5/22/2021 How to Use AES-256 Cipher: Python Cryptography Examples | Hacker Noon
How to Use AES-256 Cipher: Python
Cryptography Examples
February 23rd 2020 10,340 reads
@wagslane
Lane Wagner
Bitcoinist, libertarian, atheist, cryptography fan, and founder of http://qvault.io
https://hackernoon.com/how-to-use-aes-256-cipher-python-cryptography-examples-6tbh37cr 1/9
5/22/2021 How to Use AES-256 Cipher: Python Cryptography Examples | Hacker Noon
Need to encrypt some text with a password or private key in Python? You certainly came to
the right place. AES-256 is a solid symmetric cipher that is commonly used to encrypt data
for oneself. In other words, the same person who is encrypting the data is typically
decrypting it as well (think password manager).
Dependencies Search...
Never clean messy spreadsheets again
For this tutorial, we will be using Python 3, so make sure you install pycryptodome, which
Howustoaccess
will give Use AES-256 Cipher: Python
to an implementation Cryptography Examples by @wagslane
of AES-256:
pip3 install pycryptodomex
Padding - Handled by GCM
AES-256 typically requires that the data to be encrypted is supplied in 16-byte blocks, and
you may have seen that on other sites or tutorials. AES-256 in GCM mode, however, doesn't
require any special padding to be done by us manually.
Encrypting
Now we create a simple encrypt(plain text, password) function. This function uses the
https://hackernoon.com/how-to-use-aes-256-cipher-python-cryptography-examples-6tbh37cr 2/9
5/22/2021 How to Use AES-256 Cipher: Python Cryptography Examples | Hacker Noon
Now we create a simple encrypt(plain_text, password) function. This function uses the
password to encrypt the plain text. Therefore, anyone with access to the encrypted text and
the password will be able to decrypt it.
def encrypt(plain_text, password):
# generate a random salt
salt = get_random_bytes(AES.block_size)
# use the Scrypt KDF to get a private key from the password
private_key = hashlib.scrypt(
password.encode(), salt=salt, n=2**14, r=8, p=1, dklen=32)
# create cipher config
cipher_config = AES.new(private_key, AES.MODE_GCM)
# return a dictionary with the encrypted text
cipher_text, tag = cipher_config.encrypt_and_digest(bytes(plain_text, 'utf-
8'))
return {
'cipher_text': b64encode(cipher_text).decode('utf-8'),
'salt': b64encode(salt).decode('utf-8'),
'nonce': b64encode(cipher_config.nonce).decode('utf-8'),
'tag': b64encode(tag).decode('utf-8')
}
Notes on encrypt() function
1. Nonce: A random nonce (arbitrary value) must be a random and unique value for each
time our encryption function is used with the same key. Think of it as a random salt for a
cipher. The library supplies us with a secure nonce.
2. Scrypt: Scrypt is used to generate a secure private key from the password. This will make
it harder for an attacker to brute-force our encryption.
3 Salt: A new random salt is used for each run of our encryption This makes it impossible
https://hackernoon.com/how-to-use-aes-256-cipher-python-cryptography-examples-6tbh37cr 3/9
5/22/2021 How to Use AES-256 Cipher: Python Cryptography Examples | Hacker Noon
3. Salt: A new random salt is used for each run of our encryption. This makes it impossible
for an attacker to use precomputed hashes in an attempt to crack the cipher. (see rainbow
table)
4. Scrypt parameters:
1. N is the cost factor. It must be a power of two, and the higher it is the more secure the
key, but the more resources it requires to run.
2. R is the block size.
3. P is the parallelization factor, useful for running on multiple cores.
1. Base64: We encode all of our bytes-type data into base64 a convenient string
representation
2. Tag: The tag is used to authenticate the data when using AES in GCM mode. This
ensures no one can change our data without us knowing about it when we decrypt.
Decrypting
def decrypt(enc_dict, password):
# decode the dictionary entries from base64
salt = b64decode(enc_dict['salt'])
cipher_text = b64decode(enc_dict['cipher_text'])
nonce = b64decode(enc_dict['nonce'])
tag = b64decode(enc_dict['tag'])
# generate the private key from the password and salt
private_key = hashlib.scrypt(
password.encode(), salt=salt, n=2**14, r=8, p=1, dklen=32)
# create the cipher config
cipher = AES.new(private_key, AES.MODE_GCM, nonce=nonce)
# decrypt the cipher text
decrypted = cipher.decrypt_and_verify(cipher_text, tag)
return decrypted
https://hackernoon.com/how-to-use-aes-256-cipher-python-cryptography-examples-6tbh37cr 4/9
5/22/2021 How to Use AES-256 Cipher: Python Cryptography Examples | Hacker Noon
Notes on decrypt() function
The decrypt() function needs the same salt, nonce, and tag that we used for encryption. We
used a dictionary for convenience in parsing, but if we instead wanted one string of
ciphertext we could have used a scheme like salt.nonce.tag.cipher_textThe configuration
parameters on the Scrypt and AES functions need to be the same as the encrypt function.
