Data Security: Cryptsetup

Data Security: Cryptsetup

Cryptsetup

according to the MAN page:

cryptsetup - manage plain dm-crypt and LUKS encrypted volumes

..cryptsetup is used to conveniently setup dm-crypt managed device-mapper mappings. These include plain dm-crypt volumes and LUKS volumes. The difference is that LUKS uses a metadata header and can hence offer more features than plain dm-crypt...

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• Installing Cryptsetup:

sudo apt install cryptsetup

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***SETUP***

• Creating a container:

dd if=/dev/urandom of=~/my_encrypted_drive.dd bs=1M count=256

• Format it:

sudo cryptsetup luksFormat ~/my_encrypted_drive.dd

• Opening it:

sudo cryptsetup luksOpen ~/my_encrypted_drive.dd my_drive

my_drive will appear in /dev/mapper/.

• Create a filesystem within it:

mkfs -t ext4 /dev/mapper/my_drive

• Mount the container:

sudo mount -t ext4 /dev/mapper/my_drive ~/mnt/

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***Consequence run***

sudo cryptsetup luksOpen ~/my_encrypted_drive.dd my_drive

sudo mount -t ext4 /dev/mapper/my_drive~/mnt/

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• Unmounting:

sudo umount ~/mnt/

sudo cryptsetup luksClose my_drive

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• Changing Password/Passphrase:

sudo cryptsetup luksChangeKey my_encrypted_drive.dd

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• for more usage and help:

cryptsetup --help

man cryptsetup

Read more at Cryptsetup Homepage and Wikipedia .

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note:
device => my_encrypted_drive.dd

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Disclaimer

Data Security: EncFS

ENCFS

according to the MAN page:


encfs - mounts or creates an encrypted virtual filesystem

..EncFS creates a virtual encrypted filesystem which stores encrypted data in the rootdir directory and makes the unencrypted data visible at the mountPoint directory. The user must supply a password which is used to (indirectly) encrypt both filenames and file contents...



Advantages of EncFS:
• Does not require root privilages.
• Easy, simple to setup and carry.
• No dependencies.
• Able to enlarge storage as long as the HDD space is available.
• Storage capacity not limited by fixed size encryption container like in truecrypt etc.

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• Installing encfs :
on Debian system.

sudo apt-get install encfs

• We need to create two folder :
(one for encrypted folder and another for mount point/folder).

mkdir <ENCRYPTED FOLDER> <MOUNT FOLDER>

mkdir ~/encfs/ ~/mnt/

• Setup :

encfs ~/encfs/ ~/mnt/

thing to remember, the path must be absolute. ie- /home/user/mnt   or   ~/mnt   and not   mnt .
Since we are mounting it for the first time it'll prcode_innerompt for a setup and a password. it's fairly easy.

• Mounting encrypted folder :

encfs ~/encfs/ ~/mnt/

To encrypt any file(s), save them in the ~/mnt/ folder.it will be visible in plain sight.
if you look at the ~/enfs/ folder, you will see the encrypted raw files. that is the real files. Everything in ~/mnt/ is a mirror of the files in ~/encfs/.

• Unmounting the encrypted folder :

umount ~/mnt/

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Extra's

• Displaying Info:

encfsctl <ENCRYPTED_FOLDER>

encfsctl info <ENCRYPTED_FOLDER>

encfsctl ~/encfs/

encfsctl info ~/encfs/

• Changing password:

encfsctl passwd <ENCRYPTED_FOLDER>

encfsctl passwd ~/encfs/

• For usage and option's :

encfs --help

man encfs

Read more at EncFS Homepage and Wikipedia .

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Disclaimer
update: 4th July 2015

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Unix tricks: Create a Portable Drive

Create a Portable Drive
unix tricks

Unix Tricks

• Create a blank file of 256 MB :

dd if=/dev/zero of=~/portable.drive bs=1M count=256

• Create an ext4  filesystem within the file:

mkfs -t ext4 ~/portable.drive

you can replace ext4 with ext2, ext3, vfat, msdos, minix etc.

• Create a mount point:

mkdir ~/mnt/

• Mount the File/Drive:

sudo mount -t ext4 ~/portable.drive ~/mnt/

  ••Now you can browse the drive••

• Unmount the drive:

sudo umount ~/mnt/

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Advantages
• Easy to carry files stored in one container.
• Good for hiding data and files from plain sight.if you share your computer with others
• Usable across unix System.

Disadvantages
• No security or encryption set/applied.
• Cannot be viewed, opened in Windows natively.

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Read more at Wikipedia
• dd
• mkdir
• mkfs
• mount
• sudo
• umount

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note:
The file created by this method can only be open and read by unix and unix-like system. Natively Windows cannot open this kind of file. but its possible to open it with Cywin

software.

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letter-spacing:1px; letter-spacing:1px; Disclaimer