Chances are that you already have the OpenSSL tool installed on your system. The process of encrypting folders in the file manager is the same as encrypting single files. Linux has quite a few tools that offer various levels of security. In this, you simply assign the appropriate permissions to the file or folder, which prevents others from accessing them. But there are some tools to make your life easier. Right-click the file … The “in” parameter specifies the input file, and the “out” parameter specifies the output file. At best, it makes it more difficult for someone to access and view your files. And after you’re done reading the decrypted file, you should delete that as well. You can read my earlier tutorial on So if you’re looking for strong security, encryption is the way to go. ccrypt. Or anyone capable of issuing the “sudo” command can gain access to your folder without any hassles. Then however, when one wants to access a file, one must extract the unencrypted file from the zip, read file and then delete, or edit file and then update zip with new file, then delete intermediate file. Warning! Password Protected ZIP File in Linux. For your first attempt at encrypting and decrypting, either move the original file (before decrypting) or give the newly decrypted file a different name. You are prompted for the passphrase you created during the encryption.

However, none of them offers a password to protect files. Here are four methods that can hide your data away. Active 7 years, 3 months ago. In this article, we’ll take a look at two different approaches to protecting files and folders in Linux.The first approach is the simplest, and might suit your needs. The only difference is that you're asked if you want to encrypt the files individually or together in a package. There may be many reasons to password protect files and folders in a Linux environment. It is a suite of cryptographic software. Encrypt the file with the command gpg -c important.docx. You should now s… 5. Moroever if you forget to log out of your account, your files are wide open to anyone passing by and they just need to sit down at your terminal and access them.So while a permissions based protection system is easy, it’s not ideal for true security requirements. The zip route/zip path is to recursively zip a directory with the encryption/password option(s). If not, just use apt-get or yum, or whatever package manager you use for your system.Let’s say I have a file called “filetoencrypt”. 4. If you prefer using a graphical tool, and you use a distribution that includes the Jack Wallen is a former Lifewire writer, an award-winning writer for TechRepublic and Linux.com, and the voice of The Android Expert.How to Share Files and Folders Between Linux and WindowsHow To Move Files Using Linux Graphical And Command Line ToolsUse Finder to Access FileVault Backups on a Time Machine Linux and other Unixish oses offers strong file permissions and ACL (access control list) concept in Linux/UNIX computer security used to enforce privilege separation. If I have a folder called testfolder, I can write:Now when I try and access it as another user, I get a permission denied message as expected:While easy to implement, this approach doesn’t provide hard security. Linux offers several useful tools to encrypt files and protect your data from prying eyes. To encrypt a folder from the command line, use the gpg-zip command. I’ll show how to create a password protected ZIP archive from one or several unprotected files or folders.

Therefore, the only people who can read these documents are yourself, and anyone with admin privileges.For example, let’s say I have a file called “testfile.txt” in a particular folder. Some of these tools are built into the operating system, and some must be installed.

When prompted, give the file a new name, then click You should now see the newly encrypted file in the folder. For one, any administrator can view your files. A common example is encrypting a file that itself contains a bunch of passwords. Here's how: Open a terminal window, then issue the command: The “in” parameter specifies the input file, and the “out” parameter specifies the output file. Nothing but a password is capable of breaking open this file.To decrypt the above file, use the following command:The “-d” parameter means that we want to decrypt. When prompted, type (and verify) an encryption passphrase.