Package: covert
Covert EncryptionA file and message encryptor with strong anonymityChaCha20-Poly1305stream cipher with authenticationArgon2secures shorter passwords against crackingCurve25519public key encrypt & sign withSSH,AgeandMinisignkeysAnonymity, privacy and authenticityThe encrypted archive looks exactly like random data, providingdeniability. Every byte is protected so that not only is reading prevented butauthenticityis also verified, protecting your data against any outsiders, and files may also besignedif necessary.Other encryption tools add unencrypted headers revealing the recipients and other metadata. Covert was created to address this very problem, to stopallinformation leakage.A message (base64 or binary) has no headers or anything else that could be recognized:R/i7oqt9QnTnc6Op9gw9wSbYQq1bfYtKAfEOxpiQopc0SsYdLa12AUkg0o5s4KPfU6eZX59c4SXD2F8efFCEUeUCovert generates easy passphrases likeoliveanglepeaceethicsfor the above. The encoded message includes random padding to hide the length of the message and it is still shorter than others. For comparison,gpgneeds six lines instead of one and still ends up revealing the exact length of the message.InstallationPythonpipinstallsqcovertandcoverton your system:pip install "covert[gui]"

qcovert      # Run GUI, or
covert       # Run in terminalPython 3.9 or 3.10 is required. On systems still using older versions, you may need to install by:python3.9 -m pip install covertDevelopers should install a dev repo in editable mode: (consider also usingpipenv)git clone https://github.com/covert-encryption/covert.git
cd covert
pip install -e ".[dev,gui]"File I/O speeds matching the fastest SSDsCovert is the fastest of all the popular tools in both encryption (blue) and decryption (red).ProgramLangAlgorithmsOperationCovertPythonchacha20‑poly1305 sha512‑ed25519encrypt with auth and signatureAgeGochacha20-poly1305encrypt with authRageRustchacha20-poly1305encrypt with authOpenSSLCaes256-ctr (hw accelerated)encrypt onlyGPGCaes128-cfb, deflateencrypt with auth and compressionMinisignCblake2b-512 ed25519signature only (for reference)A few interesting featuresFiles of any size may be attached to messages without the use of external tools, and without revealing any metadata such as modification times.A completely different ciphertext is produced each time, usually of different size, even if the message and the key are exactly the same. Other crypto tools cannot do this.Covert messages are much shorter than with other cryptosystems, accomplished by some ingenious engineering.A key insight is that a receiver canblindlyattempt to decrypt a file with many different keys and parameters until he finds a combination that authenticates successfully. This saves valuable space on short messages and improves security because no plain text headers are needed.A secure desktop appCovert comes with a graphical user interface built in. Unlike PGP GUIs, Covert does not use external CLI tools but instead does everything inside the app. Storing the plain text message on disk at any point exposes it to forensic researchers and hackers who might be scanning your drive for deleted files, and unfortunately there have been such leaks with popular PGP programs that use temporary files to communicate with external editors or with thegpgtool.Additional readingCovert Format SpecificationCovert Encryption SecurityReducing Metadata Leakage(a related research paper)The PGP ProblemCovert is in an early development phase, so you are encouraged to try it but avoid using it on any valuable data just yet. We are looking for interested developers and the specification itself is still open to changes, no compatibility guarantees.