encid

encid is a terminal tool for CTF, cryptography, and forensic triage. It identifies encoded data, structured password hashes, encryption wrappers, ciphertext-like material, file signatures, and ambiguous raw bytes, then recursively decodes safe layers while reporting confidence, evidence, warnings, and the full decode chain.

The project is maintained by admin12121.

• Website: https://admin12121.com
• Source: https://github.com/admin12121/encid
• Issues: https://github.com/admin12121/encid/issues

encid is heuristic by design. Some values cannot be proven from bytes alone. For example, a 128-character hex string may be SHA-512, SHA3-512, BLAKE2b, KDF output, key material, ciphertext, or random bytes. In those cases, encid reports ambiguity instead of claiming a false exact answer.

Status

Current public release target: 1.0.1.

The project is actively monitored and updated. Version 1.0.1 is the first public stable release target for the CLI, TUI, package metadata, and documented command behavior.

Installation

Install from PyPI after publication:

uv tool install -U encid
encid --version

Install directly from a Git checkout:

git clone https://github.com/admin12121/encid.git
cd encid
uv tool install -e .
encid --version

Run from the repository during development:

uv sync
uv run encid "SGVsbG8="

encid depends on maintained bcrypt and cryptography packages for password verification and supported decrypt operations. It does not implement cryptographic primitives by hand.

Quick Start

encid
encid open tui
encid --no-tui "SGVsbG8="
encid --json "7069636f4354467b6865785f746573747d"
encid --all --explain "MULTI_LAYER_STRING"
encid --risky "CLASSICAL_OR_ESOLANG_CTF_TEXT"

When attached to a real terminal, encid opens the interactive TUI by default. Use --no-tui for one-shot text output and --json for machine-readable output.

Quote inputs that contain shell metacharacters, especially password hashes with $:

encid '$2b$10$d/J7oricbiXeHkPdELJYLu6UXJ6vK98ftQImJOBpGY3G.lAVRvhW.'

TUI Commands

/help      show commands
/bye       exit
/clear     clear the console
/risky     enable broader decoders
/safe      disable risky decoders
/all       toggle alternate candidate chains
/explain   toggle reasons and evidence
/json      toggle JSON rendering inside the TUI
/depth N   set recursive decode depth
/decrypt   start password/key verification or decryption
/type T    choose bcrypt, sha256, xor, aes-256-cbc, and other supported types
/passwd    enter password/key with masked input

Command suggestions appear in a popup while typing /.

Decode And Identify

encid can identify and decode common CTF and forensic layers:

• Hex/base16, binary, decimal charcodes, octal charcodes
• Base64/base64url, base32, base45, base58, base62, base36, base85/ascii85, base91, base92
• URL percent encoding, HTML entities, Unicode/JS escapes, quoted-printable
• gzip, zlib, raw deflate, bzip2, xz/lzma
• UTF-16LE/UTF-16BE
• Morse, Baconian, ROT13, ROT47, ROT5/ROT18, Caesar, Atbash
• Affine, rail fence, simple columnar transposition
• Brainfuck and Ook
• UUEncode, XXEncode, yEnc
• Braille byte patterns, emoji binary, whitespace binary, zero-width Unicode binary
• JWT header/payload decode

JSFuck, AAEncode, and JJEncode are identified, but encid does not execute JavaScript.

Password Verification And Decryption

encid decrypt handles two separate operations:

• Password hashes are verified, not decrypted.
• Ciphertexts are decrypted only when the type and required parameters are known.

Examples:

encid decrypt --ask-password '$2b$10$...'
encid decrypt --type sha256 --ask-password 2bb80d...
encid decrypt --type xor --password key 0d070a...
encid decrypt --type aes-256-cbc --ask-password --iv-hex 00112233445566778899aabbccddeeff "..."
encid decrypt --type openssl-aes-256-cbc --ask-password "U2FsdGVkX1..."
encid decrypt --list-types

Prefer --ask-password over --password for real secrets. Command-line arguments may be recorded by shell history or visible to local process-inspection tools.

Supported verification/decrypt types include:

• Hash verification: bcrypt, Django PBKDF2, LDAP SHA/SSHA, MD5, SHA-1, SHA-2, SHA-3, BLAKE2b
• Decryption: XOR, OpenSSL AES-256-CBC, AES CBC/ECB/CTR/GCM, ChaCha20-Poly1305, Fernet

For AES/ChaCha/Fernet, the password/key alone may not be enough. Many formats also require an IV or nonce, salt, authentication tag, KDF, mode, and padding details.

Confidence Model

Each decode attempt starts with structural evidence from the decoder, then scoring adjusts the result using:

• alphabet checks and round-trip validation
• printable/text ratio and UTF-8 validity
• entropy
• known flag/secret-like patterns
• score improvement over the previous layer
• risk penalties for broad or brute-force transforms
• identifier evidence from decoded output

The result is still probabilistic. Treat confidence as a triage aid, not proof.

Output Types

• encoded: encid found and applied one or more decode layers.
• hash: encid recognized a structured password-hash format.
• encryption: encid recognized a structured encryption format.
• encryption-candidate: entropy and structure suggest ciphertext-like data, but not enough to prove exact encryption.
• ambiguous: raw material matches multiple possible meanings, such as digest-width hex.
• identifier: token, key, certificate, file, archive, capture, or similar structured material.
• plain/unknown: no strong signal was found.

Security Model

• All analysis runs locally.
• Encid does not send input, keys, passwords, or results to a network service.
• Password/key input in the TUI is masked.
• --ask-password uses a no-echo prompt.
• Risky decoders are opt-in because they can produce plausible false positives.
• Weak legacy algorithms and modes are supported only to analyze existing data; their presence is not an endorsement for new systems.

Project Layout

encid/
  encid.py          CLI, recursive engine, result builder
  tui.py            stdlib curses TUI renderer and prompt loop
  crypto.py         password hash verification and supported decrypt operations
  decoders/         decoding transforms and decoder registry
  identifiers/      hash, token, crypto, file, and encoding identifiers
  scoring/          entropy, text scoring, confidence ranking
  models.py         shared dataclasses
assets/
  logo.svg
tests/

main.py is kept as a compatibility wrapper for python main.py ....

Development

uv sync
uv run python -m unittest discover -s tests -v
uv run python -m compileall encid tests
uv build

For a release build, prefer:

rm -rf dist/
uv lock
uv run python -m unittest discover -s tests -v
uv build --no-sources

Distribution Notes

PyPI/uv:

• Build wheel and sdist with uv build --no-sources.
• Publish with uv publish and a PyPI API token.
• Users install with uv tool install -U encid.

Arch Linux / pacman:

• Use the packaging/arch/PKGBUILD template after the PyPI sdist is published.
• Build with makepkg -si.
• Runtime dependencies are Python, bcrypt, and cryptography.

Current Limits

• Hashes are verified when a password is supplied; they are not cracked.
• Encryption cannot be decrypted without the correct type, key/password, and required parameters.
• Raw hex cannot prove its algorithm by length alone.
• Classical cipher detection is advisory unless a decode chain produces readable output.
• Morse code loses letter case; case-sensitive encodings may not be recoverable after Morse.
• Deep file forensics is future work: steganography, images, audio spectrograms, PCAP stream carving, PDFs, Office macros, nested archives, QR codes, and EXIF extraction.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.