OS: CentOS 6.3 GUI

i use a shared centos box and i am trying to figure out how to create hidden mount point to keep my personal files. i am an administrator and i have full access.

earlier i had created 50 gb partition with ext4 file system on it. i used to mount file-system as and when needed and unmount it when i am done. its no problem in boxes with no X, but on boxes with GUI the mount point is clearly visible in "Places" menu eventhough it is not mounted, and since i am supposed to share my root password with fellow admins it is creating unnecessary problems.

is there any way i can do this?

Note: Its ok for me if someone figures it out through terminal, but not through GUI.

Disable the places menu from config file
mount the directory over some other existing directory with stupid content.

Do you mean the whole "Places" menu...? If that is what you meant, then i can't, because it contains bookmarks of frequently visited folders/mounts and also you cant access usb drive. not everybody is terminal expert.

unless what you meant is disable my mount point entry from "places" menu... i dont know how to do it. some lights on that will be appreciated.

Just use encrypted partitions, this way even if an administrator figures it out and tries to mount the partition he still needs a passphrase to do so. Security by obscurity never works anyways, so I wouldn't even try to hide the mountpoint.

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+1

The other option would be to use encrypted directories with ecryptfs etc

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just went through following links about encrypted partitions and tried in virtualbox.

Youtube - Linux Cryptosetup LUKS Tutorial
Create and configure LUKS-Encrypted partitions

looks promising. i always stayed away from encryption as i have heard that if you lose passphrase or usb with key there is NO WAY you can bring back the data. but i can afford that for my partition.

thanks TobiSGD & amani for ideas.

some confusion on luks-encryption
1. after every "cryptsetup luksClose "and "cryptsetup luksOpen" (umount and mount), a new name for device-mapper should be given. is it normal?
2. is it normal/best practice that encryption should be used on production servers? cause i've not encrypted any of my servers.

i would like to keep this post open for any new ideas pop in. hope its not an issue.

1. Yes, that is normal, luksClose and luksOpen are not really resembling the umount and mount commands, since you still have to do that afterwards, it is more like attaching a new device to the system and you have to choose its device descriptor.
2. Usually encryption is used for systems that can easily be stolen or get lost, like laptops or netbooks. On servers it does not really make sense, since they are usually running 24/7 and have the partitions mounted, so they have different attack vectors there.

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