Difference between revisions of "EncFS"
(Formatted a little, removed "personal stuff" and added a configuration note.) |
(gnome-encfs as alternative to automount) |
||
(7 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
Line 37: | Line 37: | ||
==User friendly mounting== | ==User friendly mounting== | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===Mount using gnome-encfs=== | ||
+ | |||
+ | gnome-encfs integrates EncFS folders into the GNOME desktop by storing their passwords in the keyring and optionally mounting them at login using GNOME's autostart mechanism. https://bitbucket.org/obensonne/gnome-encfs/ | ||
+ | |||
+ | This method has the advantage that (1) mounting and can automated and (2) the password does not have to be the same as your user password. | ||
===Mount using CryptKeeper trayicon=== | ===Mount using CryptKeeper trayicon=== | ||
Line 51: | Line 57: | ||
====Single password==== | ====Single password==== | ||
− | Note that if you will use same password (eg.: using try_first_pass or use_first_pass) for login and encfs (so encfs will mount during your login) then you should use [[SHA password hashes]] (Preferably SHA512 with some huge numer of rounds) and (which is most important) SECURE PASSWORD! because hash of your password is probably stored in unencrypted form in /etc/shadow and it can be cracked in order to get your encfs password (because it's same as your regular unix login password). | + | {{Warning|Note that if you will use same password (eg.: using try_first_pass or use_first_pass) for login and encfs (so encfs will mount during your login) then you should use [[SHA password hashes]] (Preferably SHA512 with some huge numer of rounds) and (which is most important) SECURE PASSWORD! because hash of your password is probably stored in unencrypted form in /etc/shadow and it can be cracked in order to get your encfs password (because it's same as your regular unix login password).}} |
====/etc/pam.d/==== | ====/etc/pam.d/==== | ||
Note that when you are using '''try_first_pass''' parameter to '''pam_unix.so''' then you will have to set EncFS to use same password as you are using to login (or vice-versa) and you will be entering just single password. Without this parameter you will need to enter two passwords. | Note that when you are using '''try_first_pass''' parameter to '''pam_unix.so''' then you will have to set EncFS to use same password as you are using to login (or vice-versa) and you will be entering just single password. Without this parameter you will need to enter two passwords. | ||
=====login===== | =====login===== | ||
− | This section tells how to make encfs | + | This section tells how to make encfs automount when you're logging in by virtual terminal. |
{{Note|If you only want to use it through GDM, you may pass this and go right to the [[EncFS#gdm|GDM section]] below.}} | {{Note|If you only want to use it through GDM, you may pass this and go right to the [[EncFS#gdm|GDM section]] below.}} | ||
<pre> | <pre> | ||
Line 86: | Line 92: | ||
</pre> | </pre> | ||
{{Warning|Note that automatic unmout will process even when there is another session. eg.: logout on VC can unmout encfs mounted by GDM session that is still active.}} | {{Warning|Note that automatic unmout will process even when there is another session. eg.: logout on VC can unmout encfs mounted by GDM session that is still active.}} | ||
+ | |||
=====gdm===== | =====gdm===== | ||
− | This section explains how to make encfs | + | This section explains how to make encfs automount when you're logging in by GDM. |
− | {{Note|For debug purposes you may try | + | {{Note|For debug purposes you may try automount on virtual console login first. [[EncFS#login|This article has a section about automount on virtual console login]].}} |
+ | |||
+ | Edit the file '''/etc/pam.d/gdm-password''' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Insert (do not overwrite) the following into the bottom of gdm-password: | ||
+ | |||
<pre> | <pre> | ||
#%PAM-1.0 | #%PAM-1.0 | ||
Line 103: | Line 115: | ||
session required pam_encfs.so | session required pam_encfs.so | ||
</pre> | </pre> | ||
− | ===== | + | |
− | + | ||
+ | Save and exit. | ||
+ | |||
+ | =====Configuration===== | ||
+ | Get '''pam_encfs''' from [[AUR]]: | ||
<pre> | <pre> | ||
− | + | yaourt -S pam_encfs | |
</pre> | </pre> | ||
− | + | ||
+ | Edit '''/etc/security/pam_encfs.conf''' : | ||
+ | |||
+ | Recommended: comment out the line | ||
+ | <pre> | ||
+ | encfs_default --idle=1 | ||
+ | </pre> | ||
+ | This flag will unmount your encrypted folder after 1 minute of inactivity. If you are automounting this on login, you probably would like to keep this mounted for as long as you are logged in. | ||
+ | |||
+ | At the bottom, comment any existing demo entries and add: | ||
+ | <pre> | ||
+ | #USERNAME SOURCE TARGET PATH ENCFS Options FUSE Options | ||
+ | foo /home/foo/EncryptedFolder /home/foo/DecryptedFolder -v allow_other | ||
+ | </pre> | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | Next, edit '''/etc/fuse.conf''' : | ||
+ | Uncomment: | ||
+ | <pre> | ||
+ | user_allow_other | ||
+ | </pre> | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | To test your config, open a new virtual terminal (Control+Alt+F2) and login. You should see pam successfuly mount your EncFS folder. | ||
===Mount at Gnome startup using gnome-encfs=== | ===Mount at Gnome startup using gnome-encfs=== |
Revision as of 17:23, 20 March 2013
Template:Article summary start Template:Article summary text Template:Article summary heading Template:Article summary wiki Template:Article summary end
EncFS is a userspace stackable cryptographic file-system similar to eCryptfs, and aims to secure data with the minimum hassle. It uses FUSE to mount an encrypted directory onto another directory specified by the user. It does not use a loopback system like some other comparable systems such as TrueCrypt and dm-crypt.
