Type: Package
Title: Easily Encrypt and Decrypt Data Frame/Tibble Columns or Files using RSA Public/Private Keys
Version: 0.1.4
Maintainer: Ewen Harrison <ewen.harrison@ed.ac.uk>
Description: It is important to ensure that sensitive data is protected. This straightforward package is aimed at the end-user. Strong RSA encryption using a public/private key pair is used to encrypt data frame or tibble columns. A public key can be shared to allow others to encrypt data to be sent to you. This is particularly aimed a healthcare settings so patient data can be pseudonymised.
License: MIT + file LICENSE
Encoding: UTF-8
LazyData: true
BugReports: https://github.com/SurgicalInformatics/encryptr/issues
URL: https://github.com/SurgicalInformatics/encryptr
Imports: dplyr, openssl, purrr, readr, rlang
RoxygenNote: 7.2.3
Suggests: testthat, withr
NeedsCompilation: no
Packaged: 2025-05-13 09:30:09 UTC; eharrison
Author: Cameron Fairfield [aut], Riinu Ots [aut], Stephen Knight [aut], Tom Drake [aut], Ewen Harrison [aut, cre]
Repository: CRAN
Date/Publication: 2025-05-13 09:40:02 UTC

encryptr: Encrypt and decrypt data frame or tibble columns using the strong RSA public/private keys.

Description

Use openssl to encrypt and decrypt data frame or tibble columns.

encryptr key generation

genkeys,

encryptr encrypt/decrypt

encrypt, decrypt

Pipe operator

Description

Pipe operator

Usage

lhs %>% rhs

Assign

Description

Assign

Usage

assign_to_global(key, val, pos)

Arguments

pos

Decrypt a data frame or tibble column using an RSA public/private key

Description

Decrypt a data frame or tibble column using an RSA public/private key

Usage

decrypt(
  .data,
  ...,
  private_key_path = "id_rsa",
  lookup_object = NULL,
  lookup_path = NULL
)

Arguments

.data

A data frame or tibble.

...

The unquoted names of columns to decrypt.

private_key_path

Character. A quoted path to an RSA private key created using genkeys.

lookup_object

An unquote name of a lookup object in the current environment created using link{encrypt}.

lookup_path

Character. A quoted path to an RSA private key created using encrypt.

Value

The original dataframe or tibble with the specified columns decrypted.

Examples

#' This will run:
# genkeys()
# gp_encrypt = gp %>%
#   select(-c(name, address1, address2, address3)) %>%
#   encrypt(postcode, telephone)
# gp_encrypt %>%
#   decrypt(postcode, telephone)

## Not run: 
# For CRAN and testing:
library(dplyr)
temp_dir = tempdir()
genkeys(file.path(temp_dir, "id_rsa")) # temp directory for testing only
gp_encrypt = gp %>%
  select(-c(name, address1, address2, address3)) %>%
  encrypt(postcode, telephone, public_key_path = file.path(temp_dir, "id_rsa.pub"))
  gp_encrypt %>%
  decrypt(postcode, telephone, private_key_path = file.path(temp_dir, "id_rsa"))
  
## End(Not run)

Decrypt a file

Description

See encrypt_file for details.

Usage

decrypt_file(.path, file_name = NULL, private_key_path = "id_rsa")

Arguments

.path

Quoted path to file to encrypt.

file_name

Optional new name for unencrypted file.

private_key_path

Quoted path to private key, created with genkeys.

Value

The decrypted file is saved with optional file name.

Examples


#' # For CRAN and testing:
## Not run: 
# Run only once in decrypt_file example
temp_dir = tempdir() # temp directory for testing only
genkeys(file.path(temp_dir, "id_rsa"))
write.csv(gp, file.path(temp_dir, "gp.csv"))
encrypt_file(file.path(temp_dir, "gp.csv"), public_key_path = file.path(temp_dir, "id_rsa.pub"))

## End(Not run)

## Not run: 
# For CRAN and testing:
temp_dir = tempdir() # temp directory for testing only
genkeys(file.path(temp_dir, "id_rsa4"))
write.csv(gp, file.path(temp_dir, "gp.csv"))
encrypt_file(file.path(temp_dir, "gp.csv"), public_key_path = file.path(temp_dir, "id_rsa4.pub"))
decrypt_file(file.path(temp_dir, "gp.csv.encryptr.bin"),
  private_key_path = file.path(temp_dir, "id_rsa4"),
  file_name = "file.path(temp_dir, gp2.csv)")
  
## End(Not run)

Decrypt ciphertext using an RSA public/private key

Description

Not usually called directly. Password for private key required.

Usage

decrypt_vec(.data, private_key_path = "id_rsa")

Arguments

.data

A vector of ciphertexts created using encrypt.

private_key_path

Character. A quoted path to an RSA private key created using genkeys.

