Encrypted filesystems

Peter B pb at ludd.luth.se
Thu Jun 26 07:51:40 PDT 2003


I have searched for encrypted filesystems for un*x. Is there any better
encrypted filesystems than the ones I have found for *bsd (+freebsd)..?

Note that some comments are based on what others have said. I think it's 
important to keep in mind the different approches used, per-file vs disc-block
aswell.

I'm looking for something convinient to enrypt cdrom's. Which will also suit
dvd-r media. It should preferable be portable and not require specific kernel
hacks. To ensure feature stability & availability. 
The encrypted filesystems arena looks like a collection of software rather than
a unified solution across platforms.

Which operating systems manage to effectivly to use encrypted swap..?
Openbsd seems to handle it nativly, while freebsd could possible use
vncrypt in conjuction with swapon, or cfsd with swapon-file. Netbsd might use
cgd?

==== Interesting encrypted filesystem projects ====

  The following is directly usable on freebsd:
    cfs		2 GB limit (nfsv2), easy portable
    vncrypt	Unstable? (and needs kernel module)
    geom(4)	Modular disk I/O request transformation framework

  The following seems usable althought might require some work:
    loop-aes    Only ported to linux so far
      http://sourceforge.net/projects/loop-aes/

    cryptfs	Port for freebsd available  (btw, check out FiST!)
      http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~ezk/research/cryptfs/index.html
      http://ftp.vit.edu.tw/pc/programming/hacktic/disk/

    BestCrypt	Source avail, 30day trial period.
      http://www.jetico.com/

  Available, BUT not directly applicable:
    PPDD	Linux specific, needs 100MHz+ pentium
    pgpdisk	M$/win+Mac binary only

    http://mail.lab.net/lists/archive/cryptography-exploder/2003-February.txt
      PGPdisk + Linux ..?
      Janis Jagars, handle Disastry

    tcfs	Alias cfs?  (available for Linux,Netbsd,Openbsd)
      http://www.tcfs.it/

    ncryptfs   Follow up from cryptfs, not publicly released yet.
      http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~ezk/research/ncryptfs/ncryptfs.html#sec:eval-feature



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