- This is a symmetric key scheme, meaning the same key is used for both encryption and decryption.
- Input and Initialization:
- The program prompts the user to provide the file path of the image to be encrypted.
- It then requests a numerical encryption key, which will be crucial for the XOR operation.
- Encryption Process:
- The code opens the image file in read-binary mode ('rb') to access the raw image data.
- It reads the entire image content into a variable and subsequently closes the file.
- To facilitate manipulation on a byte-by-byte basis, the image data is converted into a byte array as mentioned in the image below.
- The core encryption operation involves iterating over each byte in the array and performing a bitwise XOR operation with the encryption key.
- The XOR operation acts as a simple cipher, scrambling the image data by flipping bits based on the corresponding bits in the key. This effectively encrypts the image content.
- Output and Completion:
- The encrypted byte array, containing the scrambled image data, is written back to the original image file, overwriting the original content.
- Finally, the program prints a message indicating successful encryption.
- Security Considerations:
- It's important to acknowledge that this is a relatively basic encryption method. For robust security applications, more sophisticated algorithms are recommended.
- The decryption process would necessitate performing the XOR operation again with the identical key to restore the original image data.
- Error handling mechanisms are not implemented in this code snippet.
- It would be beneficial to incorporate checks for invalid file paths or incorrect key input to enhance robustness.