Value

A character vector.

Examples

## Not run: 
hospital_number = c("1010761111", "2010761212")
genkeys(file.path(tempdir(), "id_rsa") # temp directory for testing only
hospital_number_encrypted = encrypt_char(hospital_number)
decrypt_vec(hospital_number_encrypted)

## End(Not run)

Encrypt a data frame or tibble column using an RSA public/private key

Description

Encrypt a data frame or tibble column using an RSA public/private key

Usage

encrypt(
  .data,
  ...,
  public_key_path = "id_rsa.pub",
  lookup = FALSE,
  lookup_name = "lookup",
  write_lookup = TRUE
)

Arguments

.data

A data frame or tibble.

...

The unquoted names of columns to encrypt.

public_key_path

Character. A quoted path to an RSA public key created using genkeys.

lookup

Logical. Whether to substitute the encrypted columns for key-column of integers.

lookup_name

Character. A quoted name to give lookup table and file.

write_lookup

Logical. Write a lookup table as a .csv file.

Value

The original dataframe or tibble with the specified columns encrypted.

Examples

# This will run:
# genkeys()
# gp_encrypt = gp %>%
#   select(-c(name, address1, address2, address3)) %>%
#   encrypt(postcode, telephone)

# For CRAN and testing:
library(dplyr)
temp_dir = tempdir()
genkeys(file.path(temp_dir, "id_rsa2")) # temp directory for testing only
gp_encrypt = gp %>%
  select(-c(name, address1, address2, address3)) %>%
  encrypt(postcode, telephone, public_key_path = file.path(temp_dir, "id_rsa2.pub"))

Encrypt a file

Description

Encryption and decryption with asymmetric keys is computationally expensive. This is how encrypt works, in order to allow each piece of data in a data frame to be decrypted without compromise of the whole data frame. This works on the presumption that each cell contains less than 245 bytes of data.

Usage

encrypt_file(.path, crypt_file_name = NULL, public_key_path = "id_rsa.pub")

Arguments

.path

Quoted path to file to encrypt.

crypt_file_name

Optional new name to give encrypted file. Must end with ".encryptr.bin".

public_key_path

Quoted path to public key, created with genkeys.

Details

File encryption requires a different approach as files are often larger in size. This function encrypts a file using a a symmetric "session" key and the AES-256 cipher. This key is itself then encrypted using a public key generated using genkeys. In OpenSSL this combination is referred to as an envelope.

Value

The encrypted file is saved.

Examples

# This will run:
# Create example file to encrypt
# write.csv(gp, "gp.csv")
# genkeys()
# encrypt_file("gp.csv")

# For CRAN and testing:
## Not run: 
# Run only once in decrypt_file example
temp_dir = tempdir() # temp directory for testing only
genkeys(file.path(temp_dir, "id_rsa"))
write.csv(gp, file.path(temp_dir, "gp.csv"))
encrypt_file(file.path(temp_dir, "gp.csv"), public_key_path = file.path(temp_dir, "id_rsa.pub"))

## End(Not run)

Encrypt a character vector using an RSA public/private key

Description

Not usually called directly.

Usage

encrypt_vec(.data, public_key_path = "id_rsa.pub")

Arguments

.data

A vector, which if not a character vector is coerced to one.

public_key_path

Character. A quoted path to an RSA public key created using genkeys.

Value

A vector of ciphertexts.

Examples

## Not run: 
hospital_number = c("1010761111", "2010761212")
encrypt_vec(hospital_number)

## End(Not run)

Create and write RSA private and public keys

Description

The first step for the encryptr workflow is to create a pair of encryption keys. This uses the openssl package. The public key is used to encrypt information and can be shared. The private key allows decryption of the encrypted information. It requires a password to be set. This password cannot be recovered if lost. If the file is lost or overwritten, any data encrypted with the public key cannot be decrypted.

Usage

genkeys(
  private_key_name = "id_rsa",
  public_key_name = paste0(private_key_name, ".pub")
)

Arguments

private_key_name

Character string. Do not change default unless good reason.

public_key_name

Character string. Do not change default unless good reason.

Value

Two files containing the public key and encrypted private key are written to the working directory.

See Also

encrypt decrypt

Examples

# Function can be used as this:
# genkeys()

# For CRAN purposes and testing
temp_dir = tempdir()
genkeys(file.path(temp_dir, "id_rsa3"))

General Practitioner (family doctor) practices in Scotland 2018

Description

From NHS Digital Organisational Services Downloaded February 2019

Usage

data(gp)

Format

A data frame with 1212 rows and 12 variables

Convert hexadecimal to raw

Description

Convert hexadecimal to raw

Usage

hex2raw(.data)

Arguments

.data

Convert raw to hexadecimal

Description

Convert raw to hexadecimal

Usage

raw2hex(.data)

Arguments

.data