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This is an important issue cryptographers and security minded people often overlook: the strongest cryptography is irrelevant if it opens you to such social har
by yholio 8y ago
This is an important issue cryptographers and security minded people often overlook: the strongest cryptography is irrelevant if it opens you to such social harassment. What we need is practical cryptography.
I have found practical success by booting from an encrypted Linux partition that has absolutely nothing relevant on it, with a weak password I can always enter when requested by big guys with guns. Unbeknown to them on the same partition there sits another encrypted volume, at some offset from the outer's partition start. If I fail to enter the correct password for the outer partition, Ubuntu drops into the command line of the initrd, that is equiped with all the tools you need to mount the real, offset partition:
cryptsetup -o 100000000 create boot /dev/sdc3
So instead of having a nice GUI into which you directly enter the uber-secret password, you press enter a few times in the GUI, drop to command line, issue a single command and only then enter the uber-secret password. A mild nuisance in your bootup process, once you get the hang of it.
It's impossible for any court forensic team, let alone an airport goon, to prove there is actually another partition inside the outer encrypted partition, unless you mount common volumes and cross-contaminate. An important caveat is to properly defragment the outer partition and fiddle with the offset and the size of the inner partition to prevent any conflicts, then avoid writing in the outer partition.
- artursapek 8y agoYou should write a blog post explaining how to set this up in a little more detail.
- androidgirl 8y agoI'd be interested in hearing more about this as well.
- zymhan 8y agohttps://www.linuxvoice.com/hidden-encrypted-volumes-keep-data-safe-and-secret/ https://www.linuxvoice.com/hidden-encrypted-volumes-keep-dat... https://askubuntu.com/questions/63594/mount-encrypted-volumes-from-command-line https://askubuntu.com/questions/63594/mount-encrypted-volume...
- artursapek 8y agoThanks!
- zymhan 8y agoThat is the same approach used by TrueCrypt (RIP) for it's "hidden volume", to solve pretty much the same problem. https://www.truecrypt71a.com/documentation/plausible-deniability/hidden-volume/ https://www.truecrypt71a.com/documentation/plausible-deniabi...
- teddyh 8y ago> TrueCrypt (RIP) Continued by VeraCrypt: https://www.veracrypt.fr/ https://www.veracrypt.fr/
- NegativeLatency 8y ago> It’s impossible ... to prove Not after they subpoena this HN comment. ;)
- sjroot 8y agoLove this. Isn't there also something for Android that presents a "safe" account when you type in a particular passcode? This regulation is clearly made by people who don't understand the technology and capabilities of these devices. A waste of time and money; who is going to train customs officials to search through phones?
- reaperducer 8y agoAs cheap as burner phones are these days, it seems the easiest route is to buy a decoy Android and fill it with plausible-looking innocent data, and leave your real phone home when going on vacation.
- brokenmachine 8y agoI don't understand why you think there's a need to fill it with plausible-looking innocent data. Why can't you just take a new phone and say, "it's empty because I got a new phone"?
- wool_gather 8y ago> This regulation is clearly made by people who don't understand the technology and capabilities... Staying ahead of them with a technological trick is only a partial, temporary solution, though. Eventually you can expect that there will be an attack, whether purchased (see GreyKey) or legislated, on the workaround. What should happen is that the whole arms race should be nipped in the bud by outlawing this kind of data collection coercion. But I don't have a lot of hope about getting that genie back into the bottle.
- gruez 8y ago>It's impossible for any court forensic team, let alone an airport goon, to prove there is actually another partition inside the outer encrypted partition booting into a 50 GB partition on a 512GB SSD isn't suspicious?
- swarnie_ 8y agoFind me a member of the TSA who can explain the significance of that sentence let alone catch it in practice then we can discus the viability of it. It seems to me this would fix the larger problem most the time.
- gruez 8y agoas someone else mentioned, the only reason it works now is that very few people does this. if this starts getting popular, i guarentee that TSA is going to check for hidden partitions, patched kernels, suspiciously clean OS, etc.
