Resurrecting a GELI volume

[Pawel Jakub Dawidek]

On Sun, Dec 03, 2006 at 08:22:03PM +0000, Alex Bramley wrote:
> On 12/3/06, Pawel Jakub Dawidek <pjd at freebsd.org> wrote:
> >On Sun, Dec 03, 2006 at 07:32:29PM +0000, Alex Bramley wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> First, please CC me in any replies to the list, as I am (temporarily)
> >> off list due to moving jobs.
> >>
> >> I accidentally overwrote the metadata of a GELI volume by using geli
> >> init on the wrong device node (never try to do sysadmin tasks when
> >> hungover). I have the correct key and passphrase, and I would like to
> >> know whether it is possible to regain access to my lost data. I have
> >> already tried running init again on the volume with the correct key
> >> and passphrase, but (somewhat unsurprisingly) to no avail. Any
> >> assistance would be much appreciated.
> >
> >Passphrase is only used to encrypt the master key, which is stored in
> >metadata. That means you overwrote the master key and I'm afraid your
> >data is lost if you haven't backed the master key up before (with 'geli
> >backup').
> 
> I don't suppose you could put some kind of check in to make this kind
> of slip more difficult to achieve in future? I can't see many times
> where you'd want to re-init an already encrypted volume. Hopefully it
> won't be too difficult to taste the volume for already existing
> metadata and ask for confirmation if it exists...

Good idea. I'll add the check and '-f' flag for the 'init' subcommand to
skip the check.

-- 
Pawel Jakub Dawidek                       http://www.wheel.pl
pjd at FreeBSD.org                           http://www.FreeBSD.org
FreeBSD committer                         Am I Evil? Yes, I Am!
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