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#1 2007-11-09 06:58:17

sweiss
Member
Registered: 2004-02-16
Posts: 635

Encrypted notes?

Howdy.
I am very fond of notes, and currently I am using KNotes.

However I've become a bit paranoid lately, and some of my notes contain sensitive information.
Does anyone happen to know of an application which allows creating password-encrypted notes?

Thanks.

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#2 2007-11-09 10:57:31

xd-0
Member
From: Sweden
Registered: 2007-11-02
Posts: 327
Website

Re: Encrypted notes?

Perhaps some tar utility that can encrypt the comprimation with a password.

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#3 2007-11-09 15:14:00

drakosha
Member
Registered: 2006-01-03
Posts: 253
Website

Re: Encrypted notes?

i have a plaintext file with all kind of sensitive data which i "gpg -c" or "gpg -d" when needed

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#4 2007-11-09 15:52:13

MrWeatherbee
Member
Registered: 2007-08-01
Posts: 277

Re: Encrypted notes?

I use NoteCase (available in AUR):

http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?d … s=0&SeB=nd
http://notecase.sourceforge.net/

It features the ability to save in encrypted format using the Blowfish algorithm.

However, I do not use the encryption feature, though it should be fine (I use a TrueCrypt volume for any encryption requirements).

I use NoteCase strictly because its a good way to keep up with notes. It's not quite as feature-rich as KeyNote under Windows, but KN is no longer being developed and doesn't run well under Wine. NoteCase has a pretty active development process; however, a pay version was recently introduced, and I'm not sure how that will impact the features that get put into the free version.

Give it a try.

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#5 2007-11-09 15:55:12

Dusty
Schwag Merchant
From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada
Registered: 2004-01-18
Posts: 5,986
Website

Re: Encrypted notes?

Shameless, perhaps, but barebones has written a crypto plugin for Pallavi (my text editor):
http://code.google.com/p/gpgpallavi/

Dusty

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#6 2007-11-11 04:11:13

scrawler
Member
Registered: 2005-06-07
Posts: 318

Re: Encrypted notes?

treeline.

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#7 2007-11-11 04:44:16

skottish
Forum Fellow
From: Here
Registered: 2006-06-16
Posts: 7,942

Re: Encrypted notes?

You may be able to do it with Kgpg and KNotes through Kontact.

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#8 2007-11-11 11:30:45

onearm
Member
From: Anywhere but here
Registered: 2006-07-06
Posts: 359
Website

Re: Encrypted notes?

Maybe Tiddlywiki with the EncryptionPlugin?


To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three persons, two of them absent.
--
My Github

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#9 2007-11-14 17:50:57

loosec
Member
Registered: 2007-03-08
Posts: 134

Re: Encrypted notes?

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#10 2007-11-20 00:22:25

noalwin
Member
From: Spain
Registered: 2007-06-08
Posts: 115

Re: Encrypted notes?

Basket can encript your notes using a password or a gnupg key and it can import notes from knotes. But if you put a file inside the note, it seems to store it and the notes in clear.

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#11 2007-11-20 00:31:15

Allan
Pacman
From: Brisbane, AU
Registered: 2007-06-09
Posts: 11,365
Website

Re: Encrypted notes?

MrWeatherbee wrote:

I use NoteCase (available in AUR)

I also recommend this.  A very nice program.  Encryption worked in an earlier version but I don't use it anymore.

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#12 2007-11-20 16:39:53

Sophotect
Member
From: Hyperbolic excess
Registered: 2007-03-25
Posts: 30

Re: Encrypted notes?

Knotes sounds like you are using KDE. If you wouldn't mind to use something more "heavy" i can recommend basket.kde.org.
I'm using this to organise all sorts of stuff and encrypt some things on ocassion. It can do this with pgp via kpgp or normal mechanisms. And it integrates well with Kontact and Korganizer.

http://archlinux.org/packages/search/?q=basket

What could one want more if running KDE and assorted stuff? smile

EDIT: oops. didn't see noalwins post.

Last edited by Sophotect (2007-11-20 16:42:56)

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#13 2007-11-21 17:09:00

barebones
Member
Registered: 2006-04-30
Posts: 235

Re: Encrypted notes?

I guess I don't know enough about what you're encrypting to make a really good recommendation, but if you're writing small notes that you don't plan on passing to somebody else to open, my plugin that dusty mentioned (thanks dusty!) is really the way to go. Right now it only uses symmetric encryption, so it's not the best option  if you plan on passing stuff over the internet, but the advantage is that you're text will never touch the hard drive in an unencrypted state. I haven't used many of the options mentioned so far here in this thread, but the problem with something like gpg is that you encrypt the file after you save it. This means that the file data is on your hard drive in a totally unencrypted state as well as the encrypted state. If you forget to use shred to get rid of the file (IE. you use rm instead) its pretty much a trivial task for anyone trying to get that data to get it.  If you compose the file in pallavi and then save it through my plugin, the only time it is placed on the hard drive is after it's been encrypted, giving you one more layer of security.

Sorry, that turned into a bit of a rant, but the moral of the story here is that if you save a file, and then encrypt it afterwards, you're really only giving yourself a false  sense of security which in the end is worse than no encryption at all. It really doesn't matter what means you use to get to this end, so if the other options here will let you encrypt text in their buffers, use 'em. They're probably a little bit better developed than my plugin which may or may not mean safer. If you haven't already checked out pallavi (and my plugin) though, I recommend you do. It's pretty much the coolest text editor ever.

