Q:

Using Swift, what is the best way to encrypt an object(s) for storage?

I'm working on a data manager for a friend who stores client info on his computer. The info is public record, so top security isn't a big deal (he currently stores it in plain text), but he wouldn't mind having some sort of encryption. Without going into full detail of the program, I'll have to over-simplify my question...
If I want to encrypt a text object or a picture object, and lock it with a password before writing to the disk, what is my best option? I plan to implement this for macOS as well as iOS so he can send and share the files to anyone/any device. So for iOS, speed would be a good thing, and keeping the file size down is good for mobile data usage.
I'm new to Apple Development, so I'm still sifting through APIs and frameworks to learn everything, so I apologize for asking what is probably an easy question. It's also finals week, so I only work on this in my spare time and a bit of help is always appreciated.
Thanks!
-Sanders

A:

Symmetric encryption is used to encrypt data and AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) is the current standard. Apple provides Common Crypto in the Security.framework and is fast using applicable OSX instructions and hardware encryption on iOS. Additionally store the key in the Keychain.
Example from deprecated documentation section:
AES encryption in CBC mode with a random IV (Swift 3+)
The iv is prefixed to the encrypted data
aesCBC128Encrypt will create a random IV and prefixed to the encrypted code.
aesCBC128Decrypt will use the prefixed IV during decryption.
Inputs are the data and key are Data objects. If an encoded form such as Base64 if required convert to and/or from in the calling method.
The key should be exactly 128-bits (16-bytes), 192-bits (24-bytes) or 256-bits (32-bytes) in length. If another key size is used an error will be thrown.
PKCS#7 padding is set by default.
This example requires Common Crypto
It is necessary to have a bridging header to the project:
#import <CommonCrypto/CommonCrypto.h>
Add the Security.framework to the project.
This is example, not production code.
enum AESError: Error {
    case KeyError((String, Int))
    case IVError((String, Int))
    case CryptorError((String, Int))
}

// The iv is prefixed to the encrypted data
func aesCBCEncrypt(data:Data, keyData:Data) throws -> Data {
    let keyLength = keyData.count
    let validKeyLengths = [kCCKeySizeAES128, kCCKeySizeAES192, kCCKeySizeAES256]
    if (validKeyLengths.contains(keyLength) == false) {
        throw AESError.KeyError(("Invalid key length", keyLength))
    }

    let ivSize = kCCBlockSizeAES128;
    let cryptLength = size_t(ivSize + data.count + kCCBlockSizeAES128)
    var cryptData = Data(count:cryptLength)

    let status = cryptData.withUnsafeMutableBytes {ivBytes in
        SecRandomCopyBytes(kSecRandomDefault, kCCBlockSizeAES128, ivBytes)
    }
    if (status != 0) {
        throw AESError.IVError(("IV generation failed", Int(status)))
    }

    var numBytesEncrypted :size_t = 0
    let options   = CCOptions(kCCOptionPKCS7Padding)

    let cryptStatus = cryptData.withUnsafeMutableBytes {cryptBytes in
        data.withUnsafeBytes {dataBytes in
            keyData.withUnsafeBytes {keyBytes in
                CCCrypt(CCOperation(kCCEncrypt),
                        CCAlgorithm(kCCAlgorithmAES),
                        options,
                        keyBytes, keyLength,
                        cryptBytes,
                        dataBytes, data.count,
                        cryptBytes+kCCBlockSizeAES128, cryptLength,
                        &numBytesEncrypted)
            }
        }
    }

    if UInt32(cryptStatus) == UInt32(kCCSuccess) {
        cryptData.count = numBytesEncrypted + ivSize
    }
    else {
        throw AESError.CryptorError(("Encryption failed", Int(cryptStatus)))
    }

    return cryptData;
}

// The iv is prefixed to the encrypted data
func aesCBCDecrypt(data:Data, keyData:Data) throws -> Data? {
    let keyLength = keyData.count
    let validKeyLengths = [kCCKeySizeAES128, kCCKeySizeAES192, kCCKeySizeAES256]
    if (validKeyLengths.contains(keyLength) == false) {
        throw AESError.KeyError(("Invalid key length", keyLength))
    }

    let ivSize = kCCBlockSizeAES128;
    let clearLength = size_t(data.count - ivSize)
    var clearData = Data(count:clearLength)

    var numBytesDecrypted :size_t = 0
    let options   = CCOptions(kCCOptionPKCS7Padding)

    let cryptStatus = clearData.withUnsafeMutableBytes {cryptBytes in
        data.withUnsafeBytes {dataBytes in
            keyData.withUnsafeBytes {keyBytes in
                CCCrypt(CCOperation(kCCDecrypt),
                        CCAlgorithm(kCCAlgorithmAES128),
                        options,
                        keyBytes, keyLength,
                        dataBytes,
                        dataBytes+kCCBlockSizeAES128, clearLength,
                        cryptBytes, clearLength,
                        &numBytesDecrypted)
            }
        }
    }

    if UInt32(cryptStatus) == UInt32(kCCSuccess) {
        clearData.count = numBytesDecrypted
    }
    else {
        throw AESError.CryptorError(("Decryption failed", Int(cryptStatus)))
    }
    
    return clearData;
}

Example usage:
let clearData = "clearData0123456".data(using:String.Encoding.utf8)!
let keyData   = "keyData890123456".data(using:String.Encoding.utf8)!
print("clearData:   \(clearData as NSData)")
print("keyData:     \(keyData as NSData)")

var cryptData :Data?
do {
    cryptData = try aesCBCEncrypt(data:clearData, keyData:keyData)
    print("cryptData:   \(cryptData! as NSData)")
}
catch (let status) {
    print("Error aesCBCEncrypt: \(status)")
}

let decryptData :Data?
do {
    let decryptData = try aesCBCDecrypt(data:cryptData!, keyData:keyData)
    print("decryptData: \(decryptData! as NSData)")
}
catch (let status) {
    print("Error aesCBCDecrypt: \(status)")
}