- hfdgiutdryg 8y agoi guarentee that TSA is going to check for hidden partitions, patched kernels, suspiciously clean OS, etc. How would they hire enough manpower smart enough to do that?
- bigiain 8y agoThey'll just buy an eyewateringly expensive tool from Cellebrite (or their ilk), then let the minimum wage goons loose with it... "Hey Hank, the machine says we've got another hidden encrypted partition, go get the rubber hose..."
- tomp 8y agoNah both partitions are 500GB... it's just that you avoid writing (or filling up) the "outer" partition so the "inner" partition is never overwritten.
- gsnedders 8y ago> It's impossible for any court forensic team, let alone an airport goon, to prove there is actually another partition inside the outer encrypted partition, unless you mount common volumes and cross-contaminate. An important caveat is to properly defragment the outer partition and fiddle with the offset and the size of the inner partition to avoid any conflicts, then avoid writing in the outer partition. Customs staff typically don't know to prove there is, they just need reasonable suspicion to seize goods for further investigation. The fact you've booted into a 50GB partition on a 500GB disk may well be considered reasonable suspicion to seize the goods for the sake of further investigation.
- oconnor663 8y agoI think the parent comment is describing a scheme where the outer partition contains the inner one, so both are large. As the parent notes, this is dangerous, and you have to be careful not to overwrite inner data if you boot the outer os.
- zymhan 8y agoIt is also Linux, so there are probably three different ways to make partitions appear to be a different size or reserve certain blocks in the partition.
- yholio 8y agoYou are correct. I've simplified a bit: I boot from a 50GB decoy root partition that also has a 450GB decoy data partition along side it, both encrypted with the same weak password. This is a standard configuration and the machine works perfectly fine, you can write inside the decoy root as much as you want, as Linux would do when it boots. The data partition is largely empty and you haven't written large files there for some time, but that should not be suspicious by itself. In the free space of the large data partition there lives the sensitive hidden root. It's maybe 250GB, with a 100GB offset from the start of the decoy data, and 50GB guard space at the back, where ext4 writes all sorts of crap. So you get to use about 50% of your raw disk capacity inside the sensitive environment, as a single encrypted root.
- Shivetya 8y agothe end result will be any system which is not familiar to the officials who are doing the checks or compatible with their scanning technology will simply be confiscated upon entry. the only safe harbor will be one you don't carry with you except as a device which can guarantee secure access to that remote information.
- ergothus 8y agoI recall a story from long ago: user is requested to boot their laptop by airline security. They boot, which drops to a linux (bsd?) command line. Agent is not pleased. User sets PS1 so the prompt now looks like DOS. Agent is satisfied (they may just have been satisfied that the device worked, but this story dates from when a DOS prompt was a believable thing for someone to recognize as "computer" )
- nil_pointer 8y agoThis story doesn't sound beleivable. As soon as the agent starts attempting commands, they'd see it's not DOS.
- sjwright 8y agoBut they saw it was a working computer. Airline security don't care what operating system your computer runs, they care if the laptop has been hollowed out and filled with C4.
- ams6110 8y agoOf course these days you could have a Raspberry Pi in a corner of the laptop case and the rest of it filled with whatever contraband, and still present a "working" computer to the security screener.
- marcosdumay 8y agoNowadays your laptop would go through an X-ray machine with improved explosives detection.
- paradite 8y agoTo be very honest, I find the methodology very similar to what drug trafficker would do to hide their drugs. And I don't think this method will end well for all parties either way. If it works, customs officers cannot find actual illegal contents, and criminals walk free through customs. If customs officers somehow detects you are doing this, you risk obstructing security measures.
- Johnny555 8y agoDrug traffickers hide their drugs in an encrypted partition? No sane criminal would bring illegal electronic data with him on a physical device... He'll just download it when he gets there.
- mikeash 8y agoNo smart criminal would. There are lots of dumb criminals, though.
- AsyncAwait 8y agoYes, and am not willing to have my privacy violated for dumb criminals.
