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Windows Home Directory Encryption?
An anonymous reader writes "Home directory encryption has been available on Linux for a while now, and it is definitely a smart, useful feature as it is not usually necessary to encrypt the entire drive, just the private documents and software profiles in the home directory. Windows is getting better about keeping everything that needs to be private in the user's home folder. Is there a similar solution for Windows to securely, and preferably transparently, encrypt the home directory only? (Preferably open source so that the code is available for peer review)."
and do those companies and/or governments choose to implement it?
(1) Right Click the directory (2) Left Click Properties (3) Left Click "Advanced" near the bottom (4) Check with you Left Moust button "Encrypt contents to secure data" (5) Left Click OK, wait until it finishes
What's next? Are you going to suggest using NTBackup to back files up? Netmeeting to do an H323 conference with the office? Use 'windows' degragmenter? Remote Desktop instead of VnC? Crazy talk I say!
BBH
I think there are two major/popular ways to do what you want that I'm familiar with. There are of course other options, but I've not used them, and won't comment on them.
1. TrueCrypt
This is a simple but very powerful encryption utility that is also open-source. It performs its magic by either encrypting volumes or by using encrypted file containers (a file which contains encrypted data that can be mounted as a virtual drive). The file container approach is very easy to use but you won't be able to use it to encrypt your _entire_ home directory, only elements of it. Effectively, you'd create one or more encrypted file containers and store everything sensitive in them. You could use full volume encryption by storing your entire user profile on a seperate volume, but this is obviously more difficult to setup, depending on your OS. To do something like the latter properly in something like Vista, you'd probably need to do it at install time through an unattend and state which drive the Users directory should be located on, as changing this once installed is not simple and ill-advised.
2. NTFS EFS (Encrypting File System)
Included with all "professional" (ie. not Home/Starter/etc..) editions of Windows since Windows 2000. Enables file-system level encryption tied into NTFS to encrypt individual files/folders on any NTFS device. This has some significant pros, in that not only is it included as a stock component of the OS, but is extremely easy to setup. Just right click on the folder/file you want to encrypt and do so through the Advanced properties. However, getting into the guts of EFS and fiddling with encryption certificates, ciphers, etc... requires some additional skill and research as there is no simple unified front-end to managing EFS like there is for TrueCrypt.
It's important to note that these two encryption suites are very different in how they work. Whereas TC stores data in file containers (unless you encrypt the entire volume), EFS works at the filesystem level and is completely transparent to userland, enabling transparent encryption of anything on the NTFS volume that is user-related. Note that EFS binds to user accounts. You generally can't use EFS to encrypt data that is outside the scope of a user account (such as system files). You'll need full volume encryption technology for that.Microsoft also has BitLocker for full-volume encryption, but this is Vista only, and for home setups, needlessly complicated and difficult to setup, not to mention the TPM requirements for full functionality.
Other things to note would be the importance of portability. TrueCrypt works across Windows/Unix, whereas EFS is obviously specific to Microsoft. I'm not sure if there's an OSS implementation for reading EFS encrypted data under Unixes, but even if there was, I think you'd be mad to use it. You shouldn't be using EFS if portability between OS's is a concern. Also note that whereas TC will have a seperate password, EFS will use your account password for encrypting your user data. This means that if you lose/forget your account password, you _WILL_ lose your EFS encrypted data, unless you've set up things like recovery certificates. Further, if you use a password reset tool to reset your account password outside of your user account, you _WILL_ lose all your EFS encrypted data. Your account password is the key to your EFS data, and so losing it or changing it improperly can have very nasty consequences.
I can't really recommend either method, you really need to research and have a play with both to decide which you prefer. I will say that if you are going the full-volume encryption route, I'd highly recommend TrueCrypt over BitLocker for home setups. The general trend I've observed from using both is that they both are very powerful tools, and can both easily get the job done when setup properly. However, TrueCrypt is more geared towards home/smaller setups, while EFS/BitLocker can work on anything from an individual box to a centrally managed enterprise network. T
In Windows they call home directories 'user profiles'. Commonly (in a windows domain environment), they live on a server, and automatically get copied to whatever workstation you log into.
Folders in there could be encrypted, however, certain folders in your profile are loaded by the system, and you may be unable to login if they get encrypted.
If you use EFS, your certificates and private keys for actually decrypting/encrypting files, are stored in your profile too.
Downside of EFS: your home directory decryption is linked to your login password, and a digital certificate.
If someone alters your password not through the normal password change process (i.e. an Administrator uses 'reset password'), you lose access to your private keys, and thus your encrypted files.
Because the cert and keys in the keystore are required, if you backup encrypted files to a USB thumbdrive using NTFS, you can't read them on another computer, even if you know the login password you were using when you encrypted them.
*It's too dumb to realize you only want it encrypted while it's in that folder.
Author said he wanted only the home directory (I'm assuming you mean %USERPROFILE%) encrypted. While TrueCrypt can natively encrypt the entire drive, there is an addon available to perform only encryption on your "Documents and Settings\Username" folder. The enhancement is available at http://tcgina.t35.com/ Of course, truecrypt is available at www.truecrypt.org Even though I use truecrypt for the entire drive, I separately use TCGINA so that I can have a portable encrypted container of just my user profile, so that I have a compact way to transport my documents, program settings, etc.