KBTAG: kben10000055
URL: http://www.securityportal.com/lskb/10000050/kben10000055.html
Date created:
Date modified:
Date removed:
Authors(s): Kurt Seifried seifried@securityportal.com
Topic: Encrypting your harddrive
Keywords: Users/Encryption
CFS allows you to keep data on your harddrive in an encrypted format, and is significantly easier to use then a file encryption program (such as PGP) if you have many files and directories you want to keep away from curious people. The official distribution site is at: http://www.cryptography.org/, and RPM's are available at: ftp://ftp.zedz.net/pub/replay/linux/redhat/, and Debian binaries are at: http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/non-us/cfs.html.
TCFS is a kernel level data encryption utility, similar to CFS. It however has several advantages over CFS; as it is implemented at the kernel level it is significantly faster. It is tightly integrated with NFS meaning you can server data securely on a local machine, or across the network. It decrypts data on the client machine, so when used over a network the password/etc is never passed over the network. The only catch is that it has not yet been ported to the 2.2 kernel series. You can get TCFS from: http://tcfs.dia.unisa.it/.
PPDD allows you create a disk partition that is encrypted, it
can either be an actual partition, or a loopback device (which
resides in a file, but is mounted as a filesystem). It uses the
blowfish algorithm which is relatively fast and proven. You can
get PPDD from:
http://linux01.gwdg.de/~alatham/.
Encrypted Home Directory works similarly to CFS, however it is aimed at providing a single encrypted directory. Essentially it creates a file of size X in /crypt/ with your UID, and mounts it on a loopback device so you can access it. The trick is the data is encrypted and decrypted on the fly as you access it (just like CFS). The only catch is that the software is still in development, so backup any important data. You can download it from: http://members.home.net/id-est/.
BestCrypt is a commercial product, with source code, available for Windows and Linux. You can get it here: http://www.jetico.com/.