Encrypt & Decrypt using PyCrypto AES 256

I'm trying to build two functions using PyCrypto that accept two parameters: the message and the key, and then encrypt/decrypt the message.

I found several links on the web to help me out, but each one of them has flaws:

This one at codekoala uses os.urandom, which is discouraged by PyCrypto.

Moreover, the key I give to the function is not guaranteed to have the exact length expected. What can I do to make that happen ?

Also, there are several modes, which one is recommended? I don't know what to use :/

Finally, what exactly is the IV? Can I provide a different IV for encrypting and decrypting, or will this return in a different result?

Edit: Removed the code part since it was not secure.

Here is my implementation and works for me with some fixes and enhances the alignment of the key and secret phrase with 32 bytes and iv to 16 bytes:

import base64
import hashlib
from Crypto import Random
from Crypto.Cipher import AES

class AESCipher(object):

    def __init__(self, key): 
        self.bs = AES.block_size
        self.key = hashlib.sha256(key.encode()).digest()

    def encrypt(self, raw):
        raw = self._pad(raw)
        iv = Random.new().read(AES.block_size)
        cipher = AES.new(self.key, AES.MODE_CBC, iv)
        return base64.b64encode(iv + cipher.encrypt(raw.encode()))

    def decrypt(self, enc):
        enc = base64.b64decode(enc)
        iv = enc[:AES.block_size]
        cipher = AES.new(self.key, AES.MODE_CBC, iv)
        return self._unpad(cipher.decrypt(enc[AES.block_size:])).decode('utf-8')

    def _pad(self, s):
        return s + (self.bs - len(s) % self.bs) * chr(self.bs - len(s) % self.bs)

    @staticmethod
    def _unpad(s):
        return s[:-ord(s[len(s)-1:])]

You may need the following two functions: pad- to pad(when doing encryption) and unpad- to unpad (when doing decryption) when the length of input is not a multiple of BLOCK_SIZE.

BS = 16
pad = lambda s: s + (BS - len(s) % BS) * chr(BS - len(s) % BS) 
unpad = lambda s : s[:-ord(s[len(s)-1:])]

So you're asking the length of key? You can use the md5sum of the key rather than use it directly.

More, according to my little experience of using PyCrypto, the IV is used to mix up the output of a encryption when input is same, so the IV is chosen as a random string, and use it as part of the encryption output, and then use it to decrypt the message.

And here's my implementation, hope it will be useful for you:

import base64
from Crypto.Cipher import AES
from Crypto import Random

class AESCipher:
    def __init__( self, key ):
        self.key = key

    def encrypt( self, raw ):
        raw = pad(raw)
        iv = Random.new().read( AES.block_size )
        cipher = AES.new( self.key, AES.MODE_CBC, iv )
        return base64.b64encode( iv + cipher.encrypt( raw ) ) 

    def decrypt( self, enc ):
        enc = base64.b64decode(enc)
        iv = enc[:16]
        cipher = AES.new(self.key, AES.MODE_CBC, iv )
        return unpad(cipher.decrypt( enc[16:] ))

Let me address your question about "modes." AES256 is a kind of block cipher. It takes as input a 32-byte key and a 16-byte string, called the block and outputs a block. We use AES in a mode of operation in order to encrypt. The solutions above suggest using CBC, which is one example. Another is called CTR, and it's somewhat easier to use:

from Crypto.Cipher import AES
from Crypto.Util import Counter
from Crypto import Random

# AES supports multiple key sizes: 16 (AES128), 24 (AES192), or 32 (AES256).
key_bytes = 32

# Takes as input a 32-byte key and an arbitrary-length plaintext and returns a
# pair (iv, ciphtertext). "iv" stands for initialization vector.
def encrypt(key, plaintext):
    assert len(key) == key_bytes

