hcef

hcef is a fast and secure Node.js native addon written in C++ that provides file encryption with custom obfuscation and HMAC integrity verification. Built using OpenSSL and N-API.

Features

• OpenSSL-backed
• HMAC-SHA256 integrity check
• Obfuscation: Caesar cipher, XOR, and byte reversal
• Uses salt and IV for each encryption
• Secure key derivation (PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256-ARGON2)
• Automatic Base64 encoding for file structure
• Native performance with clean memory handling
• Zlib package for compression

Installation

npm install hcef

Note: Requires a C++17-compatible compiler, node-gyp, and OpenSSL development headers installed.

Usage

Encrypt a file

const hcef = require('hcef');

const result = hcef.encrypt('example.txt', 'myStrongPassword123');
console.log(result);

Decrypt a file

const hcef = require('hcef');

const result = hcef.decrypt('example.txt.enf', 'myStrongPassword123');
console.log(result);

The output will be saved to example.txt.enf (encrypted) and example.txt.enf.dnf (decrypted)

File Format Structure

The encrypted file is a Base64-encoded string containing:

MAGIC_HEADER:salt:iv:mac:ciphertext

• MAGIC_HEADER: To verify the file is encrypted using hcrypt-native
• salt, iv, mac, and ciphertext are all base64-encoded

Security

• Keys are derived using 100,000 PBKDF2 iterations (HMAC-SHA256)
• HMAC prevents tampering and verifies integrity before decryption
• Memory is securely wiped using OPENSSL_cleanse
• Uses Both PBKDF2 and ARGON2 To Slow Down Brute Force Attacking [Latest Release]
• zlib compression.

While this project is production-hardened, always stay updated with the latest OpenSSL and test thoroughly in your environment.

Development & Testing

This package is actively maintained and tested with:

• Manual encryption-decryption consistency checks
• Corruption resilience tests (tampered file detection)
• Compatibility checks across major platforms

License

MIT

Contributing

Pull requests and suggestions are welcome. Please open issues to report bugs or request features.

Changelog

| Version | Status | Description | |---------|--------------|--------------------------------------------------| | 2.2.6 | Stable | Stable and secure, but many dependencies. Try using the latest. | | 2.3.7 | Stable | Stable release with added security layers. | | 2.4.3+ | Stable | Stable Release Added zlib for compression | | 2.5.2 | Latest | Latest Release Adds Smart error handling, and Key Encryption Smart Handling |

Author

Developed and maintained by Jeck