# Encrypting files between Windows and FreeBSD?



## frijsdijk (Apr 14, 2010)

I'm looking for a possibility to encrypt a text file on a windows machine, and then decrypt it on a FreeBSD machine. Truecrypt comes to mind, but it evaporates quickly again, unfortunately.

Preferably something that doesn't need X installed on the FreeBSD machine.

What I'm trying to do is to safely transfer very secret files between a windows machine to a freebsd machine using a USB stick. Network is not available. The content should never be readable on the USB stick.


----------



## oliverh (Apr 14, 2010)

Try OpenSSL or GnuPG.


----------



## RedGhost (Apr 14, 2010)

A fairly simple solution is to use an archiver thats supports encryption. You will get the added benefit of compression which should come in handy on a USB stick.

7zip has a very high compression ratio and encrypts with AES-256 with the option to encrypt file names. AES-256 is the strongest cipher offered by Truecrypt.

7zip is FOSS and available for Windows: http://www.7-zip.org/

A shell based port of 7zip is available in the ports collection: /usr/ports/archivers/p7zip


```
$ 7z e -p<password> <archive> <directory>
```

Is all you should need to extract the encrypted archive.


```
$ 7z e -mhe=on -p<password> <archive> <directory>
```

May be necessary if file name encrypton is enabled.


----------



## hydra (Apr 14, 2010)

I would also recommend OpenSSL or 7zip.


----------



## frijsdijk (Apr 15, 2010)

Yes of course, pgp or 7z (probably the last). I wasn't thinking..

Thanks!


----------