    # Choose a random, 16-byte IV.
    iv = Random.new().read(AES.block_size)

    # Convert the IV to a Python integer.
    iv_int = int(binascii.hexlify(iv), 16) 

    # Create a new Counter object with IV = iv_int.
    ctr = Counter.new(AES.block_size * 8, initial_value=iv_int)

    # Create AES-CTR cipher.
    aes = AES.new(key, AES.MODE_CTR, counter=ctr)

    # Encrypt and return IV and ciphertext.
    ciphertext = aes.encrypt(plaintext)
    return (iv, ciphertext)

# Takes as input a 32-byte key, a 16-byte IV, and a ciphertext, and outputs the
# corresponding plaintext.
def decrypt(key, iv, ciphertext):
    assert len(key) == key_bytes

    # Initialize counter for decryption. iv should be the same as the output of
    # encrypt().
    iv_int = int(iv.encode('hex'), 16) 
    ctr = Counter.new(AES.block_size * 8, initial_value=iv_int)

    # Create AES-CTR cipher.
    aes = AES.new(key, AES.MODE_CTR, counter=ctr)

    # Decrypt and return the plaintext.
    plaintext = aes.decrypt(ciphertext)
    return plaintext

(iv, ciphertext) = encrypt(key, 'hella')
print decrypt(key, iv, ciphertext)

This is often referred to as AES-CTR. I would advise caution in using AES-CBC with PyCrypto. The reason is that it requires you to specify the padding scheme, as exemplified by the other solutions given. In general, if you're not very careful about the padding, there are attacks that completely break encryption!

Now, it's important to note that the key must be a random, 32-byte string; a password does not suffice. Normally, the key is generated like so:

# Nominal way to generate a fresh key. This calls the system's random number
# generator (RNG).
key1 = Random.new().read(key_bytes)

A key may be derived from a password, too:

# It's also possible to derive a key from a password, but it's important that
# the password have high entropy, meaning difficult to predict.
password = "This is a rather weak password."

# For added # security, we add a "salt", which increases the entropy.
#
# In this example, we use the same RNG to produce the salt that we used to
# produce key1.
salt_bytes = 8 
salt = Random.new().read(salt_bytes)

# Stands for "Password-based key derivation function 2"
key2 = PBKDF2(password, salt, key_bytes)

Some solutions above suggest using SHA256 for deriving the key, but this is generally considered bad cryptographic practice. Check out wikipedia for more on modes of operation.

Grateful for the other answers which inspired but didn't work for me.

After spending hours trying to figure out how it works, I came up with the implementation below with the newest PyCryptodomex library (it is another story how I managed to set it up behind proxy, on Windows, in a virtualenv.. phew)

Working on your implementation, remember to write down padding, encoding, encrypting steps (and vice versa). You have to pack and unpack keeping in mind the order.

import base64
import hashlib
from Cryptodome.Cipher import AES
from Cryptodome.Random import get_random_bytes

__key__ = hashlib.sha256(b'16-character key').digest()

def encrypt(raw):
    BS = AES.block_size
    pad = lambda s: s + (BS - len(s) % BS) * chr(BS - len(s) % BS)

    raw = base64.b64encode(pad(raw).encode('utf8'))
    iv = get_random_bytes(AES.block_size)
    cipher = AES.new(key= __key__, mode= AES.MODE_CFB,iv= iv)
    return base64.b64encode(iv + cipher.encrypt(raw))

def decrypt(enc):
    unpad = lambda s: s[:-ord(s[-1:])]

    enc = base64.b64decode(enc)
    iv = enc[:AES.block_size]
    cipher = AES.new(__key__, AES.MODE_CFB, iv)
    return unpad(base64.b64decode(cipher.decrypt(enc[AES.block_size:])).decode('utf8'))

For someone who would like to use urlsafe_b64encode and urlsafe_b64decode, here are the version that're working for me (after spending some time with the unicode issue)

BS = 16
key = hashlib.md5(settings.SECRET_KEY).hexdigest()[:BS]
pad = lambda s: s + (BS - len(s) % BS) * chr(BS - len(s) % BS)
unpad = lambda s : s[:-ord(s[len(s)-1:])]

class AESCipher:
    def __init__(self, key):
        self.key = key

    def encrypt(self, raw):
        raw = pad(raw)
        iv = Random.new().read(AES.block_size)
        cipher = AES.new(self.key, AES.MODE_CBC, iv)
        return base64.urlsafe_b64encode(iv + cipher.encrypt(raw)) 

    def decrypt(self, enc):
        enc = base64.urlsafe_b64decode(enc.encode('utf-8'))
        iv = enc[:BS]
        cipher = AES.new(self.key, AES.MODE_CBC, iv)
        return unpad(cipher.decrypt(enc[BS:]))

