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Ask Slashdot: Tools For Linux Disk Encryption and Integrity?

An anonymous reader writes "I have been using Gentoo Linux for a long time now and have always been satisfied with one of its many disk encryption tools: cryptsetup (dm-crypt and LUKS). However, I recently gave FreeBSD a try and, although I concluded BSD is not for me, I was amazed at geli(8), FreeBSD's disk encryption tool. It happens this tool also provides what it calls an 'authentication mode.' Besides encrypting the disk sector-by-sector, it also stores checksums (sha256 in my case) in it on every write. On reads, if the checksum mismatchs, it propagates the error up, resulting in, say, a read() error. Thus I do not have to trust my disk (except of course for the boot partition) any longer: any data inconsistency will be detected before the data is used. Having searched for a long time without answers, I want to ask: is there something similar to this in Linux? Note: Using Btrfs is a valid solution, but is far from stable (got a few oopses during my tests)."

4 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Yep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can use IMA (2.6.30 and later) and EVM (2.6.38 and later). :)

  2. Re:Just trolling by Verteiron · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... and I just finished compiling Firefox so I could submit this story to Slashdot!

    *crickets* .. gee, tough crowd.

    --
    End of lesson. You may press the button.
  3. Re:Just trolling by Wingman+5 · · Score: 5, Funny
    My personal favorite gentoo quote:

    <@insomni> it only takes three commands to install Gentoo
    <@insomnia> cfdisk /dev/hda && mkfs.xfs /dev/hda1 && mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/gentoo/ && chroot /mnt/gentoo/ && env-update && . /etc/profile && emerge sync && cd /usr/portage && scripts/bootsrap.sh && emerge system && emerge vim && vi /etc/fstab && emerge gentoo-dev-sources && cd /usr/src/linux && make menuconfig && make install modules_install && emerge gnome mozilla-firefox openoffice && emerge grub && cp /boot/grub/grub.conf.sample /boot/grub/grub.conf && vi /boot/grub/grub.conf && grub && init 6
    <@insomnia> that's the first one

  4. Re:TrueCrypt by johnslater · · Score: 5, Funny

    For pr0n you should definitely use blowfish, along with analfish