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#14 2007-11-21 17:38:16

MrWeatherbee
Member
Registered: 2007-08-01
Posts: 277

Re: Encrypted notes?

barebones wrote:

...
I haven't used many of the options mentioned so far here in this thread, but the problem with something like gpg is that you encrypt the file after you save it. This means that the file data is on your hard drive in a totally unencrypted state as well as the encrypted state. If you forget to use shred to get rid of the file (IE. you use rm instead) its pretty much a trivial task for anyone trying to get that data to get it.
...
Sorry, that turned into a bit of a rant, but the moral of the story here is that if you save a file, and then encrypt it afterwards, you're really only giving yourself a false  sense of security which in the end is worse than no encryption at all. It really doesn't matter what means you use to get to this end, so if the other options here will let you encrypt text in their buffers, use 'em. They're probably a little bit better developed than my plugin which may or may not mean safer. If you haven't already checked out pallavi (and my plugin) though, I recommend you do. It's pretty much the coolest text editor ever.

This is a very good point to be making regarding the way gpg and some other applications handle encryption (i.e., they leave an unencrypted copy behind). However, using 'shred' (or wipe or srm, etc.) as a possible means of handling the unencrypted copies also is fostering a false sense of security depending on what type of file system one uses. Journaling file systems render the secure deletion tools ineffective.

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#15 2007-11-21 19:47:14

bender02
Member
From: UK
Registered: 2007-02-04
Posts: 1,328

Re: Encrypted notes?

Well, for example there is a plugin for vim, which allows for quite comfortable editing of gpg-encrypted files. If I understand the description correctly, it decrypts the loaded file in memory, and encrypts before writing it down, so the abovementioned issue with writing to disk should be nonexistent.

It is really a nice plugin: you just "vim encryptedtextfile.gpg" and edit it as any other text file... so I guess if vim is your editor of choice...

Ah, the link: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=661

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#16 2007-11-22 05:59:46

barebones
Member
Registered: 2006-04-30
Posts: 235

Re: Encrypted notes?

This is a very good point to be making regarding the way gpg and some other applications handle encryption (i.e., they leave an unencrypted copy behind). However, using 'shred' (or wipe or srm, etc.) as a possible means of handling the unencrypted copies also is fostering a false sense of security depending on what type of file system one uses. Journaling file systems render the secure deletion tools ineffective.

This is also an excellent point. I think shred is a sufficient means for deleting files in most cases, however, since it makes retrieving files more than just firing up any one of the number of deleted file retrieval systems out there. If you really have secret information where someone might go to the lengths of checking a journal to find it, the kind of information that might get you fired/arrested/wacked (I'm looking at you, Paulie) the only way to keep it safe is to memorize it yourself and not let it touch the computer. If that's not an option, run a fully encrypted operating system.

Alright, back on topic. Ehem. bender02, the vim plugin you mention sounds like pretty much the analog for vim to what my plugin does for pallavi. In fact, my plugin originally used gpg as well, but I shed it in order to use the python cryptography tool kit, which migrates across platforms much more easily.

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#17 2007-11-24 07:16:01

sweiss
Member
Registered: 2004-02-16
Posts: 635

Re: Encrypted notes?

Thanks for the suggestions smile
I've checked some of them, and Basket seems to be the closest thing to it.

The only problem is its stability - I had it crashing/locking on me twice when trying to arrange my notes. I cancelled the animation effects just to be on the safe side, but I'm not sure if that's the issue.

Anyway, it's now on a trial period wink

Thanks a lot.

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#18 2007-11-30 03:53:46

tesjo
Member
Registered: 2007-11-30
Posts: 164

Re: Encrypted notes?

I have used the vim script which is nice. But I like emacs and there is an emacs interface for gnupg called easypg with which you can transparently access and save .gpg files. It is also careful as is the vim script about cacheing. Just install and add this to dot_emacs

(require 'epa-file)
(epa-file-enable)

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#19 2007-12-04 01:04:32

crouse
Arch Linux f@h Team Member
From: Iowa - USA
Registered: 2006-08-19
Posts: 907
Website

Re: Encrypted notes?

Just so happens I wrote something that does something like this a while back........

http://crouse.us/scripts/bash/encryption/sced.sh

#!/bin/bash
# A Symmetric Cipher Encryption/Decryption program made using Zenity
# Copyright (C) 2007 Dave Crouse - <dave atnospam usalug.org> -All rights reserved
#
# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.

You can view a demo of it here: (large file)
http://crouse.us/scripts/bash/encryption/sced-DEMO.ogg
sced.jpg

Last edited by crouse (2007-12-04 01:07:38)

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#20 2007-12-04 01:57:13

elide
Member
From: Russia
Registered: 2007-12-02
Posts: 40

Re: Encrypted notes?

community/encfs ?

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#21 2007-12-04 03:57:53

abhidg
Member
From: City of Kol
Registered: 2006-07-01
Posts: 184
Website

Re: Encrypted notes?

If I keep my entire /home encrypted using cryptsetup, is it really necessary to have additional encryption?

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