Hi,
I'm thinking to do the disk partition encryptions now. However
"Hard drive encryption sounds like an intimating concept, mostly because it is. The thought of taking your precious files, then using a mathematical formula to convert them into random noise before scattering them back across your disk is a hard sell. " [1]
1. http://www.maximumpc.com/article/howtos/ how_to_encrypt_your_entire_hard_drive_for_free_using_true_crypt
So I need some demystify of the whole disk/partition encryption thing. The official "Disk Encryption HOWTO" from tldp.org [2] is only dated as 2004-11-17, so I would assume it is *way* outdated. In terms of security, I tend to turn to people that I trust for help. Having tldp.org failed on me, I need your help, people from the grml community, instead of some random blogs found on the interent.
2. http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/Disk-Encryption-HOWTO/
Linux Encryption HOWTO http://encryptionhowto.sourceforge.net/Encryption-HOWTO.html v0.2.2, 04 October 2000
Here are my questions,
- First very noob question, I don't want whole disk encryption, just want to encrypt some selected already partitioned partitions. If someone mount the encrypted partitions, will it shows up as empty or, there are some hints that the partition have been encrypted?
- The Ubuntu [3] and CentOS [4] seems to endorse dm-crypt, instead of cryptsetup-luks that grml-crypt uses. So I need a bit of explanation why it is better than others.
3. http://www.humboldt.edu/its/security-encryption-linuxubuntu 4. http://beginlinux.com/blog/2009/04/centos-53-encrypted-block-devices/
- In terms of encryption used, TrueCrypt supports the following encryption algorithms: AES, Serpent, Twofish, AES-Twofish, AES-Twofish- Serpent, Serpent-AES, Serpent-Twofish-AES, Twofish-Serpent; And these hash algorithms: RIPEMD-160, SHA-512 & Whirlpool [5]
5. http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1276279
So I need a bit of explanation why the chosen algorithm is better than others.
- Is your choice as cross-platform as TrueCrypt?
- Since I need to encrypt more than one selected partitions, is there any alternative to typing in passphrase for each one of them when mounting them?
- how passphrase are cached? Do I have to repeately typing in passphrase each time I do the mount? I also heard of passphrase-less disk encryptions. Hmm... I don't want to go there so maybe I can skip that.
BTW, I just need a mini how-to about disk encryption, it does not need to be in-depth or comprehensive but rather short and to the point, to allow anyone with a minimum of linux disk encryption knowledge to create encrypted memory sticks, USB disks, or partitions in minutes.
Thanks a lot.