How do I encrypt text with openssl?

The openssl CLI tool is a bag of random tricks. One of them is the enc command. Here’s an example of encrypting and decrypting some text:

$ echo 'super secret message' > plain.txt
$ openssl enc -k secretpassword123 -aes256 -base64 -e -in plain.txt -out cipher.txt
$ cat cipher.txt
U2FsdGVkX1+vXUvo9fOehyq11uH+za8COV/+UScl2w6JPiFoVm3pte639CMDBMTB
$ openssl enc -k secretpassword123 -aes256 -base64 -d -in cipher.txt -out plain_again.txt
$ cat plain_again.txt
super secret message

Here,

• -k secretpassword123 sets the password for encryption and decryption
• -aes256 selects the cipher type, of which there are many
• -base64 sets encryption to base64-encode the result, and decryption to base64-decode the input
• -e tells openssl to encrypt the -in file; -d tells it to decrypt the -in file

I wrote this because I said I'd learn SSL/TLS. I'm first working through the various `openssl` subcommands. This post is my own, and not associated with my employer.