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Ask HN: What do you use for encrypting your personal stuff?
I used to use Truecrypt (file based virtual encrypted disk). But it shut down under mysterious circumstances.
Now there is veracrypt based on the same source code, but I am not sure I trust it. Are there better alternatives? What does everyone use?
- runjake 4y agoVeraCrypt. The VeraCrypt FAQ addresses your concern: https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/FAQ.html https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/FAQ.html Direct link to audit: https://blog.quarkslab.com/security-assessment-of-veracrypt-fixes-and-evolutions-from-truecrypt.html https://blog.quarkslab.com/security-assessment-of-veracrypt-...
- NoBreakfirst 4y agoYes. Very crypt as adhoc encrypted folders I then move them around and versions them with git ( the version is not incremental, I just know if it’s the same hash .. )
- johntash 4y agoAre you running git outside of the encrypted container? Or are you running it inside (versioning decrypted files)? If you are doing the former, I used to use git-annex[1] for a similar purpose and liked it to keep track of where the encrypted versions of files are stored. [1]: https://git-annex.branchable.com/ https://git-annex.branchable.com/
- NoBreakfirst 4y agoOutside, I’m versioning blob or encrypted data. I’m doing that for my password ( using the awesome “pass” cli ) And some pdf with PPI. Picture are backup non encrypted so It’s around 100mo since years. Checking… Less; 78mo. But git annex look nifty! The use case is large file? Correct ?
- unstatusthequo 4y agoThe general digital forensic community switched to VeraCrypt for encryption evidence in transit via common carrier. So I agree on this.
- aborsy 4y agoLUKS is the de facto disk encryption in Linux. For file system encryption, use fscrypt and ZFS native encryption. For backups, use restic or Borg. For encrypted synchronization, use cryptomator, gocryptfs or rclone. File encryption is rarely needed anymore, but GPG works fine for that. Depends what you want to encrypt.
- yangikan 4y agorclone mount seems like a good option to mount encrypted files. Thank you.
- TacticalCoder 4y agoSame... I'm on Linux so LUKS for all my SSDs. Then good old GPG for a few individual files / archives.
- schainks 4y agoLUKS on linux works great. Restic can encrypt your backups before they go into whatever cloud will store it the cheapest.
- m-p-3 4y agoCryptomator for cloud-based storage, as it allows my to encrypt each files inside the vilolume separately, which makes it much more bandwidth friendly to desktop synchronization software.
- yangikan 4y agoDoes this work on Windows/Linux?
- GekkePrutser 4y agoYes cryptomator works on Linux, Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. It also has some cool features like photo auto upload on mobile. One thing it specifically lacks though it's FreeBSD support which leaves a huge gap in my personal workflow but it's unlikely to bother all but a handful of people in the world :)
- bigiain 4y agoIs there a recent-is review of the crypto it uses? I used to use Boxcryptor so I could have file-by-file encryption and sync directories full of encrypted files to various cloud storage services, but there was a know vulnerability with the way the crypto worked, were updates/changes to previously encrypted files could leak important info (I don't recall if it was cleartext or key hints?). It also had the problem of not encrypting directory names, so an attacker could see that you had a directory named "Plans For Super Secret Volcano Submarine Base" or "Darkweb purchase receipts".
- c7b 4y agoTrueCrypt still works and doesn't have any known vulnerabilities afaik. For low-risk files I also sometimes use WinRAR, which according to the docs should have ok encryption (AES-256). Curious for other suggestions too.
- cantrevealname 4y ago> TrueCrypt still works and doesn't have any known vulnerabilities afaik. I second this comment. Plus TrueCrypt has passed a serious source code audit. I'm not aware of any on-the-fly encryption system that has had the scrutiny of TrueCrypt. The main issue to be aware of is making certain you download the valid v7.1a source code or binaries. There are plenty of old trustworthy sites that have published the hashes of the source code tarballs or Windows binaries that you should check. TrueCrypt works for me without any issue on current Linux systems, but I haven't tested it on recent Windows and macOS.
- e12e 4y agoGenerally zfs native encryption these days (as well as native encryption in macos and windows).
- freedomben 4y agoFor encrypting files, I use AEScrypt[1]. Cross platform, simple to use, and easy to audit. [1]: https://www.aescrypt.com/ https://www.aescrypt.com/
- tptacek 4y agoI probably wouldn't. It looks pretty old, uses a fucky bespoke KDF for passwords (I'm looking at the 3.16 source code), has file metadata that doesn't appear to be authenticated, and does a weird dance of including the PID and time in the IVs for what looks like CBC mode? You could build something more secure using the hello-world code for Go's Seal/Unseal crypto/ libraries, or Rust's Ring crate.