EncFS is definetely the simplest software if you want to try disk encryption on Linux.
This has a number of advantages and disadvantages compared to these systems. Firstly, it does not require any root privileges to implement; any user can create a repository of encrypted files. Secondly, one does not need to create a single file and create a file-system within that; it works on existing file-system without modifications.
This does create a few disadvantages, though; because the encrypted files are not stored in their own file, someone who obtains access to the system can still see the underlying directory structure, the number of files, their sizes and when they were modified. They cannot see the contents, however.
This particular method of securing data is obviously not perfect, but there are situations in which it is useful.
For more details on how EncFS compares to other disk encryption solution, see Disk Encryption#Comparison table.
Contents
Comparison to eCryptFS
eCryptFS is implemented in kernelspace and therefore little bit harder to configure. You have to remember various encryption options (used cyphers, key type, etc...), in EncFS this is not the case, because EncFS is storing these informations in it's signature so you do not have to remember anything (except the passphrase :-). But it's authors claims that eCryptFS is faster because there is no overhead caused by context switching (between kernel and userspace).
Installation
Install the encfs package using pacman:
# pacman -S encfs
Usage
To create a secured repository, type:
$ encfs ~/.DIRNAME ~/DIRNAME
This will be followed by a prompt about whether you want to go with the default (paranoid options) or expert configuration. The latter allows specifying algorithms and other options. The former is a fairly secure default setup. After entering a key for the encryption, the encoded file-system will be created and mounted. The encoded files are stored, in this example, at ~/.DIRNAME
, and their unencrypted versions in ~/DIRNAME
.
To unmount the file-system, type:
$ fusermount -u ~/DIRNAME
To remount the file-system, issue the first command, and enter the key used to encode it. Once this has been entered, the file-system will be mounted again.
User friendly mounting
Mount using gnome-encfs
gnome-encfs integrates EncFS folders into the GNOME desktop by storing their passwords in the keyring and optionally mounting them at login using GNOME's autostart mechanism. https://bitbucket.org/obensonne/gnome-encfs/
This method has the advantage that (1) mounting and can automated and (2) the password does not have to be the same as your user password.
Mount using CryptKeeper trayicon
Quite simple app, just install from AUR and add to your X session:
Mount at login using pam_encfs
Pam module
- https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=2759
- http://pam-encfs.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/README
- http://pam-encfs.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/pam_encfs.conf
- https://wiki.edubuntu.org/EncryptedHomeFolder
- http://code.google.com/p/pam-encfs/
Single password
/etc/pam.d/
Note that when you are using try_first_pass parameter to pam_unix.so then you will have to set EncFS to use same password as you are using to login (or vice-versa) and you will be entering just single password. Without this parameter you will need to enter two passwords.
login
This section tells how to make encfs automount when you're logging in by virtual terminal.