You can get a passphrase out of an arbitrary password by using a cryptographic hash function (NOT Python's builtin hash) like SHA-1 or SHA-256. Python includes support for both in its standard library:

import hashlib

hashlib.sha1("this is my awesome password").digest() # => a 20 byte string
hashlib.sha256("another awesome password").digest() # => a 32 byte string

You can truncate a cryptographic hash value just by using [:16] or [:24] and it will retain its security up to the length you specify.

Another take on this (heavily derived from solutions above) but

• uses null for padding

• does not use lambda (never been a fan)

• tested with python 2.7 and 3.6.5

   #!/usr/bin/python2.7
   # you'll have to adjust for your setup, e.g., #!/usr/bin/python3
  
  
   import base64, re
   from Crypto.Cipher import AES
   from Crypto import Random
   from django.conf import settings
   
   class AESCipher:
       """
         Usage:
         aes = AESCipher( settings.SECRET_KEY[:16], 32)
         encryp_msg = aes.encrypt( 'ppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp' )
         msg = aes.decrypt( encryp_msg )
         print("'{}'".format(msg))
       """
       def __init__(self, key, blk_sz):
           self.key = key
           self.blk_sz = blk_sz
   
       def encrypt( self, raw ):
           if raw is None or len(raw) == 0:
               raise NameError("No value given to encrypt")
           raw = raw + '\0' * (self.blk_sz - len(raw) % self.blk_sz)
           raw = raw.encode('utf-8')
           iv = Random.new().read( AES.block_size )
           cipher = AES.new( self.key.encode('utf-8'), AES.MODE_CBC, iv )
           return base64.b64encode( iv + cipher.encrypt( raw ) ).decode('utf-8')
   
       def decrypt( self, enc ):
           if enc is None or len(enc) == 0:
               raise NameError("No value given to decrypt")
           enc = base64.b64decode(enc)
           iv = enc[:16]
           cipher = AES.new(self.key.encode('utf-8'), AES.MODE_CBC, iv )
           return re.sub(b'\x00*$', b'', cipher.decrypt( enc[16:])).decode('utf-8')
  

For the benefit of others, here is my decryption implementation which I got to by combining the answers of @Cyril and @Marcus. This assumes that this coming in via HTTP Request with the encryptedText quoted and base64 encoded.

import base64
import urllib2
from Crypto.Cipher import AES


def decrypt(quotedEncodedEncrypted):
    key = 'SecretKey'

    encodedEncrypted = urllib2.unquote(quotedEncodedEncrypted)

    cipher = AES.new(key)
    decrypted = cipher.decrypt(base64.b64decode(encodedEncrypted))[:16]

    for i in range(1, len(base64.b64decode(encodedEncrypted))/16):
        cipher = AES.new(key, AES.MODE_CBC, base64.b64decode(encodedEncrypted)[(i-1)*16:i*16])
        decrypted += cipher.decrypt(base64.b64decode(encodedEncrypted)[i*16:])[:16]

    return decrypted.strip()

I have used both Crypto and PyCryptodomex library and it is blazing fast...

import base64
import hashlib
from Cryptodome.Cipher import AES as domeAES
from Cryptodome.Random import get_random_bytes
from Crypto import Random
from Crypto.Cipher import AES as cryptoAES

