zage: age File Encryption with Zig

A pure Zig implementation of the age file encryption standard. The specification can be found at age-encryption.org/v1. age was designed by @Benjojo and @FiloSottile.

Like age and GIF, zage is pronounced with a hard g sound: /zɑːgeɪ/ or ZAH-ghay. zage is always spelled entirely lowercase.

Caution

zage is currently alpha software and not considered ready for production use

Quickstart

Generate a keypair:

$ zage-keygen -o key.txt
Public key: age1ql3z7hjy54pw3hyww5ayyfg7zqgvc7w3j2elw8zmrj2kg5sfn9aqmcac8p

Encrypt a file:

$ tar cvz ~/data | zage -r age1ql3z7hjy54pw3hyww5ayyfg7zqgvc7w3j2elw8zmrj2kg5sfn9aqmcac8p > data.tar.gz.age

Decrypt a file:

$ zage --decrypt -i key.txt data.tar.gz.age > data.tar.gz

Installation

Build from source with Zig

Download Zig and run the following commands:

$ git clone [email protected]:eligrubb/zage.git
$ cd zage
$ zig build

Binary releases (TBD)

Usage

$ zage --help
Usage:
    zage [--encrypt] (-r RECIPIENT | -R PATH)... [-i IDENTITY | -j PLUGIN] [--armor] [-o OUTPUT] [INPUT]
    zage [--encrypt] --passphrase [--armor] [-o OUTPUT] [INPUT]
    zage --decrypt [-i IDENTITY | -j PLUGIN] [-o OUTPUT] [INPUT]

Arguments:
    [INPUT] Path of input file to read from (Default=stdin).

Options:
    -o, --output OUTPUT         Path of output file to write to (Default=stdout).
    -v, --version               Print the version information and exit.
    -h, --help                  Print this help message and exit.

  Encryption options:
    -e, --encrypt               Encrypt the input to the output (DEFAULT).
    -r, --recipient RECIPIENT   Encrypt to the specified RECIPIENT. Can be repeated.
    -R, --recipients-file PATH  Encrypt to the recipients listed at PATH. Can be repeated.
    -p, --passphrase            Encrypt with a passphrase.
    -a, --armor                 Encrypt to a PEM encoded format.
    -i, --identity IDENTITY     Path to file of identities, encrypts the input using
                                the corresponding recipients. Can be repeated.
    -j PLUGIN                   Use age-plugin-PLUGIN as an identity

  Decryption options:
    -d, --decrypt               Decrypt the input to the output.
    -i, --identity IDENTITY     Path to file of identities, used to decrypt. Can be repeated.
    -j PLUGIN                   Use age-plugin-PLUGIN as an identity

If OUTPUT exists, it will be overwritten.

RECIPIENT can be:
- An age public key, generated by zage-keygen ("age1...")
- An SSH public key ("ssh-ed25519 AAAA...", "ssh-rsa AAAA...")

PATH is a path to a file containing age recipients, one per line
(ignoring "#" prefixed comments and empty lines). "-" may be used to
read recipients from standard input.

IDENTITY is a path to a file with age identities, one per line
(ignoring "#" prefixed comments and empty lines), or to an SSH key file.
Passphrase-encrypted age identity files can be used as identity files.
Multiple identities may be provided, and any unused ones will be ignored.
"-" may be used to read identities from standard input.

Basic encryption/decryption

Multiple recipients

Passphrase encryption

Command-line options

zage-keygen usage

$ zage-keygen --help
Usage:
    zage-keygen [-o OUTPUT]
    zage-keygen -y [-o OUTPUT] [INPUT]

Arguments:
    [INPUT] Path of file containing one or more identities (Default=stdin).

Options:
    -o, --output OUTPUT         Write the result to the file at path OUTPUT (Default=stdout).
    -y                          Read input identity file and write corresponding recipients to output.
    -v, --version               Print the version information and exit.
    -h, --help                  Print this help message and exit.

If OUTPUT exists, it will be overwritten.

age Zig library usage

Zig module installation

$ zig fetch --save ...

Basic API examples

Generating a keypair

Encrypting a file with X25519

Encrypting a file with scrypt

Features

age specification compliance chart

performance

Testing

Related projects

• age: the original Go implementation
• rage: Rust reference implementation
• typage: official TypeScrypt implementation
• awesome-age: a curated list of age resources, including plugins, tools, integrations, and libraries.

License and Acknowledgements

This project is licensed under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for details.

The Go implementation of age is licensed under the BSD 3-Clause License. The Rust implementation of age is licensed under either Apache License 2.0 or MIT License at your option. The TypeScript implementation of age is licensed under the BSD 3-Clause License