- Nzen 4y agoI likewise chose aescrypt as a tool that I could get my parents to install that would end up in their context shortcut menu. They wheedled out of doing so and I've kept using it via inertia. I encrypt (business related) ssh keys in our company's keepass database file.
- Arubis 4y agoBit rot. If my backups aren’t redundant and I don’t care to access something for long enough, it eventually becomes inaccessible to others. Full-disk encryption from your OS vendor (FileVault, LUKS, whatever windows does) will accelerate this process.
- armitron 4y agoCan you elaborate? Why would FDE or inactivity accelerate bit rot?
- williamscales 4y agoI can take a stab without really knowing for sure, I would guess that flipping a bit of the ciphertext would have much greater consequences than flipping a bit of the plaintext.
- GekkePrutser 4y agoI could also argue it makes bitrot more detectable though.
- Arubis 4y agoIt greatly raises the magnitude of consequences of not maintaining data access. Whole swathes vanish at a stroke, be it a flipped bit or a key forgotten or lost due to disuse.
- paulpauper 4y agozipcrypto...jk I would always be hesitant to disclose what type of crypto you are using, unless I guess you have nothing important. I think veracrypt, 7zip, openssl are good. Probably anything that has been recently audited. Just make sure you are offline when decrypting or encrypting or else it may defeat the purpose.
- hot_gril 4y agoEncrypted sparse bundle disk images on macOS if I want something individually encrypted. Built-in full disk encryption too. No extra software needed. On Linux, there's LUKS as mentioned already.
- hot_gril 4y agoOh, I forgot the default disk encryption in Windows: ransomware. (jk, I'm sure there's something)
- giaour 4y agoBitlocker is on by default in windows 10 & 11: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/device-encryption-in-windows-ad5dcf4b-dbe0-2331-228f-7925c2a3012d https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/device-encryptio...
- Jalad 4y ago"by default" is a bit of a stretch because from the link it says "BitLocker encryption is available on supported devices running Windows 10 or 11 Pro, Enterprise, or Education." So it's only on by default if you shelled dough out for one of those
- giaour 4y agoDevice encryption on Windows Home has a different brand name ("Windows Device Encryption") and works a bit differently, but AFAICT it's also on by default if you log in with a Microsoft or AAD account. Can't find any specific documentation on that, though.
- artificialLimbs 4y agoIt’s also randomly on via errant windows updates, apparently.
- mikewarot 4y agoI had it decrypt my drive then turned it off. Linux couldn't see my stuff when I dual booted.
- trog 4y agoIt sounds like you're running Windows? On Windows I just use the built-in Bitlocker encryption. It is a bit annoying understanding what this means between Windows Home and Pro editions though. On Home, it's not technically 'Bitlocker' - it's Device Encryption - hit Windows key & type 'device encryption' - if you see 'Device Encryption Settings', you should have it available. If you do not, it's probably not available on your device e.g. maybe you don't have a TPM, although I've had Windows machines that showed it as not available but then I was able to get it running with a bit of messing around and registry hacking. It is still Bitlocker under the hood, but it's missing some features. You can get some of them by logging into your machine with a Microsoft account, but if you're running a local account (like I am) you get a more budget experience (e.g. I don't think there's an easy way to get the Bitlocker encryption key or have it backed up online). If you only want to run local accounts, the easier and probably safer solution is to shell out for Windows Pro and take advantage of the full Bitlocker experience.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- rmind 4y agorvault for small documents: https://github.com/rmind/rvault https://github.com/rmind/rvault It uses envelope encryption with one-time password (OTP) authentication. I like to store data on the systems I own and just run backups regularly.
- nodesocket 4y agoBuilt-in macOS FileVault, then for individual files use scrypt[1] by the amazing cpercival. [1] https://www.tarsnap.com/scrypt.html https://www.tarsnap.com/scrypt.html
- TheFlyingFish 4y agoFor small one-off encryption use cases (i.e. encrypt a single file) I use age: https://github.com/filosottile/age https://github.com/filosottile/age Especially convenient when you need to transmit the file over some untrusted medium like email, or if you just want to dump it in some cloud storage service and not worry about potential snooping.