BLOCK_SIZE = AES.block_size

key = "my_secret_key".encode()
__key__ = hashlib.sha256(key).digest()
print(__key__)

def encrypt(raw):
    BS = cryptoAES.block_size
    pad = lambda s: s + (BS - len(s) % BS) * chr(BS - len(s) % BS)
    raw = base64.b64encode(pad(raw).encode('utf8'))
    iv = get_random_bytes(cryptoAES.block_size)
    cipher = cryptoAES.new(key= __key__, mode= cryptoAES.MODE_CFB,iv= iv)
    a= base64.b64encode(iv + cipher.encrypt(raw))
    IV = Random.new().read(BLOCK_SIZE)
    aes = domeAES.new(__key__, domeAES.MODE_CFB, IV)
    b = base64.b64encode(IV + aes.encrypt(a))
    return b

def decrypt(enc):
    passphrase = __key__
    encrypted = base64.b64decode(enc)
    IV = encrypted[:BLOCK_SIZE]
    aes = domeAES.new(passphrase, domeAES.MODE_CFB, IV)
    enc = aes.decrypt(encrypted[BLOCK_SIZE:])
    unpad = lambda s: s[:-ord(s[-1:])]
    enc = base64.b64decode(enc)
    iv = enc[:cryptoAES.block_size]
    cipher = cryptoAES.new(__key__, cryptoAES.MODE_CFB, iv)
    b=  unpad(base64.b64decode(cipher.decrypt(enc[cryptoAES.block_size:])).decode('utf8'))
    return b

encrypted_data =encrypt("Hi Steven!!!!!")
print(encrypted_data)
print("=======")
decrypted_data = decrypt(encrypted_data)
print(decrypted_data)

It's little late but i think this will be very helpful. No one mention about use scheme like PKCS#7 padding. You can use it instead the previous functions to pad(when do encryption) and unpad(when do decryption).i will provide the full Source Code below.

import base64
import hashlib
from Crypto import Random
from Crypto.Cipher import AES
import pkcs7
class Encryption:

    def __init__(self):
        pass

    def Encrypt(self, PlainText, SecurePassword):
        pw_encode = SecurePassword.encode('utf-8')
        text_encode = PlainText.encode('utf-8')

        key = hashlib.sha256(pw_encode).digest()
        iv = Random.new().read(AES.block_size)

        cipher = AES.new(key, AES.MODE_CBC, iv)
        pad_text = pkcs7.encode(text_encode)
        msg = iv + cipher.encrypt(pad_text)

        EncodeMsg = base64.b64encode(msg)
        return EncodeMsg

    def Decrypt(self, Encrypted, SecurePassword):
        decodbase64 = base64.b64decode(Encrypted.decode("utf-8"))
        pw_encode = SecurePassword.decode('utf-8')

        iv = decodbase64[:AES.block_size]
        key = hashlib.sha256(pw_encode).digest()

        cipher = AES.new(key, AES.MODE_CBC, iv)
        msg = cipher.decrypt(decodbase64[AES.block_size:])
        pad_text = pkcs7.decode(msg)

        decryptedString = pad_text.decode('utf-8')
        return decryptedString

import StringIO
import binascii


def decode(text, k=16):
    nl = len(text)
    val = int(binascii.hexlify(text[-1]), 16)
    if val > k:
        raise ValueError('Input is not padded or padding is corrupt')

    l = nl - val
    return text[:l]


def encode(text, k=16):
    l = len(text)
    output = StringIO.StringIO()
    val = k - (l % k)
    for _ in xrange(val):
        output.write('%02x' % val)
    return text + binascii.unhexlify(output.getvalue())

> https://stackoverflow.com/a/21928790/11402877

compatible utf-8 encoding

def _pad(self, s):
    s = s.encode()
    res = s + (self.bs - len(s) % self.bs) * chr(self.bs - len(s) % self.bs).encode()
    return res

from Crypto import Random
from Crypto.Cipher import AES
import base64

BLOCK_SIZE=16
def trans(key):
     return md5.new(key).digest()

def encrypt(message, passphrase):
    passphrase = trans(passphrase)
    IV = Random.new().read(BLOCK_SIZE)
    aes = AES.new(passphrase, AES.MODE_CFB, IV)
    return base64.b64encode(IV + aes.encrypt(message))

def decrypt(encrypted, passphrase):
    passphrase = trans(passphrase)
    encrypted = base64.b64decode(encrypted)
    IV = encrypted[:BLOCK_SIZE]
    aes = AES.new(passphrase, AES.MODE_CFB, IV)
    return aes.decrypt(encrypted[BLOCK_SIZE:])

Encryption and Decryption of Latin and special characters (Chinese) using AES256 with utf8mb4:

For those who needs to encrypt and decrypt latin and special values such as chinese here is an modification of the @MIkee code to do this task.

