@a14313/encryption-utils

A lightweight and easy-to-use encryption/decryption utility for Node.js using AES (default aes-256-cbc) and the built-in crypto module.

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Changelogs

Check the Changelogs

✨ Features

• AES-256-CBC encryption by default (customizable)
• Supports configurable encoding, key length, password, salt, and IV size
• Simple API for encrypting and decrypting string payloads
• Uses the scryptSync for generation of key
• Written in TypeScript

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📦 Installation

npm

npm install @a14313/encryption-utils

pnpm

pnpm install @a14313/encryption-utils

Usage

🔧 Cryptography Options Table

encrypt(payload: string, options)

decrypt(payload: string, iv: string, options)

options

Option	Type	Required	Default	Description
algorithm	string	No	aes-256-cbc	Encryption algorithm (e.g., 'aes-256-cfb').
password	string	✅ Yes	-	Password used to derive the encryption/decryption key.
salt	string	✅ Yes	-	Salt used in key derivation.
keyLength	number	No	32	Length of the derived key in bytes (16, 24, 32, etc.).
ivSize	number	No	16	Size of the IV in bytes (usually 16 for AES).
type	'encryption' | 'decryption'	No	-	Operation mode to perform. This is for type discrimination. The type discrimination is managed internally. Check the 1.2.0
encodingInput	'utf8'	No	'utf8'.	Encoding of the input string. For encryption, utf8. For decryption hex
encodingOutput	'hex' | 'base64'	No	'hex'.	Output format of the encrypted string. For decryption, utf8.
includeLogs	boolean	No	false	If set to true this will log the arguments that has been passed on the function.

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🔐 Encryption

For commonJS
const { encrypt } = require('@a14313/encryption-utils');

import { encrypt } from '@a14313/encryption-utils';

const encrypted = encrypt('hello world', {
    password: 'strong-password',
    salt: 'unique-salt',
});

// RETURN:
// {
//     message: 'Encrypted successfully',
//     iv: '33eeecbb0867738956153ebae70307e9',
//     value: 'c63033f6b55bbb8b194626b903d986a0'
// }

Dont worry about the iv being returned. It is needed for decrypting the data on your other service. Even when an attacker gets the iv, it is unique in every encryption 😉. This prevents the producing of identical plaintext blocks Learn more about plaintext blocks.
Plus, the attacker needs the password and salt. So keep it on the secrets manager or .env.

🔓 Decryption

For commonJS
const { decrypt } = require('@a14313/encryption-utils');

import { decrypt } from '@a14313/encryption-utils';

// Pass the generated "iv" from the encrypted data to the decrypt function or to the service that is decrypting the data. It's like a public key, kind of 😅. The iv will be used to decrypt the data.

const decrypted = decrypt(encrypted.value, encrypted.iv, {
    password: 'strong-password',
    salt: 'unique-salt',
});

// RETURN: hello world

More examples

Most of the time you wanna encrypt more complicated data types other than string.
What if you want to encrypt a data other than string? A number, boolean, object, array, etc.
Place it on an object 😎.

🔐 Encryption

const sampleObject = {
    stringType: 'Hello, world!',
    numberType: 42,
    booleanType: true,
    nullType: null,
    objectType: {
        nestedKey: 'nestedValue',
    },
    arrayType: [1, 'two', false, null],
    dateType: new Date(),
};

Then, stringify the object:

const encrypted = encrypt(JSON.stringify(sampleObject), {
    password: 'test',
    salt: 'salty',
});

Return:

{
    message: 'Encrypted successfully',
    iv: '3aa2876e83c2b7d232a26ae09070bc00',
    value: '0e7c40d896dfb13f93dfcfc67e0f1b64c458abe44405e005240a6f53a8596df8955a143e740f5e1a4f9c34ed646c356239ce4df67433812212bde4af29820361374bfee977aea02ff0b62db43959859a60d2d7a98ce3a420c08981b4e189810e8913eb9ab0dac62ff9d32e64a373c9317cf548bfdf0fdd7cf34ec78018db7118dcb9612399a0fd3cdc8c5e6a89b92f1d2fedc6478298f3c425a57b4ab82dd9bdd41b8dc72bc2e9aa65606282d240a037111ac1ec1364269c188b244275942a0c17f7c052f67569c4ef7ccb604d263348b7037a0b4f130182cfe0917d1fbcc1fd'
}

🔓 Decryption

const decrypted = decrypt(encrypted.value, encrypted.iv, {
    password: 'test',
    salt: 'salty',
});

Then, parse the returned string 😎:

console.log(JSON.parse(decrypted));

Return:

{
    stringType: 'Hello, world!',
    numberType: 42,
    booleanType: true,
    nullType: null,
    objectType: { nestedKey: 'nestedValue' },
    arrayType: [ 1, 'two', false, null ],
    dateType: '2025-07-29T00:43:36.885Z',
}

🚨 Important

Generate a strong password and salt using crypto and save it on your environment (.env) or secrets manager (recommended).

How to generate a secure password and salt

You should have a NodeJS or NVM installed on your machine.

1. Open terminal
2. type node. This will enter the node REPL.
3. Type this: console.log(require('crypto').randomBytes(32).toString('hex'))
4. It will return something like this: c02e74c1c3f829e13b298361c39e9df263dc5efb16d0639f00255a86863447e0
5. Copy it and save on your secrets.
6. Do the same for the salt.

Note: For passwords it is recommended to have 32 bytes for the length, and 16 bytes for the salt.

The generated password and salt for encryption should be the same on the service that is decrypting the data, otherwise it will fail.

Always put the passwords, salts, and secrets on the environment

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Happy HACKING 😉

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