Resurrecting a GELI volume

[Alex Bramley]

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...

Many Thanks,
Alex