iocane

A powerful and easy-to-use text and data encryption library for NodeJS and the web.

About

iocane makes text and data encryption and decryption easy by bundling all the complicated processes into one succinct library. Encrypt and decrypt strings and buffers easily by using iocane's encryption format - string->string / buffer->buffer. Encrypt and decrypt streams in NodeJS.

This library uses "sessions" for encryption and decryption. A session describes one encryption/decryption action, and can also have options be further overridden at the time of execution. Check the examples below for a better idea of how this process works.

iocane works in the browser, too. Both a node version and a web version are available:

const iocane = require("iocane"); // node

import * as iocane from "iocane/web" // web

Features

iocane by default boasts the following features:

• AES-CBC / AES-GCM encryption:
  • Text
  • Buffers
  • Streams (only in NodeJS)
• 256bit keys
• PBKDF2 key derivation (with 250k/custom iterations)
• 35KB minified web version (10KB gzipped)
• Overridable encryption/derivation/packing functionality to allow for adaptation to yet-unsupported environments

Installation

Install iocane as a dependency using npm:

npm install iocane --save

Usage

iocane can be easily used to encrypt text:

import { createAdapter } from "iocane";

createAdapter()
    .encrypt("some secret text", "myPassword")
    .then(encryptedString => {
        // do something with the encrypted text
    });

Decryption is even simpler, as instructions on how to decrypt the payload is included in the payload itself:

import { createAdapter } from "iocane";

createAdapter()
    .decrypt(encryptedString, "myPassword")
    .then(decryptedString => {
        // ...
    });

During encryption, you can override a variety of options:

import { EncryptionAlgorithm, createAdapter } from "iocane";

const encrypted = await createAdapter()
    .setAlgorithm(EncryptionAlgorithm.GCM) // use GCM encryption
    .setDerivationRounds(300000)
    .encrypt(target, password);

Each cryptographic function can be overridden by simply replacing it on the adapter

import { createAdapter } from "iocane";

const adapter = createAdapter();
adapter.deriveKey = async (password: string, salt: string) => { /* ... */ };

await adapter.encrypt(/* ... */);

Note that the default encryption mode is EncryptionAlgorithm.CBC (AES-CBC encryption).

Encrypting and decrypting data buffers

Iocane can handle buffers the same way it handles strings - just pass them into the same encrypt/decrypt functions:

import { createAdapter } from "iocane";
import fs from "fs";

createAdapter()
    .setAlgorithm(EncryptionAlgorithm.CBC)
    .encrypt(fs.readFileSync("./test.bin"), "passw0rd")
    .then(data => fs.writeFileSync("./test.bin.enc", data));

The same can be performed on the web, with array buffers in place of standard buffers.

Encrypting and decrypting using streams

Available on the Node version only.

Iocane can create encryption and decryption streams, which is very useful for encrypting large amounts of data:

import { createAdapter } from "iocane";
import fs from "fs";
import zlib from "zlib";

// Encrypt
fs
    .createReadStream("/my-file.dat")
    .pipe(zlib.createGzip())
    .pipe(createAdapter().createEncryptStream("passw0rd"))
    .pipe(fs.createWriteStream("/destination.dat.enc"));

// Decrypt
fs
    .createReadStream("/destination.dat.enc")
    .pipe(createAdapter().createDecryptStream("passw0rd"))
    .pipe(zlib.createGunzip())
    .pipe(fs.createWriteStream("/my-file-restored.dat"));

Web usage

When building a project for the web, make sure to use the web-based version of iocane. Bundling the node version will create super-large bundles and result in slow encryption and decryption. iocane for the web uses UMD so it can be imported or simply loaded straight in the browser as a <script>.

If you load iocane directly in the browser, it will create a global namespace at window.iocane (eg. window.iocane.createAdapter).

Supported environments

iocane supports NodeJS version 10 and above. Node 8 was supported in 3.x and versions prior to 8 were supported in 1.x.

iocane is used in the browser as well - it works everywhere that SubtleCrypto, ArrayBuffer and Promise are available.

Note: iocane is written in TypeScript, though versions before v2 were written in JavaScript.

Buttercup

iocane was originally part of the Buttercup suite. Buttercup is a supported dependent of iocane and efforts are made to align iocane with Buttercup's target platforms and uses.

Changelog

v5.2.0

2023-12-09

• Dependency updates / audit