Decrypting SPSS files with pspp decrypt

The pspp decrypt command reads an encrypted SPSS file and writes out an equivalent plaintext file. The basic syntax is:

pspp decrypt <INPUT> <OUTPUT>

which reads an encrypted SPSS data, viewer, or syntax file <INPUT>, decrypts it, and writes the decrypted version to <OUTPUT>.

Other commands, such as pspp convert, can also read encrypted files directly.

PSPP does not support writing encrypted files, only reading them.

⚠️ Warning: The SPSS encryption format is insecure: when the password is unknown, it is much cheaper and faster to decrypt a file encrypted this way than if a well designed alternative were used.

Options

pspp decrypt accepts the following options:

• -p <PASSWORD>
--password <PASSWORD>
  Specifies the password for reading the encrypted input file. Without this option, PSPP will interactively prompt for the password.

  ⚠️ The password (and other command-line options) may be visible to other users on multiuser systems.