this is probably a bit off-topic, but I need to decrypt a string in Python which was encrypted in cfml via

encrypt(arguments.clearText, local.AES_Key, 'AES', 'HEX')

does anyone have any clue on how to achieve this?

See the documentation for

encrypt()

- https://helpx.adobe.com/coldfusion/cfml-reference/coldfusion-functions/functions-e-g/encrypt.html You will need to decrypt using the same algorithm, seed, encoding, etc. The syntax in ColdFusion is

Encrypt(string, key, algorithm, encoding, IV_Salt, iterations)

So for what you have shared...

arguments.clearText - this is the string to encrypt
local.AES_Key - this is the key/seed that was used
'AES' - this is the algorithm used
'HEX' - this is the encoding used