Getting Started

Installation

Make sure that you have the application installed. See installation for more.

Generate a new key pair

Follow the prompts to give the key a name, and encrypt it with the password you choose.

The name can be anything that helps you remember your key. A name, nickname, or email are good ideas. In the example Alice is generating a key for herself.

kestrel key generate -o keyring.txt

The result is a file that looks like this:

[Key]
Name = alice
PublicKey = D7ZZstGYF6okKKEV2rwoUza/tK3iUa8IMY+l5tuirmzzkEog
PrivateKey = ZWdrMPEp09tKN3rAutCDQTshrNqoh0MLPnEERRCm5KFxvXcTo+s/Sf2ze0fKebVsQilImvLzfIHRcJuX8kGetyAQL1VchvzHR28vFhdKeq+NY2KT

This is an example key. Do not use this. Make sure to generate your own.

A [Key] has three properties: Name, PublicKey, PrivateKey.

Name is a nickname for a PublicKey. It's short so that you don't have to type the PublicKey each time. You'll use Name to refer to specific public keys, so each name should be something unique that reminds you of the person that owns that key. Remember that you are also a person with a PublicKey so you can encrypt files for yourself.

PublicKey is the public identifier for a key. Your friends will use this public key to send you files. You can post the PublicKey anywhere. Post it on social media, e-mail it to your friends, whatever works. Just make sure that they have a good copy of your public key.

PrivateKey must be kept secret. Never share it. To be able to decrypt files that are sent to you, you'll need to know the private key string and the password used to unlock it. If you lose your private key you will no longer be able to decrypt files. Keep a backup of the private key somewhere safe.

Encrypt a file using a key

Let's encrypt an example file. Alice is using a file called example.txt. You can use any file that you want. Grab a file from your computer and try it out.

Here Alice is encrypting a file to the key alice and from the key alice.

She is encrypting the file to herself. This is a great way to keep backups secure from online storage providers.

When encrypting a file, think of it like addressing a letter. The destination --to is a public key with a name. And the --from is the sender's key.

kestrel encrypt example.txt --to alice --from alice -o example.txt.ktl -k keyring.txt

This results in a file called example.txt.ktl that only Alice can read and decrypt.

Kestrel also supports pipes, so you could do something like this:

cat example.txt | kestrel enc -t alice -f alice > example.txt.ktl -k keyring.txt

Decrypt a file

To decrypt Alice uses

kestrel decrypt example.txt.ktl -t alice -o example.txt -k keyring.txt

The result is the decrypted example.txt that Alice can view. For the --to option, Alice chose her key, because she knows that the key was sent to her. Upon successful decryption, Alice she can see that the file was sent from the alice key.

To decrypt a file, you'll need to know the key that the file was sent to. If you only have one key pair, this will always be your only key. However, if you have multiple keys, like for work and school, when trying to decrypt the file you'll need to know if you should use the work key or the school key.

Adding a Public Key

Alice just met Bob and got Bob's public key from social media.

Bob's public key is

g4Yms3Wq9stLOCzCAA7LgFnoDahpKZIzvnqZFO4DD2kmfYpf

Alice can add Bob's key by modifying keyring.txt and adding another [Key] section.

[Key]
Name = bob
PublicKey = g4Yms3Wq9stLOCzCAA7LgFnoDahpKZIzvnqZFO4DD2kmfYpf

Name can be anything that helps Alice identify Bob.

Now Alice can encrypt a file for Bob using his key.

kestrel encrypt example.txt --to bob --from alice -k keyring.txt -o example.txt.ktl

The result is a file example.txt.ktl that only Bob will be able to decrypt. Alice can then send this file to Bob through e-mail or some other means.

Default Keyring

Instead of having to use the -k option each time in order to specify the location of the list of keys, you can set a default keyring that will be used automatically.

To do this, set the environment variable KESTREL_KEYRING to the location of the key file that you would like to use.

Password Encryption

Instead of using Public Keys, you can also encrypt and decrypt files using passwords.

kestrel password encrypt example.txt -o example.txt.ktl

kestrel password decrypt example.txt.ktl -o example.txt.ktl

Key Management

Public and private keys are simple Base64 strings. Put your public key somewhere that your friends will have access to. Post it to social media, email it out, whatever works.

When you want to encrypt a file to a friend, just copy their public key and add it to your list of keys.

Private keys are always encrypted with your password. Make sure to choose a strong password. Although the private key is encrypted, it's still a good idea to keep it hidden.

As long as you have access to your private key and the password used to unlock it, you'll be able to access your data. However, if you lose access to the private key and/or password, you won't be able to decrypt any files sent to that key.

You can change the password of a private key

kestrel key change-pass <BASE64-PRIVATE-KEY>

You can view the public key for a private key

kestrel key extract-pub <BASE64-PUBLIC-KEY>

Usage Help

View all of the usage options

kestrel --help

Security Guarantees

If decryption of a file is successful, you know for certain that the file hasn't been tampered with and that it came from a specific known key.

See more in security information