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Encrypted Volumes for Linux and Windows?
share_it asks: "On my Win PC I used a lot of encryption: I had encrypted small files for personal stuff, encrypted virtual disks for programs, music, video, etc. I used PGPdisk and mounted 3 big virtual disks (for a total of 170 gigs) on startup with just one single passphrase and those 'disks' were even quite fast. I have now switched to GNU-Linux for most of my interests, but sometimes I have to use Windows and I want my data to be encrypted and accessible from both OSes The only software that I found which can mount the same encrypted disk on both platforms is BestCript, but from Linux I can't store file with long names. Is there a better way to share encrypted data between when I dual-boot?"
Although Rop has moved on to other projects, Secure Notebook was a pretty good idea. The software may still be useful (documentation here, check the page for file signatures.)
IIRC, this was a secure-ified Debian with encrypted swap, encrypted partitions, running VMWare which ran Win2K as a guest o/s. The idea was to run Windows while treating it as a small child that keeps burning itself on the stove. Everything was filtered thru the Linux host o/s, including network and hardware access.
Also, I believe the encryption key was provided in two parts: a dongle containing part of the key, and then also a key requested of the user during boot.
Worth a look.
Big Daddy, Johnny, Burp, Aunt Zelda, Scott, Slurp, Big Momma
I have been using BestCrypt for several years and it's great. Unfortunately it's the only solid product available on Linux and Windows that I know of.
Why can't you store long filenames on Linux? BestCrypt just provides a block device on which you can use any filesystem. FAT32/VFAT is fine for Linux-Windows work. I've formatted a Bestcrypt volume with fat, vfat, iso9660, ext2, ext3, reiserfs, all without any problem.
Another alternative is to use VMware and then use ext3 on Bestcrypt and serve Windows needs with Samba.