AES Encryption Simulator
Visualize how encryption works with different key sizes.
Ever wondered what encrypted data looks like? Our AES simulator lets you encrypt text with a password and see the resulting ciphertext in real-time. Understand the role of keys and initialization vectors in a secure, client-side environment.
AES Encryption Simulator
See how AES encryption works by encrypting text with different key sizes. All processing happens in your browser.
This tool uses the crypto-js library for AES encryption. It is for educational purposes to demonstrate encryption principles. For production systems, use well-vetted, standard cryptographic libraries and protocols.
About This Tool
The AES Encryption Simulator is an educational tool designed to demystify one of the most important technologies in modern computing. AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) is the gold standard for symmetric encryption, used globally to protect everything from financial transactions to classified government documents. This tool provides a hands-on sandbox to understand its core principles. By entering plaintext and a password, you can see how the AES algorithm transforms readable data into seemingly random ciphertext. It allows you to experiment with different key sizes (128, 192, and 256-bit) to understand how they affect the encryption process. Critically, all operations happen locally in your browser using the `crypto-js` library, ensuring your data remains completely private. It's a perfect utility for students learning about cybersecurity, developers needing to implement encryption, or anyone curious about how data is protected in the digital world.
How to Use This Tool
- Enter the text you want to encrypt in the "Plaintext" field.
- Provide a password that will be used to derive the encryption key.
- Select the desired AES key size (128, 192, or 256-bit).
- Click the "Encrypt" button.
- The tool will display the Base64-encoded ciphertext and the hexadecimal representation of the Initialization Vector (IV) used in the process.
- You can copy the ciphertext to your clipboard for use elsewhere.
In-Depth Guide
What is Symmetric Encryption?
AES is a 'symmetric' encryption algorithm. This means the same key is used to both encrypt and decrypt the data. It's like having a single physical key that can both lock and unlock a box. This is very fast and efficient, making it ideal for encrypting large amounts of data. The main challenge is securely sharing the key between the sender and the receiver.
The Role of the Key and Key Size
The key is the secret piece of information that controls the encryption algorithm. Without the correct key, the ciphertext is just meaningless random data. The 'key size' (128, 192, or 256 bits) determines the key's complexity. A 128-bit key has 2^128 possible combinations, a number so large it's practically impossible to guess. A 256-bit key has 2^256 combinations, offering an even higher level of security for protecting top-secret information.
What is an Initialization Vector (IV)?
An IV is a random piece of data that is used to ensure that encrypting the same plaintext with the same key will produce a different ciphertext every time. This is crucial for security. If the same ciphertext were produced every time, an attacker could spot patterns. The IV is not a secret; it just needs to be random and unique for each encryption. It is typically prepended to the ciphertext and sent along with it.
Password-Based Key Derivation (PBKDF2)
Human-memorable passwords are not random enough to be good encryption keys. To solve this, we use a Key Derivation Function like PBKDF2. It takes a password, adds a random value called a 'salt', and runs them through a hashing function thousands of times. This 'stretches' the password, making it much more resistant to brute-force and dictionary attacks, and produces a strong, cryptographically secure key suitable for AES.