- woodruffw 4y agoI'm not convinced that whole-disk encryption is sensible for most threat models, but I use the built-in FileVault on macOS (under the reasoning that, at the very least, it can't really hurt). On Linux, I use age[1] (specifically, rage[2]) to encrypt sensitive files. I wrote a secret manager that uses the latter as an encryption backend[3], and I use `rage-mount` to mount (read-only) views of encrypted archives. [1]: https://github.com/FiloSottile/age https://github.com/FiloSottile/age [2]: https://github.com/str4d/rage https://github.com/str4d/rage [3]: https://github.com/woodruffw/kbs2 https://github.com/woodruffw/kbs2
- tptacek 4y agoFor what it's worth: the threat model for whole-disk encryption is "I turned my laptop off, shut it, and then managed to leave it in the back of a taxi". That's pretty much the only scenario it's helping you in. It's a way of making sure that a lost laptop isn't a company-wide security incident.
- OJFord 4y agoMine hibernate after some period (2h I think) with the lid closed, and require disk decryption on wake from that. Not a correction exactly, just to say it's a bit better than merely only 'I turned it off', at least if you use hibernation.
- woodruffw 4y agoThat makes sense, thanks.
- kornhole 4y agoOr if you travel on airplanes. I have twice had my laptop taken in the backroom by security where I am pretty sure they copied my hard drive.
- cantrevealname 4y agoCan you tell us more about the circumstances? Do you mean airport security screening or do you means customs and immigration? Why were picked? Did they ask for your login / BIOS / disk encryption passwords? For how long were they away with your laptop? What did you do afterward (like wipe the disk in case they installed a surveillance tool)?
- iLoveOncall 4y agoVeraCrypt and Bitlocker have already been mentioned, so in case they don't cover your use case, take a look at Cryptomator. You can have an encrypted folder, put it on Google Drive and then decrypt it from any of your devices. Even iOS will support it natively once you do the setup with the Cryptomator app.
- mentis22 4y ago
- palata 4y agoIf the encryption is good, shouldn't it be fine to say that you use it? E.g. I need to share my public PGP key, but it does not make me particularly vulnerable, does it?
- hatware 4y agoOpSec (Operational Security) is a huge part of the game. If you want to reduce attack surface you probably want to give adversaries as little to go off of as possible.
- mentis22 4y ago
- Sohcahtoa82 4y agoI remain unconvinced. Just look at TLS. Anybody who can sniff a TLS connection can tell exactly what encryption is being used, yet we consider TLS to be quite secure other than potential concerns with PKI. That said, I'd be slightly surprised if there wasn't metadata on the drive that could be used to determine which brand of disk encryption is in use, but it'd still be worthless. If the knowledge that I'm using X to encrypt my drive actually leads to them decrypting my drive, then X was terrible and never should have been used to begin with.
- nl 4y agoExplain exactly what attack vector not posting what encryption software you use is supposed to protect against? * If you are attacked by an adversary with access to your hardware they can tell what encryption you are using. * If you are attacked by an adversary without access to your hardware then knowing what you use doesn't given them any advantage. On the other hand, telling people they shouldn't provide recommendations for encryption software is just the kind of thing an adversary might do...
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- rr808 4y agoI gave up. Old PCs used to die and I could just take the disk and put into a new box and copy what I could. I encrypted a disk and ended up losing everything on there (except photos which were backed up). I realized I really dont have anyhthing worth stealing. I keep tax returns on a usb stick, with a paper copy backed up.
- allanrbo 4y agoI like Gocryptfs. Easy to see and reason about that it is working.
- tmaly 4y agoI use a custom implementation of rot13 I implemented in Rust
- rnk 4y agoEverything is better with rust.
- rodolphoarruda 4y agoLUKS for my main drive. VeraCrypt for everything else.
- GekkePrutser 4y agoOn Linux: LUKS. On FreeBSD: GELI. On Mac: FileVault. On windows I guess I would use bitlocker though I rarely need it there. So basically I use the default encryption. When I need to move stuff from one computer to another I encrypt the files individually with GPG (using openPGP keys on smartcard or yubikey)
- sgjohnson 4y agoAll the default options. BitLocker on Windows, FileVault 2 on macOS and LUKS on Linux.
