Represents the abstract base class from which all implementations of symmetric/asymmetric encryption algorithms must inherit. Use the CipherFactory class to obtain an instance of this class:

CipherFactory& factory = CipherFactory::defaultFactory();
// Creates a 256-bit AES cipher
Cipher* pCipher = factory.createCipher(CipherKey("aes-256"));
Cipher* pRSACipher = factory.createCipher(RSAKey(RSAKey::KL_1024, RSAKey::EXP_SMALL));

Check the different Key constructors on how to initialize/create a key. The above example auto-generates random keys.

Note that you won't be able to decrypt data encrypted with a random key once the Cipher is destroyed unless you persist the generated key and IV. An example usage for random keys is to encrypt data saved in a temporary file.

Once your key is set up, you can use the Cipher object to encrypt or decrypt strings or, in conjunction with a CryptoInputStream or a CryptoOutputStream, to encrypt streams of data.

Since encrypted strings will contain arbitrary binary data that will cause problems in applications that are not binary-safe (eg., when sending encrypted data in e-mails), the encryptString() and decryptString() can encode (or decode, respectively) encrypted data using a "transport encoding". Supported encodings are Base64 and BinHex.

The following example encrypts and decrypts a string utilizing Base64 encoding:

std::string plainText = "This is my secret information";
std::string encrypted = pCipher->encryptString(plainText, Cipher::ENC_BASE64);
std::string decrypted = pCipher->decryptString(encrypted, Cipher::ENC_BASE64);

In order to encrypt a stream of data (eg. to encrypt files), you can use a CryptoStream:

// Create an output stream that will encrypt all data going through it
// and write pass it to the underlying file stream.
Poco::FileOutputStream sink("encrypted.dat");
CryptoOutputStream encryptor(sink, pCipher->createEncryptor());

Poco::FileInputStream source("source.txt");
Poco::StreamCopier::copyStream(source, encryptor);

// Always close output streams to flush all internal buffers
encryptor.close();
sink.close();

Transport encoding to use for encryptString() and decryptString().

Plain binary output

Base64-encoded output

BinHex-encoded output

Base64-encoded output, no linefeeds

BinHex-encoded output, no linefeeds

Creates a new Cipher object.

Destroys the Cipher.

Creates a decryptor object to be used with a CryptoStream.

Creates an encryptor object to be used with a CryptoStream.

Directly decrypt an input stream that is encoded with the given encoding.

Directly decrypt a string that is encoded with the given encoding.

Directly encrypts an input stream and encodes it using the given encoding.

Directly encrypt a string and encode it using the given encoding.

Returns the name of the Cipher.