Easy Cipher Content

A powerful VS Code extension for securing both text and binary files with industry-standard encryption algorithms. Easily protect your sensitive data while maintaining a seamless workflow in your development environment.

Features

• 🔒 Encrypt and 🔓 Decrypt content with a single click
• 🔄 Support for both text files (line-by-line encryption) and binary files (complete file encryption)
• 🗄️ Batch operations for entire workspaces or specific directories
• 📂 Smart path suggestions and file browser integration
• 🚫 Configurable ignore patterns for excluding files from batch operations
• 🔐 Enterprise-grade encryption algorithms: AES-GCM and ChaCha20-Poly1305
• 🛠️ Flexible key management via environment variables or JSON configuration

Getting Started

Installation

1. Open VS Code
2. Go to Extensions (Ctrl+Shift+X / Cmd+Shift+X)
3. Search for "Easy Cipher Content"
4. Click Install

Setup

Configure your encryption keys using one of these methods:

Environment Variables (Recommended for security)

# For AES-GCM
export VSCODE_EXT_ECC_AESGCM_PASSWORD="your-secure-password"
export VSCODE_EXT_ECC_AESGCM_SALT="your-salt-value"
export VSCODE_EXT_ECC_AESGCM_IV="your-initialization-vector"

# For ChaCha20-Poly1305
export VSCODE_EXT_ECC_CHACHA20POLY1305_PASSWORD="your-secure-password"
export VSCODE_EXT_ECC_CHACHA20POLY1305_SALT="your-salt-value"
export VSCODE_EXT_ECC_CHACHA20POLY1305_NONCE="your-nonce-value"

JSON Configuration Create a JSON file with your encryption keys and set the path in the extension settings.

Usage

Single File Operations

1. Open a file in the editor
2. Click the 🔒 Encrypt or 🔓 Decrypt button in the editor title bar
3. For text files, content is encrypted line-by-line, preserving the file structure
4. For binary files, a new encrypted file is created with the .enc extension

Workspace Operations

Encrypt or decrypt multiple files in your workspace:

1. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P)
2. Type and select one of the following:
   • Easy Cipher Content: 🔒 Encrypt All Files in Workspace
   • Easy Cipher Content: 🔓 Decrypt All Files in Workspace
   • Easy Cipher Content: 🔒 Encrypt Specific Files or Directories
   • Easy Cipher Content: 🔓 Decrypt Specific Files or Directories

Path Selection

When choosing specific files or directories to process, you have three convenient options:

1. Quick Selection: Choose from smart suggestions of common directories and files
2. Custom Path: Enter a custom path relative to your workspace or an absolute path
3. File Browser: Use the integrated file picker to visually select files or folders

Ignoring Files and Directories

Create a .easy-cipher-content-ignore file in your workspace root with patterns similar to .gitignore:

# Example ignore patterns
node_modules/
*.log
.git/
dist/

Extension Settings

This extension provides the following settings:

• easy-cipher-content.algorithm: Choose encryption algorithm ("aes-gcm" or "chacha20-poly1305")
• easy-cipher-content.use_env: Whether to use environment variables for encryption keys
• easy-cipher-content.json_path: Path to JSON file containing encryption keys (if not using env vars)
• easy-cipher-content.textFileExtensions: Array of file extensions to be treated as text files
• easy-cipher-content.ignoreFile: Name of the file containing ignore patterns
• easy-cipher-content.deleteOriginalAfterEncryption: Whether to delete original files after encryption

Security Best Practices

• Never commit encryption keys or encrypted sensitive data to public repositories
• Use environment variables rather than JSON files for key management when possible
• Set up a secure method for sharing encryption keys with team members
• Consider using different keys for different projects or types of sensitive data

Technical Details

Text File Encryption

Text files are processed line by line, with each non-empty line encrypted individually. This approach:

• Preserves file structure and line breaks
• Makes diff tools still useful for encrypted files
• Allows partial decryption if only certain lines need to be accessible

Binary File Encryption

Binary files are encrypted as complete units, resulting in a new file with the .enc extension.

Known Issues

• Very large binary files may cause performance issues during encryption/decryption
• Some special encodings might not be preserved perfectly in text mode encryption
• The extension cannot automatically detect binary vs text files outside the configured extensions

Troubleshooting

Issue: Decryption fails with "Invalid password" error Solution: Verify that you're using the same encryption key that was used for encryption

Issue: Binary files are being treated as text files Solution: Add the file extension to the textFileExtensions setting if it should be treated as text, or remove it if it should be treated as binary

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

Acknowledgments

• Built with easy-cipher-mate encryption library
• Inspired by the need for simple but secure content protection in VS Code

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Privacy Notice: This extension performs all encryption and decryption locally on your machine. Your encryption keys and content are never transmitted to any server.