README.md
In rmonocypher: Easy Encryption of R Objects using Strong Modern Cryptography

Encryption for R Data

{rmonocypher} provides a simple, high-level interface for easily encrypting R objects using a strong, modern cryptographic technique.

A typical use-case this package addresses:

I want to easily encrypt and save data to a public location 
(e.g. shared drive, cloud drive, etc) which only I can decrypt.

decrypt()/encrypt() read/write encrypted R objects to file
argon2() derives encryption keys from passwords
rbyte() generates secure random bytes using your operating system’s CSPRNG.

Technical bona fides

Cryptographic primitives are provided by the included monocypher library (v4.0.2)
Encryption method is XChaCha20-Poly1305 which combines ChaCha20 stream cipher (extended nonce variant) with Poly1305 message authentication.
Encryption process follows RFC 8439 ‘Authenticated Encryption with Additional Data (AEAD)’
Key derivation uses Argon2 password-based key derviation.
Cryptographically secure pseudo-random number generation (CSPRNG) is provided by the operating system are used to generate any required random bytes.

You can install the latest development version from GitHub with:

# install.package('remotes')
remotes::install_github('coolbutuseless/rmonocypher')

Encrypt any R object and save to file.

encrypt(mydata, dst = "SharedDrive/mydata.dat", key = "mykey")

Then decrypt the object using the same key.

decrypt(src = "SharedDrive/mydata.dat", key = "mykey")

For more details on how passwords are used to derive encryption keys, and for other ways of supplying and generating keys see the Vignette: Encryption Keys.