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[OCLUG-Tech] Re: Safe viewing of encrypted files (summary)

  • Subject: [OCLUG-Tech] Re: Safe viewing of encrypted files (summary)
  • From: John C Nash <nashjc [ at ] uottawa [ dot ] ca>
  • Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:39:42 -0400
Thanks to responders. With a bit of experimentation, Roland Renaud and I have confirmed the following.

ccat seems funny (ccat is a symlink to ccrypt).

This works:
 "ccrypt -c secret.cpt |less"

And
 "ccat secret.cpt"
 says "Enter decryption key:" as expected.

However,
 "ccat secret.cpt | less"
 less blanks the screen but doesn't say anything.
If you enter the key, less correctly displays the data but leaves the
xterm in a state where it doesn't echo the commands you entered.
You have to enter "stty sane" to fix it.

So the workaround seems to be to use "ccrypt -c" instead of "ccat".

(Above is edited from Roland's msg to me, improving on my test. Thanks Roland.)

By installing less for windows and putting it in the path, I can use the same command under Windows. Next step is to try to put software and "secret" file on USB and see
if it is possible to execute from that.

JN