Cryptic

🚀 Inspiration

With growing concerns about digital privacy and the unauthorized use of personal media, we wanted to create a simple yet secure way for anyone to encrypt and share their images safely. Cryptic was born from the idea of empowering users with client-side encryption in a fast, accessible, and user-friendly way—no servers, no signups, just secure image sharing.

🔐 What it does

Cryptic lets users encrypt their images directly in the browser, converting them into .cryptic files that can only be decrypted through the app. The platform supports multiple image formats, drag-and-drop upload, batch processing, and optional password protection. Users can then decrypt these files when needed, ensuring privacy and control over their visual content.

🛠️ How we built it

We used:

HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript for a responsive and interactive front end
AES-256 encryption for secure client-side encryption and decryption
Drag-and-drop APIs and FileReader for seamless uploads
Custom JavaScript logic for file validation, encryption, decryption, and download functionality
Basic image preview and progress indicators to improve UX

🧱 Challenges we ran into

Implementing AES-256 encryption without relying on external libraries was tricky, especially ensuring consistency between encryption and decryption.
Managing batch processing while keeping the UI responsive was challenging with larger files.
Developing the project from single prompt
Dealing with file size limits and maintaining performance on slower machines.

🏆 Accomplishments that we're proud of

Achieved secure encryption entirely in-browser, without uploading to any server.
Created a clean and intuitive interface that works seamlessly on both desktop and mobile.
Implemented support for multiple file types and batch processing with clear feedback and error handling.
Embedded a real sense of data ownership and privacy for users.

📚 What we learned

The depth and complexity of implementing secure cryptographic systems on the front-end.
How to improve user experience through subtle feedback mechanisms like progress bars and file previews.
The importance of balancing security, performance, and usability in privacy-focused tools.