8/11/2011 07:15:00 PM
dannzfay
Despite its suggestive name, judging solely by its moniker Scrambled Eggs is not evident of its purpose. The Internet does not run short of solutions, both paid and freebies, when it comes to sending off encrypted messages. This application, however, falls into the second category and has been designed to help you encode text messages simply and effortlessly.
No installation is needed to run the program and start encrypting your messages. The interface is available as soon as you unpack and double click the executable file in Scrambled Egg’s folder.
Looks are far from impressive, but the layout is easy to understand and all options are handled without difficulty. However, if you have any problems working with it you can access the help screen which explains the three simple steps you have to follow in order to encode the data.
The interface sports two panels, one for typing the text you want to encrypt and the other to revert the process and turning the “random” characters into an intelligible message.
You can use binary files as input data as well as plain or formatted text. Scrambled Egg turns your message into an undecipherable string of characters in three steps: pre-encryption, encryption and post-encryption.
In the first stage, which is optional, just like the second one, the data gets compressed using ZLIB, BZ2 or ROT13 algorithms.
The real encryption, which also requires you to set a password, occurs in the second step of the encoding process. The possibilities in this case are wider and include AES, Blowfish, ARC2, CAST, DES3 and RSA. For the latter, you have to punch in the path to the public or private RSA key.
Encoding the data represents the third and final step of the process. Unlike the previous two this is compulsory and comes with the following codecs: Base64, Base32, HEX, Quopri, String Escape, UU, Json and XML.
All the encoding is done as you type the text and you do not have to follow a particular order to get your text all scrambled up. The flexibility of the application lets you select the encryption algorithms whenever you want, even after the text string has been entered.
Also, you’ll notice the result of your choices in the decrypt section of the interface. So if anything looks familiar to the original text, which is actually impossible, you can switch to a different encryption method.
Once all the settings have been applied you can proceed to exporting the file. It will be saved as PNG, XML, Json or with no extension at all, but opening it will not help you catch a glimpse of the message.
Reverse engineering the encrypted message is no tough thing if you know the password. Scrambled Egg automatically detects the algorithms used to wrap the text up into an unrecognizable form and all you have to do is input the password to reveal the message.
On the downside, if you choose String Escape or Quopri as codecs the resulting file will have no extension. In this case the decryption process is slightly tougher because the application no longer detects the algorithms automatically, leaving the fields blank. On top of this, you have to input the right password to read the message.
In the lower part of the program screen the application shows the amount of characters in both the encrypted piece and in the decrypted one.
If you want to encrypt formatted text Scrambled Egg offers this possibility in the lower part of the screen. Just check the appropriate box before scrambling it so that the properties are preserved upon reverse engineering.
The text field acts just like a basic text editor, offering only the most rudimentary options. It cannot be used to format the text, so it has to be prepared in advance and pasted in for everything to work out fine. However, you will be able to select characters, undo modifications, cut, copy paste and delete.
Scrambled Egg makes for an extremely simple text encryption utility. It has its flaws and can be developed into a more feature-rich program, but in its current form it manages to deliver exactly what the developer intended: a free and uncomplicated way to encrypt and decrypt messages.
Encrypt your message with ease
Easily encrypt your messages using AES, ARC2, Blowfish, CAST, or DES3, then encode the result in a printable form, using Base64, Base32, HEX, Quopri, string escape, UU, or XML.
The resulted string can be sent on e-mail as text, saved as XML or UU, or can be transformed into a little PNG image.
The password is not stored inside the message. It's impossible for someone to decrypt the message, unless it knows, or guesses your password.
Get Scrambled Egg and give it a try to see how useful it can be for encrypting your information!
What's New in This Release:
- password enhancement. The key is derived from original password (using PBKDF2) making the encryption much stronger, even with short passwords;
- added Json encoding and RSA encryption;
- few bug fixes and a lot of GUI improvements, including drag & drop text in the left area, a HELP button, etc;
- There are a lot of improvements, but backwards incompatible, that means you cannot decrypt text encrypted with Scrambled-Egg version 0.3.
Download here