** Remembering that UTF8 alone does not handle this type of encode **

import base64, re
from Crypto.Cipher import AES
from Crypto import Random
from django.conf import settings

import codecs

# make utf8mb4 recognizable.
codecs.register(lambda name: codecs.lookup('utf8') if name == 'utf8mb4' else None)


class AESCipher:

    def __init__(self, key, blk_sz):
        self.key = key
        self.blk_sz = blk_sz

    def encrypt( self, raw ):
        # raw is the main value
        if raw is None or len(raw) == 0:
            raise NameError("No value given to encrypt")
        raw = raw + '\0' * (self.blk_sz - len(raw) % self.blk_sz)
        raw = raw.encode('utf8mb4')
        # Initialization vector to avoid same encrypt for same strings.
        iv = Random.new().read( AES.block_size )
        cipher = AES.new( self.key.encode('utf8mb4'), AES.MODE_CFB, iv )
        return base64.b64encode( iv + cipher.encrypt( raw ) ).decode('utf8mb4')

    def decrypt( self, enc ):
        # enc is the encrypted value
        if enc is None or len(enc) == 0:
            raise NameError("No value given to decrypt")
        enc = base64.b64decode(enc)
        iv = enc[:16]
        # AES.MODE_CFB that allows bigger length or latin values
        cipher = AES.new(self.key.encode('utf8mb4'), AES.MODE_CFB, iv )
        return re.sub(b'\x00*$', b'', cipher.decrypt( enc[16:])).decode('utf8mb4')

Usage:

>>> from django.conf import settings
>>> from aesencryption import AESCipher
>>> 
>>> aes = AESCipher(settings.SECRET_KEY[:16], 32)
>>> 
>>> value = aes.encrypt('漢字')
>>> 
>>> value
'hnuRwBjwAHDp5X0DmMF3lWzbjR0r81WlW9MRrWukgQwTL0ZI88oQaWvMfBM+W87w9JtSTw=='
>>> dec_value = aes.decrypt(value)
>>> dec_value
'漢字'
>>>

The same for latin letters such as ã, á, à, â, ã, ç etc.

Attention point

Bear in mind that if you will store latin values to your database, you need to set it to allow such type of data. Therefore, if your db is set as utf-8 it will not accept such type of data. You will need to change there as well.

You can use new django-mirage-field package

pycrypto is old and busted.
The cryptography has better support these days.
Here's another implementation.
Note that this returns bytes, you'd need to use base64 to convert them to a string for transmission.

import os
import hashlib
from cryptography.hazmat.primitives.ciphers import Cipher, algorithms, modes

_BLOCK_SIZE = 16

class AesStringCipher:
    def __init__(self, key): 
        self._key = hashlib.sha256(key.encode()).digest()

    def encrypt_str(self, raw:str) -> bytes:
        iv = os.urandom(_BLOCK_SIZE)
        cipher = Cipher(algorithms.AES(self._key), modes.CBC(iv))
        encryptor = cipher.encryptor()
        raw = _pad(raw)
        return iv + encryptor.update(raw.encode('utf-8')) + encryptor.finalize()

    def decrypt_str(self, enc:bytes) -> str:
        iv = enc[:_BLOCK_SIZE]
        enc = enc[_BLOCK_SIZE:]
        cipher = Cipher(algorithms.AES(self._key), modes.CBC(iv))
        decryptor = cipher.decryptor()
        raw = decryptor.update(enc) + decryptor.finalize()
        raw = raw.decode('utf-8')
        return _unpad(raw)

def _pad(s:str) -> str:
    padding = (_BLOCK_SIZE - (len(s) % _BLOCK_SIZE))
    return s + padding * chr(padding)

def _unpad(s:str) -> str:
    return s[:-ord(s[len(s)-1:])]


if __name__ == '__main__':
    cipher = AesStringCipher('my secret password')

    secret_msg = 'this is a super secret msg ...'
    enc_msg = cipher.encrypt_str(secret_msg)
    dec_msg = cipher.decrypt_str(enc_msg)

    assert secret_msg == dec_msg