def xor_crypt_string(data, key = 'awesomepassword', encode = False, decode = False):
   from itertools import izip, cycle
   import base64
   
   if decode:
      data = base64.decodestring(data)
   xored = ''.join(chr(ord(x) ^ ord(y)) for (x,y) in izip(data, cycle(key)))
   
   if encode:
      return base64.encodestring(xored).strip()
   return xored
secret_data = "XOR procedure"

print("The cipher text is")
print xor_crypt_string(secret_data, encode = True)
print("The plain text fetched")
print xor_crypt_string(xor_crypt_string(secret_data, encode = True), decode = True)