Give Me The Full Code!
You probably want to see it all work in an example script. Look no further!
# AES 256 encryption/decryption using pycryptodome library
from base64 import b64encode, b64decode
import hashlib
from Cryptodome.Cipher import AES
import os
from Cryptodome.Random import get_random_bytes
def encrypt(plain_text, password):
# generate a random salt
salt = get_random_bytes(AES.block_size)
# use the Scrypt KDF to get a private key from the password
private_key = hashlib.scrypt(
password.encode(), salt=salt, n=2**14, r=8, p=1, dklen=32)
# create cipher config
https://hackernoon.com/how-to-use-aes-256-cipher-python-cryptography-examples-6tbh37cr 5/9
5/22/2021 How to Use AES-256 Cipher: Python Cryptography Examples | Hacker Noon
cipher_config = AES.new(private_key, AES.MODE_GCM)
# return a dictionary with the encrypted text
cipher_text, tag = cipher_config.encrypt_and_digest(bytes(plain_text, 'utf-
8'))
return {
'cipher_text': b64encode(cipher_text).decode('utf-8'),
'salt': b64encode(salt).decode('utf-8'),
'nonce': b64encode(cipher_config.nonce).decode('utf-8'),
'tag': b64encode(tag).decode('utf-8')
}
def decrypt(enc_dict, password):
# decode the dictionary entries from base64
salt = b64decode(enc_dict['salt'])
cipher_text = b64decode(enc_dict['cipher_text'])
nonce = b64decode(enc_dict['nonce'])
tag = b64decode(enc_dict['tag'])
# generate the private key from the password and salt
private_key = hashlib.scrypt(
password.encode(), salt=salt, n=2**14, r=8, p=1, dklen=32)
# create the cipher config
cipher = AES.new(private_key, AES.MODE_GCM, nonce=nonce)
# decrypt the cipher text
decrypted = cipher.decrypt_and_verify(cipher_text, tag)
return decrypted
def main():
password = input("Password: ")
# First let us encrypt secret message
encrypted = encrypt("The secretest message here", password)
print(encrypted)
# Let us decrypt using our original password
decrypted = decrypt(encrypted, password)
print(bytes.decode(decrypted))
https://hackernoon.com/how-to-use-aes-256-cipher-python-cryptography-examples-6tbh37cr 6/9
5/22/2021 How to Use AES-256 Cipher: Python Cryptography Examples | Hacker Noon
main()
Thanks For Reading
Lane on Twitter: @wagslane
Lane on Dev.to: wagslane
Download Qvault: https://qvault.io
By Lane Wagner
by Lane Wagner @wagslane. Bitcoinist, libertarian, atheist, cryptography fan, and
founder of http://qvault.io
Follow Lane On Twitter
Related Stories
Subject Matter
Enter The Decentralized Internet Writing Contest by @HackerNoon+FreeTON
#promoted
#promoted
How To Make Correct Line Endings by @wagslane
#crlf
Top 5 React Native Starter Kits to Try | Review Guide 2021 by @katarinaharbuzawa
https://hackernoon.com/how-to-use-aes-256-cipher-python-cryptography-examples-6tbh37cr 7/9
5/22/2021 How to Use AES-256 Cipher: Python Cryptography Examples | Hacker Noon
#react-native-starter-kit
A Guide to Python Advanced Features by @faizan4it
#python-programming
Types of Cross-Site Scripting(XSS) Attacks by @obetomuniz
#security
How to Do Speech Recognition in Python by @miketechgame
#python
How to Use Lerna to Create a Monorepo for Multiple Node Packages by @aspecto
#tutorial
TAGS
#cryptography #programming #python #security #tutorial #aes-256
#software-development #password-security
Join Hacker Noon
The Hacker Noon Newsletter
Create your free account to unlock your custom reading experience.
Quality Weekly Reads About Technology Infiltrating Everything
[email protected]
Subscribefree
Yes, I agree to receive emails about tech eating the world.
ABOUT
Careers
Contact
Cookies
https://hackernoon.com/how-to-use-aes-256-cipher-python-cryptography-examples-6tbh37cr 8/9
5/22/2021 How to Use AES-256 Cipher: Python Cryptography Examples | Hacker Noon
Cookies
Help
Privacy
Terms
READ
Archive
Leaderboard
Signup
Tech Brief
Tech Tags
Top Stories
WRITE
Distribution
Editor Tips
Guidelines
New Story
Perks
Why Write
SPONSOR
Brand Publishing
Case Studies
Niche Marketing
Newsletter
Sitewide Billboard
Writing Contests
https://hackernoon.com/how-to-use-aes-256-cipher-python-cryptography-examples-6tbh37cr 9/9