#%PAM-1.0 auth required pam_securetty.so auth requisite pam_nologin.so auth sufficient pam_encfs.so auth required pam_unix.so nullok try_first_pass #auth required pam_unix.so nullok auth required pam_tally.so onerr=succeed file=/var/log/faillog # use this to lockout accounts for 10 minutes after 3 failed attempts #auth required pam_tally.so deny=2 unlock_time=600 onerr=succeed file=/var/log/faillog account required pam_access.so account required pam_time.so account required pam_unix.so #password required pam_cracklib.so difok=2 minlen=8 dcredit=2 ocredit=2 retry=3 #password required pam_unix.so md5 shadow use_authtok session required pam_unix.so session required pam_env.so session required pam_motd.so session required pam_limits.so session optional pam_mail.so dir=/var/spool/mail standard session optional pam_lastlog.so session optional pam_loginuid.so -session optional pam_ck_connector.so nox11 #Automatic unmount (optional): #session required pam_encfs.so
gdm
This section explains how to make encfs automount when you're logging in by GDM.
Edit the file /etc/pam.d/gdm-password
Insert (do not overwrite) the following into the bottom of gdm-password:
#%PAM-1.0 auth requisite pam_nologin.so auth required pam_env.so auth sufficient pam_encfs.so auth required pam_unix.so try_first_pass auth optional pam_gnome_keyring.so account required pam_unix.so session required pam_limits.so session required pam_unix.so session optional pam_gnome_keyring.so auto_start password required pam_unix.so session required pam_encfs.so
Save and exit.
Configuration
Get pam_encfs from AUR:
yaourt -S pam_encfs
Edit /etc/security/pam_encfs.conf :
Recommended: comment out the line
encfs_default --idle=1
This flag will unmount your encrypted folder after 1 minute of inactivity. If you are automounting this on login, you probably would like to keep this mounted for as long as you are logged in.
At the bottom, comment any existing demo entries and add:
#USERNAME SOURCE TARGET PATH ENCFS Options FUSE Options foo /home/foo/EncryptedFolder /home/foo/DecryptedFolder -v allow_other
Next, edit /etc/fuse.conf :
Uncomment:
user_allow_other
To test your config, open a new virtual terminal (Control+Alt+F2) and login. You should see pam successfuly mount your EncFS folder.
Mount at Gnome startup using gnome-encfs
Mount when USB drive with EncFS folders is inserted using fsniper
Simple method to automount (asking for password) encfs when USB drive with EncFS one or more folders in root is inserted. We will use fsniper (filesystem watching daemon using inotify) and git (for askpass binary).
- https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=16677
- https://github.com/Harvie/Programs/tree/master/bash/encfs/automount (latest version of files used in following HOWTO)
HOWTO
- (you need USB automount working for this - like thunar or nautilus does)
- make encrypted folder on your drive, eg.: encfs /media/USB/somename /media/USB/somename.plain (and then unmount everything)
- install fsniper and git from aur
- configure fsniper:
# ~/.config/fsniper/config # You can get fsniper at http://code.l3ib.org/?p=fsniper.git watch { /etc/ { mtab { # %% is replaced with the filename of the new file handler = encfs-automount.sh %%; } } }
- install helper script:
#!/bin/sh # ~/.config/fsniper/scripts/encfs-automount.sh # Quick & dirty script for automounting EncFS USB drives # TODO: # - Unmounting!!! # ASKPASS="/usr/lib/git-core/git-gui--askpass" lock=/tmp/fsniper_encfs.lock lpid=$(cat "$lock" 2>/dev/null) && ps "$lpid" | grep "$lpid" >/dev/null && { echo "Another instance of fsniper_encfs is running" exit; } echo $BASHPID > "$lock"; sleep 2; echo echo ==== EncFS automount script for fsniper ==== list_mounts() { cat /proc/mounts | cut -d ' ' -f 2 } list_mounts | while read mount; do config="$mount"'/*/.encfs*'; echo Looking for "$config" config="$(echo $config)" [ -r "$config" ] && { cyphertext="$(dirname "$config")"; plaintext="$cyphertext".plain echo Found config: "$config"; echo Trying to mount: "$cyphertext to $plaintext"; list_mounts | grep "$plaintext" >/dev/null && { echo Already mounted: "$plaintext" } || { echo WOOHOO Will mount "$cyphertext to $plaintext" "$ASKPASS" "EncFS $cyphertext to $plaintext" | encfs --stdinpass "$cyphertext" "$plaintext" } } done echo rm "$lock" 2>/dev/null
- Make sure that /usr/lib/git-core/git-gui--askpass is working for you (that's why you need git package - but you can adjust the helper script)
- try fsniper --log-to-stdout in terminal (askpass should appear when USB drive is inserted)
- add fsniper --daemon to your session
- do not forget to unmount encfs before removing drive