xxtea

4.0.0 verified Mon Apr 27 auth: no python

xxtea is a simple block cipher implementing the XXTEA encryption algorithm. Current version 4.0.0, requires Python >=3.9. Released under BSD license. Active development with periodic releases.

pip install xxtea

Common errors

error TypeError: a bytes-like object is required, not 'str' ↓

cause Key or data passed as string instead of bytes.

fix

Encode your key and data: key = b'secret', data = b'plaintext'

error xxtea.error: Invalid padding ↓

cause Decrypting with wrong key or corrupted ciphertext (padding validation fails).

fix

Ensure the correct key is used and that ciphertext was not tampered with. Check encryption parameters (e.g., padding).

Warnings

breaking The encrypt() function returns bytes, not hex string as in some older versions or wrappers. ↓

fix Use xxtea.encrypt_hex() if you need hex output, or call .hex() on the result.

gotcha The key must be a bytes object; passing a string raises TypeError. ↓

fix Always encode your key: b'key' or 'key'.encode()

gotcha Padding is enabled by default. Disable with padding=False only if you manually handle block size alignment. ↓

fix Leave padding=True unless you have a specific reason.

deprecated Python 2.7, 3.4, 3.5 support dropped in v3.0.0. ↓

fix Upgrade to Python >=3.6, preferably >=3.9.

Imports

encrypt
wrong
```
from xxtea import xxtea_encrypt
```
correct
```
import xxtea; xxtea.encrypt(data, key, padding=True)
```
The legacy API used different function names. Use the module-level functions.
decrypt
wrong
```
from xxtea import decrypt
```
correct
```
import xxtea; xxtea.decrypt(ciphertext, key, padding=True)
```
Direct import of decrypt works, but ensure you pass key as bytes, not string.

Quickstart

Encrypt and decrypt a bytes message using a key.

import os
import xxtea

data = b'Hello, World!'
key = os.environ.get('XXTEA_KEY', 'secret').encode()
encrypted = xxtea.encrypt(data, key)
print(encrypted.hex())
decrypted = xxtea.decrypt(encrypted, key)
print(decrypted)