ccrypt is a utility for the secure encryption

Encryption

In cryptography, encryption is the process of transforming information using an algorithm to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key. The result of the process is encrypted information...

 and decryption of files and streams. It was designed as a replacement for the standard UNIX

Unix

Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...

 crypt

Crypt (Unix)

In Unix computing, crypt is the name of both a utility program and a C programming function. Though both are used for encrypting data, they are otherwise essentially unrelated...

 utility, which is notorious for using a very weak encryption algorithm

Algorithm

In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is an effective method expressed as a finite list of well-defined instructions for calculating a function. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning...

.

ccrypt is based on the Rijndael cypher

Cipher

In cryptography, a cipher is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption — a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is encipherment. In non-technical usage, a “cipher” is the same thing as a “code”; however, the concepts...

, the same cipher used in the AES

Advanced Encryption Standard

Advanced Encryption Standard is a specification for the encryption of electronic data. It has been adopted by the U.S. government and is now used worldwide. It supersedes DES...

 standard. However, in the AES standard a 128-bit block size is used, whereas ccrypt uses a 256-bit block size.

See also

• crypt
  Crypt (Unix)
  In Unix computing, crypt is the name of both a utility program and a C programming function. Though both are used for encrypting data, they are otherwise essentially unrelated...
  
  
• bcrypt
  Bcrypt
  bcrypt is an adaptive cryptographic hash function for passwords designed by Niels Provos and David Mazières, based on the Blowfish cipher, and presented at USENIX in 1999...
  
  
• mcrypt
  Mcrypt
  mcrypt is a replacement for the popular UNIX crypt command.crypt was a file encryption tool that used an algorithm very close to theWorld War II enigma cipher, which was broken. Mcrypt provides the same functionality but uses several modern algorithms such as AES...