- neilv 4y agoAlways the first question is: what's your threat model? For personal stuff, I can't do much about sophisticated attackers, pretty much only about random physical thieves who mostly just want the hardware. Most likely scenario involving encryption: a laptop is lost/stolen, and some random thief/fence/buyer snoops around the drive to see if there's anything worth stealing. There isn't, but I'd feel violated to have some thief sifting through my personal stuff. So, on laptops, I just use Linux LUKS. On my custom Coreboot laptops, I have even the boot partition encrypted for LUKS, which seemed like a good idea at the time (I was peeved about Intel ME, and on a roll), but it's overkill for the random laptop thief threat. It also means I can't just move the drive to a system that doesn't have Coreboot with that feature set up. Also, in general, try not to deny yourself access to your own data when you need it, in the process of denying it to others.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- gigel82 4y agoI use Bitlocker on my laptop but haven't really looked into encrypting things on my desktops in a long time (I used BestCrypt back in college when I was living in a dorm and had my PC in a shared space). What is the attack surface you're trying to hedge against? Are you afraid of someone gaining physical access to the device and ripping out the hard drive?
- nytesky 4y agoI would trim down what you need encrypted and store it in a password manager (some even handle attachments). For individual files I would just use WinZip AES encryption which is very portable and atomic (so bit rot only impacts that single file no the fs).
- Krisjohn 4y agoI'm working on this at the moment. Currently I'm using Bitlocker on a virtual disk. I'm going to test using Keypass to unlock it soon (which in turn unlocks at the beginning of the session with a long passphrase, but unlocks after that with Windows Hello face recognition). I've identified some potentially sensitive data could be in session logs or screenshots, so I've set up the default location for my logging and screenshot apps to be in the Bitlocker virtual disk. In the case of logs, I was already syncing them between machines using Syncthing, so I'm now syncing between encrypted volumes. I'm not syncing the screenshots, but I am also implementing encyrpted backups, so I'll probably include the screenshots folders. Meanwhile, I've realised that my scanned receipts should also be encrypted, so I'll probably use a similar sync-between-encrypted-virtual-disks process with them. Unfortunately my first virtual disk is too small and I haven't yet checked how easy it will be to expand. I'm mostly Windows, so I only really have to solve for that. Fortunately, Keepass is cross-platform (even works on my Pine Phone, along with Syncthing - same for my Android tablet, but my iPhone is trickier), so if I want to expand this to my Linux or Mac laptops it's not hard. I was trying to solve saving authenticator seeds (which is something I regred not doing up to this point) securely outside of my main password manager. That was using an obscure archiver with a password protection option. This turned out to be way to clumsy to be practical. For small stuff like that, It's going in the password manager database for now.
- netheril96 4y agoI wasn’t satisfied with the options available, so I wrote my own: https://github.com/netheril96/securefs https://github.com/netheril96/securefs. It has authenticated encryption, highest quality of password stretching, and works on both Unix-like and Windows.
- zeagle 4y agoSeafile's library encryption on a VPS. Borg backup of local photos encrypted to said VPS.
- nvln 4y agoI don't use full disk encryption, but for individual files I use sops backed by gpg.
- johntash 4y agoBuilt-in full-disk-encryption for MacOS and Windows. Most of my linux servers would be a pain to have to unlock every time they boot, but I do use LUKS on ones with sensitive data. On my home nas, I'm still using GELI-encrypted zfs/zpools. I need to migrate it to a new zfs native encryption. All of my backups get encrypted by restic before being uploaded. For one-off files or things I want to share encrypted with someone, I'd use gpg.
- nuker 4y ago> Most of my linux servers would be a pain to have to unlock every time they boot Yes, state of Secure Boot with TPM (unlocks transparently) on *nix is awful.
- 1letterunixname 4y agoTrueCrypt died a developer burn-out death a long, long time ago. FreeBSD, Linux, macOS, Windows: VeraCrypt -> (whatever) FreeBSD: geli Linux: XFS -> LVM2 -> LUKSv2 (dm-crypt +? dm-integrity) -> dm-raid (RAID 10) -> (lots of spinning rust) macOS: FileVault 2 Windows: BitLocker
- gwnywg 4y agoI use dmcrypt with luks since ~2011. This was not common when I was starting to use this, but being part of Arch Linux community helps a lot. Especially back in the time everyone was eager to share opinions and how-to hints...
- dangerface 4y agoI use what ever full disk encryption software comes with the os. That might not be enough to prevent law enforcement but my main concern is some one stealing my laptop or needing to send it for repairs which both seem much more likely than law enforcement taking my stuff. I use keepassxc to keep all my sensitive information and syncthing to keep it synchronised between all my devices. Having it across all my devices is super handy and provides redundancy.