FiloSottile/age

age is a simple, modern and secure file encryption tool, format, and Go library.

It features small explicit keys, post-quantum support, no config options, and UNIX-style composability.

$ age-keygen -o key.txt
Public key: age1ql3z7hjy54pw3hyww5ayyfg7zqgvc7w3j2elw8zmrj2kg5sfn9aqmcac8p
$ tar cvz ~/data | age -r age1ql3z7hjy54pw3hyww5ayyfg7zqgvc7w3j2elw8zmrj2kg5sfn9aqmcac8p > data.tar.gz.age
$ age --decrypt -i key.txt data.tar.gz.age > data.tar.gz

📜 The format specification is at age-encryption.org/v1. age was designed by @benjojo and @FiloSottile.

🦀 An alternative interoperable Rust implementation is available at github.com/str4d/rage.

🌍 Typage is a TypeScript implementation. It works in the browser, Node.js, Deno, and Bun.

🔑 Hardware PIV tokens such as YubiKeys are supported through the age-plugin-yubikey plugin.

✨ For more plugins, implementations, tools, and integrations, check out the awesome age list.

💬 The author pronounces it [aɡe̞] with a hard g, like GIF, and it's always spelled lowercase.

Installation

On Windows, Linux, macOS, and FreeBSD you can use the pre-built binaries.

https://dl.filippo.io/age/latest?for=linux/amd64
https://dl.filippo.io/age/v1.3.1?for=darwin/arm64
...

If you download the pre-built binaries, you can check their Sigsum proofs.

If your system has a supported version of Go, you can build from source.

go install filippo.io/age/cmd/...@latest

Help from new packagers is very welcome.

Usage

For the full documentation, read the age(1) man page.

Usage:
    age [--encrypt] (-r RECIPIENT | -R PATH)... [--armor] [-o OUTPUT] [INPUT]
    age [--encrypt] --passphrase [--armor] [-o OUTPUT] [INPUT]
    age --decrypt [-i PATH]... [-o OUTPUT] [INPUT]

Options:
    -e, --encrypt               Encrypt the input to the output. Default if omitted.
    -d, --decrypt               Decrypt the input to the output.
    -o, --output OUTPUT         Write the result to the file at path OUTPUT.
    -a, --armor                 Encrypt to a PEM encoded format.
    -p, --passphrase            Encrypt with a passphrase.
    -r, --recipient RECIPIENT   Encrypt to the specified RECIPIENT. Can be repeated.
    -R, --recipients-file PATH  Encrypt to recipients listed at PATH. Can be repeated.
    -i, --identity PATH         Use the identity file at PATH. Can be repeated.

INPUT defaults to standard input, and OUTPUT defaults to standard output.
If OUTPUT exists, it will be overwritten.

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

Recipient files contain one or more recipients, one per line. Empty lines
and lines starting with "#" are ignored as comments. "-" may be used to
read recipients from standard input.

Identity files contain one or more secret keys ("AGE-SECRET-KEY-1..."),
one per line, or an SSH key. Empty lines and lines starting with "#" are
ignored as comments. Passphrase encrypted age files can be used as
identity files. Multiple key files can be provided, and any unused ones
will be ignored. "-" may be used to read identities from standard input.

When --encrypt is specified explicitly, -i can also be used to encrypt to an
identity file symmetrically, instead or in addition to normal recipients.

Multiple recipients

Files can be encrypted to multiple recipients by repeating -r/--recipient. Every recipient will be able to decrypt the file.

$ age -o example.jpg.age -r age1ql3z7hjy54pw3hyww5ayyfg7zqgvc7w3j2elw8zmrj2kg5sfn9aqmcac8p \
    -r age1lggyhqrw2nlhcxprm67z43rta597azn8gknawjehu9d9dl0jq3yqqvfafg example.jpg

Recipient files

Multiple recipients can also be listed one per line in one or more files passed with the -R/--recipients-file flag.

