Why I built it
Reading about encryption is not the same as using it. I wanted a tool small enough to read end-to-end, where I could see exactly what happens to data between “plaintext in” and “ciphertext out” — and where mistakes would be mine rather than hidden behind a framework.
What it does
cryptor is a Python command-line tool for encrypting and decrypting data. It handles the unglamorous parts that are easy to get wrong: converting between bytes and text, handling keys, and failing loudly instead of silently producing garbage.
What I learned
- Encoding is not encryption. A large share of beginner mistakes happen before any cipher is involved.
- Key handling and error messages are part of the security surface, not an afterthought.
- Rolling your own crypto is a great way to learn and a terrible way to ship. The educational value is in understanding why the recommended primitives exist.
Using it
Clone the repository and run it locally:
git clone https://github.com/debarshikundu/cryptor
cd cryptor
python cryptor.py --help
For anything real, use a vetted library such as cryptography or libsodium rather than this project. The point here is the learning, not the production deployment.