Cannot provide passphrase with age -d

[gabyx]

For decrypting a passphrase encrypted file with age, its not possible at the moment to provide the passphrase through a file or stdin.

echo "asdf" | age -d secret.age

will still prompt on the /dev/tty for a passphrase. Is there currently a workaround or otherwide it would be nice to have the

--passphrase <file> or --passphrase - (stdin) command arguments available.

[zhuoqun-chen]

I need this feature too!!!

[psanford]

You can use a small expect script if you really need this behavior:

 #!/usr/bin/env expect

# Check if the correct number of arguments is provided
if {$argc != 2} {
    send_user "Usage: $argv0 <password> <encrypted_file>\n"
    exit 1
}

# Get the password and file from command-line arguments
set password [lindex $argv 0]
set file [lindex $argv 1]

# Spawn the age command
spawn age -d $file

# Wait for the password prompt
expect "Enter passphrase: "

# Send the password followed by a newline
send "$password\r"

# Wait for the command to finish and capture its output
expect {
    eof {
        # Command completed, display its exit status
        catch wait result
        exit [lindex $result 3]
    }
    timeout {
        send_user "Error: Command timed out\n"
        exit 1
    }
}

[zhuoqun-chen]

very helpful! thx @psanford !

[gabyx]

Actually the way to go by the author (if I am not mistaken) is not use a passphrase at all:

Why because its unsafe, better is to just generate a age-keygen pair and use the public key to encrypt the REAL private keyfile, the password to decrypt your private key is then just echo "your private key..." | age -d -i - my-real-private-key.age.

@FiloSottile : Is that correct?

[haf]

So instead of using encryption because of this missing feature that has been three years in the making, I'm now saving the files in plaintext instead! Good usability!