RDP: Rishika's Data Protection Standard for Python

This is a collection of general purpose data protection scripts for Python used by Rishika Mohanta for protecting data in her research. It is based on AES-128 (Fernet) encryption and decryption. It is a wrapper around the cryptography library.

Usage

rdp_gen.py can be used to generate a new key.key file for use in projects. This key is used to encrypt and decrypt data. The generated key will have to be placed in the same directory as the project using the RDP encryption standard.

*.ezip files are encrypted zip files used to store data under the RDP standard. The rdp_client.py module includes the following functions for use in projects:

• rdp_client.unlock_and_unzip_file(data2unzip, key_dir='key.key',multifile=False) which takes in a *.ezip file and returns the unzipped data in the same directory as the *.ezip file. It can also be used to unzip multiple split and encrypted ezip files at once if multifile=True. Target the data to the first in the series of split files i.e. <name>.ezip.000 and the function will automatically unzip all the files in the series.

• rdp_client.zip_and_lock_file(data2zip, key_dir='key.key',multifile=False,split_size_bytes=50_000_000) which takes in data and returns a *.ezip file in the same directory as the data. multifile and split_size_bytes can be used to split the data into multiple files if the data is too large to be stored in a single file. The default split size is 50MB. The value should be less than 100MB i.e. the maximum size of a single file on GitHub and be define in bytes.

Installation (standalone)

Make sure you have python >=3.9 and cryptography installed. If not, run pip install cryptography in your terminal.

Place the rdp_client.py in the same directory as the project using the RDP standard. The key.key file for that project should also be placed in the same directory. The rdp_gen.py file can be used to generate a new key.key file.

Finally, add the following lines to your .gitignore file:

# key files anywhere in the project directory and subfolders
*.key
# data files anywhere in the project directory and subfolders
**/data/*/
# unprotected zip files anywhere in the project directory and subfolders
**/*.zip

Installation (for Rishika's PyProject Templates)

rdp_client.py is built into the Rishika Python Project Template however the key.key file is not. Generate a new key.key file using rdp_gen.py and place it in the same directory as the project using the RDP standard. The rdp_gen.py file can be used to generate a new key.key file.

To access the module inside the template, make sure the package has been built. After that use:

• <package-name>.rdp_client.unlock_and_unzip_file(data2unzip, key_dir='key.key',multifile=False) which takes in a *.ezip file and returns the unzipped data in the same directory as the *.ezip file. It can also be used to unzip multiple split and encrypted ezip files at once if multifile=True. Target the data to the first in the series of split files i.e. <name>.ezip.000 and the function will automatically unzip all the files in the series.

• <package-name>.rdp_client.zip_and_lock_file(data2zip, key_dir='key.key',multifile=False,split_size_bytes=50_000_000) which takes in data and returns a *.ezip file in the same directory as the data. multifile and split_size_bytes can be used to split the data into multiple files if the data is too large to be stored in a single file. The default split size is 50MB. The value should be less than 100MB i.e. the maximum size of a single file on GitHub and be define in bytes.

Alternatively, you can run the rdp_client.py file directly from the terminal using poetry run python <package-name>/rdp_client.py. Use --help to see the available options.