Like eat our vegetables. Wait. No, that’s actually good for you.

Whatever.

You get the idea.

Encrypting a file with 7zip is simple. Use the -p option:

~$ 7z a archive.7z -pSTRONG_PASSWORD_THAT_IS_REALLY_LONG_HERE! folder/

7-Zip [64] 17.04 : Copyright (c) 1999-2021 Igor Pavlov : 2017-08-28
p7zip Version 17.04 (locale=utf8,Utf16=on,HugeFiles=on,64 bits,8 CPUs x64)

Scanning the drive:
1 folder, 4 files, 0 bytes

Creating archive: archive.7z

Items to compress: 5

    
Files read from disk: 0
Archive size: 186 bytes (1 KiB)
Everything is Ok

I have always loved 7zip’s attempt to make me feel better.

“Don’t worry. Everything is Ok.” :thumbs_up: :grinning_squinting_face:

Note: There is no space between the option and the password. That’s an oddity with 7z that I just don’t see with many other CLI tools.

You may notice, however, that when you go to list the contents of the archive, the folder and file names are listed without prompting for the password!

~$ 7z l archive.7z                   

7-Zip [64] 17.04 : Copyright (c) 1999-2021 Igor Pavlov : 2017-08-28
p7zip Version 17.04 (locale=utf8,Utf16=on,HugeFiles=on,64 bits,8 CPUs x64)

Scanning the drive for archives:
1 file, 186 bytes (1 KiB)

Listing archive: archive.7z

--
Path = archive.7z
Type = 7z
Physical Size = 186
Headers Size = 186
Solid = -
Blocks = 0

   Date      Time    Attr         Size   Compressed  Name
------------------- ----- ------------ ------------  ------------------------
2023-08-23 16:01:10 D....            0            0  folder
2023-08-23 16:01:10 ....A            0            0  folder/bank_info.xlsx
2023-08-23 16:01:10 ....A            0            0  folder/classified.txt
2023-08-23 16:01:10 ....A            0            0  folder/file1.txt
2023-08-23 16:01:10 ....A            0            0  folder/file2.txt
------------------- ----- ------------ ------------  ------------------------
2023-08-23 16:01:10                  0            0  4 files, 1 folders

Showing folder and file names without requiring the password is probably not acceptable for encrypted files. (Then again, ideally we wouldn’t be using 7zip for encryption, but….I already made that point.)

To encrypt the folder and file names, too, we need to use an option that only shows up on the man page of 7zip and not in the CLI help output:

-mhe=on|off
   7z format only : enables or disables archive header encryption (Default : off)

So all of this only works on the 7z format vs traditional zip, etc…

With this, our example changes to:

7z a archive.7z -mhe=on -pSTRONG_PASSWORD_THAT_IS_REALLY_LONG_HERE! folder/

The output is the same until the file contents are listed:

7z l archive.7z                           

7-Zip [64] 17.04 : Copyright (c) 1999-2021 Igor Pavlov : 2017-08-28
p7zip Version 17.04 (locale=utf8,Utf16=on,HugeFiles=on,64 bits,8 CPUs x64)

Scanning the drive for archives:
1 file, 221 bytes (1 KiB)

Listing archive: archive.7z


Enter password (will not be echoed):
--
Path = archive.7z
Type = 7z
Physical Size = 221
Headers Size = 221
Solid = -
Blocks = 0

   Date      Time    Attr         Size   Compressed  Name
------------------- ----- ------------ ------------  ------------------------
2023-08-23 16:01:10 D....            0            0  folder
2023-08-23 16:01:10 ....A            0            0  folder/bank_info.xlsx
2023-08-23 16:01:10 ....A            0            0  folder/classified.txt
2023-08-23 16:01:10 ....A            0            0  folder/file1.txt
2023-08-23 16:01:10 ....A            0            0  folder/file2.txt
------------------- ----- ------------ ------------  ------------------------
2023-08-23 16:01:10                  0            0  4 files, 1 folders

One other thing to note: encrypting a file in this manner will leave the password in your shell history file. I will leave as an exercise to the reader the following search: “HISTCONTROL=ignorespace” 😏

Circle is an extremely easy and simple to use home web filter, and one which is at least relatively effective with time controls, since I can hear my kids groan every time their alloted time has been spent.

Installation

Installation is super simple:

1. Download the phone app
2. Plugin the device
3. Use the phone app to tell Circle which network to pair with (wired or wireless)

Profiles

That’s really it. But unless you want to have the same Internet limitations as your kids (including time spent), you should setup User Profiles on the phone app and assign devices to those profiles. That’s also super easy within the app.

With those profiles, you can specify time limits or website categories that are permitted or denied per profile. But there’s not a lot of customization available here. Circle comes with several family friendly websites listed as “apps” that you can allow or deny per profile. You can also whitelist a given domain or URL per profile. Not much else there, really.

Unfortunately, any network activity counts as Internet time used. So even running Windows Updates takes up the time alloted to that profile. If you’re an advanced home user, and you have any sort of centralized management software in place, that will get blocked once the profile’s Internet time is up for the day.

Reporting

Ick.

You can see how much time a profile has spent on the Internet (today, this week, or this month) via the phone app. You can also see the list of recent connections. But there’s no good way to export that data.

Pros

• Installation
  • No agent required
• Excellent mobile notifications
  • When a new device shows up on your network
  • When a user reached his/her activity timelimit
• Works for wired and wireless devices seemlessly

Cons

• Must be managed via the phone app - no web interface available
• Filtering is done via ARP spoofing, so it’s VERY noisy on the network
• Customization of the filter is limited
• Detailed reporting is lacking
• Devices must belong to one user/profile
• ARP spoofing(?!)
• Infrequent device updates (has it updated at all since I received it?)
• Can be bypassed via static ARP entry on the host
• Can only manage one network segment (e.g. one wireless network)
  • This obviously only comes into play if you have more than one VLAN on your home network, which most people don’t have. But for geeks, this can be a problem.

Conclusion

Circle could be a fine fit for your home, provided you don’t have a complicated home network, and don’t require detailed logging of activity.