process. Basically I would like to write a script that first compresses the folder, and second encrypts the folder using bcrypt. So far I have the first part, but not the second part.

First part of code is:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
tar -cvzf /wheretolocatefile/filename.tar.gz /where/tocopyfrom

The second part of my code is

Code: Select all

bcrypt /compressed/fileiwantencrypted -c"passwordiwant" -c"passwordiwant"

The first part I have running fine, and can generate a zipped folder with the correct contents in the correct directory, but the bcrypt/encryption code part doesn't seem to do anything. I'm a very big newb at this stuff, so I very much appreciate all you more experienced guys' help. Thanks -Hansol[/code]

[trapster]

This is not the most secure way to do things as it exposes your password.

But it works.

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
pw=12345678
yes $pw | bcrypt /compressed/fileiwantencrypted

[hansol]

Trapster,

Thank you so much! I never would have figured out that code sequence on my own, so I very much appreciate your help.

Basically the reason I'm not too worried about "exposing" the password is the files are all to be encrypted on a secure machine first, and then transferred to a totally separate machine. That machine has no way of ever talking to/accessing the original machine with the scripts on them, so the chances of the passwords ever being figured out are slim to none. Basically I just needed a functional and automated way to quickly compress a folder, encrypt it, and then transfer to the secondary machine.

Thanks again for your help -Hansol

[musher0]

Hello to all.

Interesting topic. There's something new to be learned every day, isn't there?

Couldn't something similar be achieved in just one go with zip? I mean with

zip -9 -r -e < name-of-folder.zip > < folder >

Where:
-9 : means: compress better
-r : compress everything in folder, recursive.
-e : the encryption (password) prompt

The compression rate with zip might be less, of course. And perhaps using bcrypt
separately gives a more powerful encryption? I'm still a novice in such things.

Thanks in advance for any lead.

musher0

[hansol]

Ok one last noob query for the "encrypting" code, and then I will stop harassing you gentlemen on the forum here:

I've got all the code written, but the problem is the scripts are separate: I have one script written for tar-ing the files, and a second script written for bcrypting the files. I would like to combine the two scripts, the first one being:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
tar -cvzf /wheretolocatefile/filename.tar.gz /where/tocopyfrom

and the second being trapster's code

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
pw=12345678
yes $pw | bcrypt /compressed/fileiwantencrypted

What I would like to understand specifically is how to get the following "process" coded correctly:

line 1: compress file A
line 2: compress File B
line 3: bcrypt File A
line 4: bcrypt File B

Right now my code looks like:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
tar -cvzf /location/fileA.tar.gz /location/of/fileA
tar -cvzf /location/fileB.tar.gz /location/of/fileB

#!/bin/sh
pw=pswd-for-A
yes $pw | bcrypt /location/fileA.tar.gz

#!/bin/sh
pw=pswd-for-B
yes $pw | bcrypt /location/fileB.tar.gz

So like I said above, this script seems to run the compression part correctly, but the encryption stage doesn't seem to do anything.

I know that the above code is probably quite painful for you experienced guys to read. I freely admit I have a very weak grasp on coding language, but I'm really trying to google and research as much as I can before posting here. I'm convinced the code above will work, as the scripts all work perfectly when I run them individually; it's just when I add all the pieces together in one script that it stops working. I'm sure the issue is based on me not using correct terminal syntax, but I can't quite pinpoint where I'm going wrong...

Thanks for your patience -Hansol

[trapster]

If you have 1 password you shouldn't need "pswd-for-B"

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash 
pw=password
tar -cvzf /location/fileA.tar.gz /location/of/fileA 
tar -cvzf /location/fileB.tar.gz /location/of/fileB 
yes $pw | bcrypt /location/fileA.tar.gz /location/fileB.tar.gz

If you have 2 passwords

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash 
pwa=pswd-for-A
pwb=pswd-for-B
tar -cvzf /location/fileA.tar.gz /location/of/fileA 
tar -cvzf /location/fileB.tar.gz /location/of/fileB 
yes $pwa | bcrypt /location/fileA.tar.gz 
yes $pwb | bcrypt /location/fileB.tar.gz 

[Uten]

I'm a bit late to the discussion but I thought this could be of interest to OP and others. I use encfs to mount a encrypted folder on my my-documents folder

encfs is installed from the package manager.
I use this command to mount the partition.

Code: Select all

encfs ~/.my-documents ~/my-docuuments -o nonempty 

To make sure I don't loose my-documents I use btsync to replicate .my-documents to a backup server.

And at last a friendly warning. I thought this was such a good Idea that I encrypted quite a few folders. I was not clever enough to keep a copy of my password. So at the moment I have a folder with a password I can't for the life of me remember

Currently I'm running this on precise-5.7.1