Forums Community AxCrypt 2 makes me sad… Reply To: AxCrypt 2 makes me sad…

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Shaun

I suppose the shock of AxCrypt 2 being a basic user program comes with the fact that everyone I have using it struggles to understand it. When they Encrypt their files they usually act shocked when it just opens as they don’t understand the concept of a cached key.

Another AxCrypt 2 customer here.

I used AxCrypt 1 and AxCrypt 2 and I find the newest version easier. I don’t understand how people “act shocked when it just opens”. Surely the fact that AxCrypt remembers your password is just the same as logging into your email? You don’t type that password in every time you open an email, the same is true with AxCrypt. And if you leave your email account logged in, anybody can access it.

Maybe they were used to single passwords but there’s nothing controversial with remembering a password

Speaking of Keys: Does AxCrypt v2 Utilize the password itself to encrypt files or does it operate as ProtonMail does and use a password purely for authentication and use a generated key to do the encryption?.

AxCrypt 2 uses a password for symmetric encryption and it uses a public key for asymmetric encryption. Until you use the key-sharing feature it’s symmetrically encrypted. I’ve used the source code to recompile the software and it works exactly like I’ve described.

Re-configure power settings so the machine returns to sleep\lock-screen after inactivity.

You can also set a screensaver which is what I have done.

Barring the lack of multiple passwords I’d say that the possibility to “auto sign-out” based on time delay or termination of the child program is my second most important issue.

It’s being introduced.

That being said I’ve actually moved from AxCrypt V1 to BCArchive as it’s pretty much exactly what I want though AxCrypt does do certain things better i.e. Secured Folders and Key Sharing.

BCArchive is great but it’s not being actively developed. The company, Jetico, are understandably focusing on their paid products. They are re-releasing BCArchive every year with an updated copyright date in the software however.

It’s a well-known product but there’s a couple of good reasons it’s never used much or recommended – it’s not open source (a major concern) and it uses insecure encryption algorithms.

You also have to trust that Jetico haven’t installed any backdoors – they don’t allow you to examined the source code, unlike AxCrypt.

If you use the wrong key algorithm in BCArchive like GOST then you’re immediately insecure. They don’t warn you and they use questionable hashes like SHA3-512. If you choose something more secure like Serpent you can still make yourself insecure if you choose a bad hash.

What do you mean when you say BCArchive don’t support “Key Sharing”? It’s the “Public key encryption” option. It’s not as transparent to use as AxCrypt but, if you consider yourself an advanced user, it shows that you don’t really understood how encryption works and I think that’s the point Svante and Brian are trying to make. You can have proficient computer users but that doesn’t mean they’re proficient users of encryption.

BCArchive doesn’t support “Secured Folders” so you’ve got to manually encrypt any files. You’ve also got to manually encrypt any decrypted files after you’ve finished using them. And then you have to manually flush your cache to purge data remnants; AxCrypt does this automatically.

Use what you feel most comfortable is but don’t conflate ease of use with lack of security. Like all experts, I don’t trust closed source encryption software although Brian may disagree.