- mito88 8y agohttps://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/09/27/suspected_dark_web_druggie_cuffed/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/09/27/suspected_dark_web_...
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- yholio 8y agoBut that's true for all encryption and privacy technology, it has dual use. We as a society must find the right balance and say, ok, there's no reasonable justification for owning 1 pound of plutonium, but there is a legitimate case for high encryption and privacy. This forum largely believes that the balance struck by New Zealand - that you don't have the right to data privacy when traveling - is completely unacceptable, and as technologists we try to find technical countermeasures.
- bitwize 8y agoIf you pull this stunt in the USA, I hope you enjoy your five-year sentence in federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison and the effect that the permanent felony conviction on your record will have on your employment prospects and the exercise of your civil rights. Misleading, or concealing information from, a federal agent is a felony.
- nrki 8y ago"One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws." - some U.S. citizen. (MLK, Jr.)
- yholio 8y ago> If you pull this stunt in the USA, I hope you enjoy your five-year sentence in federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison and the effect that the permanent felony conviction on your record will have on your employment prospects and the exercise of your civil rights. Misleading, or concealing information from, a federal agent is a felony. If this is the line of the argument, then why is the search done at all? I am perfectly fine telling an agent of the state "No sir, I do not have any illegal data on this device" - fully knowing that a lie is conducive to imprisonment. What I object to is the search itself, which by the way, is unlawful under the US constitution.
- TomK32 8y agoyou say nothing to that agent. not a word. you give them your password if the insist and that's it.
- sctb 8y agoLike we've asked before, could you please start commenting in the spirit of this site, which is to gratify our intellectual curiosity? Gratuitous inflammation doesn't belong and will get your account banned. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- 8y ago
- v_lisivka 8y agoOMG. Just use two SSD's and turn off second in the BIOS. Or use same technique as Chinese fakers are using to create fake flash cards or SSD's: just reduce size of drive directly in the controller.
- gureddio 8y ago... if your laptop has space for two SSDs
- efreak 8y agoHidden partition flag, then. Or just dual boot with a secondary system as default; either a live os image (linux) or installed on a vhd (windows).
- dotancohen 8y agoYou could probably just remove the partition's fstab entry to get past most border searches. Or store the data in what appears to be a swap partition.
- paavoova 8y agoNote that this requires using dm-crypt in plain mode, which allows only one passphrase, doesn't perform any passphrase mangling or salting, and performs no passphrase checking on decryption. It requires one to re-enter exact parameters, and an improper passphrase will happily give bunk data. Secondly, high-entropy data is evident at even a courtesy glance - normal computer and filesystem operations do not produce high-entropy data on disk, therefore a large portion of high-entropy disk data is highly suspect. The author discusses this in detail in sections 2.4 and 5.2 of https://gitlab.com/cryptsetup/cryptsetup/wikis/FrequentlyAskedQuestions https://gitlab.com/cryptsetup/cryptsetup/wikis/FrequentlyAsk...
- yholio 8y agoTrue, but the default parameters of cryptsetup are quite secure with a high entropy password and they are seldom changed. A volume opened with the wrong password will fail to mount with no ill effects, you would just crypysetup delete and then re-create it again with the right password. I've addressed at length the other issues above, initializing an encrypted drive with random data is a widely recommended countermeasure against attacks that exploit the way the filesystem allocates sectors, VeraCrypt does it by default and many graphical setups for Linux offer the option for encrypted drives.
- ams6110 8y ago> cryptsetup -o 100000000 create boot /dev/sdc3 Be sure that doesn't get into your .bash_history
- 8fingerlouie 8y agoAs technically exciting as this is, i would probably just bring a burner laptop, installed with a a default Debian install on a properly initialized LUKS partition, and a weak password, and a USB drive with a Debian install. Once inside customs, i'd verify the SHA1 sum of the USB drive image vs. the one on the Debian site, and reinstall the machine, setup a VPN back home, and pull the data i need onto the machine. Repeat the "dummy" install when leaving the country.