$ cat recipients.txt
# Alice
age1ql3z7hjy54pw3hyww5ayyfg7zqgvc7w3j2elw8zmrj2kg5sfn9aqmcac8p
# Bob
age1lggyhqrw2nlhcxprm67z43rta597azn8gknawjehu9d9dl0jq3yqqvfafg
$ age -R recipients.txt example.jpg > example.jpg.age

If the argument to -R (or -i) is -, the file is read from standard input.

Post-quantum keys

To generate hybrid post-quantum keys, which are secure against future quantum computer attacks, use the -pq flag with age-keygen. This may become the default in the future.

Post-quantum identities start with AGE-SECRET-KEY-PQ-1... and recipients with age1pq1.... The recipients are unfortunately ~2000 characters long.

$ age-keygen -pq -o key.txt
$ age-keygen -y key.txt > recipient.txt
$ age -R recipient.txt example.jpg > example.jpg.age
$ age -d -i key.txt example.jpg.age > example.jpg

Support for post-quantum keys is built into age v1.3.0 and later. Alternatively, the age-plugin-pq binary can be installed and placed in $PATH to add support to any version and implementation of age that supports plugins. Recipients will work out of the box, while identities will have to be converted to plugin identities with age-plugin-pq -identity.

Passphrases

Files can be encrypted with a passphrase by using -p/--passphrase. By default age will automatically generate a secure passphrase. Passphrase protected files are automatically detected at decrypt time.

$ age -p secrets.txt > secrets.txt.age
Enter passphrase (leave empty to autogenerate a secure one):
Using the autogenerated passphrase "release-response-step-brand-wrap-ankle-pair-unusual-sword-train".
$ age -d secrets.txt.age > secrets.txt
Enter passphrase:

Passphrase-protected key files

If an identity file passed to -i is a passphrase encrypted age file, it will be automatically decrypted.

$ age-keygen | age -p > key.age
Public key: age1yhm4gctwfmrpz87tdslm550wrx6m79y9f2hdzt0lndjnehwj0ukqrjpyx5
Enter passphrase (leave empty to autogenerate a secure one):
Using the autogenerated passphrase "hip-roast-boring-snake-mention-east-wasp-honey-input-actress".
$ age -r age1yhm4gctwfmrpz87tdslm550wrx6m79y9f2hdzt0lndjnehwj0ukqrjpyx5 secrets.txt > secrets.txt.age
$ age -d -i key.age secrets.txt.age > secrets.txt
Enter passphrase for identity file "key.age":

Passphrase-protected identity files are not necessary for most use cases, where access to the encrypted identity file implies access to the whole system. However, they can be useful if the identity file is stored remotely.

SSH keys

As a convenience feature, age also supports encrypting to ssh-rsa and ssh-ed25519 SSH public keys, and decrypting with the respective private key file. (ssh-agent is not supported.)

$ age -R ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub example.jpg > example.jpg.age
$ age -d -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 example.jpg.age > example.jpg

Note that SSH key support employs more complex cryptography, and embeds a public key tag in the encrypted file, making it possible to track files that are encrypted to a specific public key.

Encrypting to a GitHub user

Combining SSH key support and -R, you can easily encrypt a file to the SSH keys listed on a GitHub profile.

$ curl https://github.com/benjojo.keys | age -R - example.jpg > example.jpg.age

Keep in mind that people might not protect SSH keys long-term, since they are revokable when used only for authentication, and that SSH keys held on YubiKeys can't be used to decrypt files.

Inspecting encrypted files

The age-inspect command can display metadata about an encrypted file without decrypting it, including the recipient types, whether it uses post-quantum encryption, and the payload size.

$ age-inspect secrets.age
secrets.age is an age file, version "age-encryption.org/v1".

This file is encrypted to the following recipient types:
  - "mlkem768x25519"

This file uses post-quantum encryption.

Size breakdown (assuming it decrypts successfully):

    Header                      1627 bytes
    Encryption overhead           32 bytes
    Payload                       42 bytes
                        -------------------
    Total                       1701 bytes

For scripting, use --json to get machine-readable output.