Example Output:
clearData:   <636c6561 72446174 61303132 33343536>
keyData:     <6b657944 61746138 39303132 33343536>
cryptData:   <92c57393 f454d959 5a4d158f 6e1cd3e7 77986ee9 b2970f49 2bafcf1a 8ee9d51a bde49c31 d7780256 71837a61 60fa4be0>
decryptData: <636c6561 72446174 61303132 33343536>

Notes:
One typical problem with CBC mode example code is that it leaves the creation and sharing of the random IV to the user. This example includes generation of the IV, prefixed the encrypted data and uses the prefixed IV during decryption. This frees the casual user from the details that are necessary for CBC mode.
For security the encrypted data also should have authentication, this example code does not provide that in order to be small and allow better interoperability for other platforms.
Also missing is key derivation of the key from a password, it is suggested that PBKDF2 be used is text passwords are used as keying material.
For robust production ready multi-platform encryption code see RNCryptor.
Also consider RNCryptor for a complete implementation including password derivation, encryption authentication and versioning.
Note passwords and keys:
There is a difference between passwords and keys. AES encryption keys are exactly one of 3 lengths: 128, 192 or 256 bits and should appear to be random bits. Passwords/passphrases are human readable text. When passwords are used the encryption key needs to be derived from it, the there are functions to achieve this such as PBKDF2 (Password Based Key Derivation Function 2). RNCryptor includes such a derivation function.
Password Based Key Derivation 2 (Swift 3+)
Password Based Key Derivation can be used both for deriving an encryption key from password text and saving a password for authentication purposes.
There are several hash algorithms that can be used including SHA1, SHA256, SHA512 which are provided by this example code.
The rounds parameter is used to make the calculation slow so that an attacker will have to spend substantial time on each attempt. Typical delay values fall in the 100ms to 500ms, shorter values can be used if there is unacceptable performance.
This example requires Common Crypto
It is necessary to have a bridging header to the project:
#import <CommonCrypto/CommonCrypto.h>
Add the Security.framework to the project.
Parameters:
password     password String  
salt         salt Data  
keyByteCount number of key bytes to generate
rounds       Iteration rounds

returns      Derived key

func pbkdf2SHA1(password: String, salt: Data, keyByteCount: Int, rounds: Int) -> Data? {
    return pbkdf2(hash:CCPBKDFAlgorithm(kCCPRFHmacAlgSHA1), password:password, salt:salt, keyByteCount:keyByteCount, rounds:rounds)
}

func pbkdf2SHA256(password: String, salt: Data, keyByteCount: Int, rounds: Int) -> Data? {
    return pbkdf2(hash:CCPBKDFAlgorithm(kCCPRFHmacAlgSHA256), password:password, salt:salt, keyByteCount:keyByteCount, rounds:rounds)
}

func pbkdf2SHA512(password: String, salt: Data, keyByteCount: Int, rounds: Int) -> Data? {
    return pbkdf2(hash:CCPBKDFAlgorithm(kCCPRFHmacAlgSHA512), password:password, salt:salt, keyByteCount:keyByteCount, rounds:rounds)
}

func pbkdf2(hash :CCPBKDFAlgorithm, password: String, salt: Data, keyByteCount: Int, rounds: Int) -> Data? {
    let passwordData = password.data(using:String.Encoding.utf8)!
    var derivedKeyData = Data(repeating:0, count:keyByteCount)

    let derivationStatus = derivedKeyData.withUnsafeMutableBytes {derivedKeyBytes in
        salt.withUnsafeBytes { saltBytes in

            CCKeyDerivationPBKDF(
                CCPBKDFAlgorithm(kCCPBKDF2),
                password, passwordData.count,
                saltBytes, salt.count,
                hash,
                UInt32(rounds),
                derivedKeyBytes, derivedKeyData.count)
        }
    }
    if (derivationStatus != 0) {
        print("Error: \(derivationStatus)")
        return nil;
    }

    return derivedKeyData
}

Example usage:
let password     = "password"
//let salt       = "saltData".data(using: String.Encoding.utf8)!
let salt         = Data(bytes: [0x73, 0x61, 0x6c, 0x74, 0x44, 0x61, 0x74, 0x61])
let keyByteCount = 16
let rounds       = 100000

let derivedKey = pbkdf2SHA1(password:password, salt:salt, keyByteCount:keyByteCount, rounds:rounds)
print("derivedKey (SHA1): \(derivedKey! as NSData)")

Example Output:
derivedKey (SHA1): <6b9d4fa3 0385d128 f6d196ee 3f1d6dbf>

