# From the directory that contains aes_key.txt python -m http.server 8000

# 1️⃣ Generate a 256‑bit Base64 key openssl rand -base64 32 > aes_key.txt

If you host the key publicly, anyone can download it and decrypt your data. Never do that for real secrets.

Never share your secret key publicly. Storing an AES key in plain‑text on disk is okay for testing or learning, but for production you should protect it with a hardware security module (HSM), OS‑level key vault, or at least encrypt the key file with a passphrase. The examples below are for educational / development purposes only.