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Old 05-27-2009, 06:35 PM   #1
gargamel
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Encrypt 2nd drive without 2nd boot time passphrase: How?


Sorry, if this has been asked and answered elsewhere, already, but my research using the LQ search and a web search engine has not delivered the clear response I need.

How do I encrypt the second (non-system) disk, when I don't like being asked for two passphrases at boot time?


Background
I have a computer with two different hard disks, HD1 and HD2.
HD1 is the LUKS encrypted system drive, with /, /boot, /home and swap set up as logical volumes.
HD2 is currently empty (JFS formatted, ie).
I would like to encrypt this drive, too, and put it under LVM control.

Thanks!

gargamel
 
Old 05-27-2009, 08:06 PM   #2
rayfordj
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consult man cryptsetup and man crypttab. /etc/crypttab should do what i think you are after if distro-supported.

Code:
mkdir /etc/cryptkeys
chmod 0600 /etc/cryptkeys
dd if=/dev/random of=/etc/cryptkeys/HD2.key bs=512 count=1024
  /dev/urandom may be used if short on entropy
chmod 0400 /etc/cryptkeys/HD2.key
cryptsetup luksAddKey /dev/HD2 /etc/cryptkeys/HD2.key
then in /etc/crypttab:
Code:
luksHD2     /dev/HD2     /etc/cryptkeys/HD2.key
adapt to suit and try it out

 
Old 05-28-2009, 11:39 AM   #3
gargamel
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Thanks!
One question (I don't seem to have a man page for cryttab on my system):
What real or mapped device name does HD2 translate to?

(My 2nd HD is /dev/hdb, first one is /dev/hda).

Thanks again

gargamel
 
Old 05-28-2009, 05:09 PM   #4
rayfordj
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i used HD2 since that is how you identified it.
using hdb as device it could look something like this in crypttab:
Code:
luks_arbitrary_name     /dev/hdb1     /etc/cryptkeys/HD2.key
What is your distro-version-release? If you are already using LUKS then I'm sure there may be a facility to do this even if not through the use of crypttab...
 
Old 05-28-2009, 05:21 PM   #5
gargamel
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Thansks again. I am on Slackware 12.2, here, installed all on /dev/hda using LVM and LUKS.

/dev/hda is the "system disc": /boot, /, /home and swap are all on this disc. With the exception of /boot, /dev/hda is LUKS encrypted.

/dev/hdb is going to be a "data disc". A method to encrypt it, so that it is automatically decrypted after entering the passphrase for /dev/hda2 (root), without having to use crypttab would be great!

Do you have an idea?

gargamel
 
Old 05-28-2009, 06:30 PM   #6
GazL
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I have a 2 disk lvm setup on slackware exactly as you describe.
The disks are split into 2 volume groups: sysvg and datavg. The PV for sysvg is unlocked manually by entering the password. The PV for datavg is unlocked by using a keyfile and crypttab exactly as rayfordj has described above.

The manual page for crypttab is indeed missing in slackware 12.2 but if you google for it you'll find it without too much trouble and despite the missing man-page, crypttab is supported during slackware startup so you can still use it as described.

However, if you're planning to encrypt at the lvm PV rather than the LV level then you'll need to patch rc.S as the startup scripts in slackware aren't setup to cope with more than one encrypted lvm PV.

If you don't want to use the patch, then you'll have to encrypt the LVs rather than PVs which will avoid the problem.

Here's the patch I wrote to resolve the issue (submitted to Pat a week or two before 12.2 came out):

Code:
#  rc.S  Patch to support multiple encrypted lvm Physical Volumes.
#        for Slackware 12.1 & Slackware-current(12.2 pre-release)
#
#
#  Why:
#    The LVM Physical Volume that contains the root filesystem is 
#    unlocked as part of the initrd processing, however, any additional
#    luks encrypted partitions are unlocked during crypttab processing 
#    which occurs in rc.S *after* LVM initialisation. The outcome of this
#    is that LVM does not detect the Physical Volumes stored on these
#    luks encrypted partitions and the Volume Groups and Logical Volumes
#    contained within them remain unavailable. The end result will be
#    missing /dev entries and failure to mount filesystems during 
#    /etc/fstab processing later in the boot sequence.
#
#  What:
#    Re-order crypttab processing to run prior to LVM initialisation so
#    that all encrypted partitions will have been opened and all PVs will
#    be available before the attempt to initialise LVM.
#    
#    As it's also possible to encounter encrypted LVM Logical Volumes within
#    the Volume Groups, a second run of crypttab processing is necessary
#    after LVM initialisation to process any encrypted Logical Volumes made 
#    available during LVM initialisation.
#   
#    Logic has been added to prevent an attempt to process the same entity
#    twice.
#   
#     NOTE:  This will not address the issue of not being able to have
#            more than 1 encrypted Phyical Volume in the Volume Group
#            containing the root filesystem. This limitation still applies
#            as it is an issue within the initrd processing.
#
#
#  Apply with
#    cd /etc/rc.d
#    patch < rc.S_lvm.diff
#
--- rc.S	2008-03-08 08:01:58.000000000 +0000
+++ rc.S	2008-09-05 17:36:13.297702055 +0100
@@ -37,27 +37,6 @@
   fi
 fi
 
-# Initialize the Logical Volume Manager.
-# This won't start unless we find /etc/lvmtab (LVM1) or
-# /etc/lvm/backup/ (LVM2).  This is created by /sbin/vgscan, so to
-# use LVM you must run /sbin/vgscan yourself the first time (and
-# create some VGs and LVs).
-if [ -r /etc/lvmtab -o -d /etc/lvm/backup ]; then
-  echo "Initializing LVM (Logical Volume Manager):"
-  # Check for device-mapper support.
-  if ! grep -wq device-mapper /proc/devices ; then
-    # Try to load a device-mapper kernel module:
-    /sbin/modprobe -q dm-mod
-  fi
-  # Scan for new volume groups:
-  /sbin/vgscan --mknodes --ignorelockingfailure 2> /dev/null
-  if [ $? = 0 ]; then
-    # Make volume groups available to the kernel.
-    # This should also make logical volumes available.
-    /sbin/vgchange -ay --ignorelockingfailure
-  fi
-fi
-
 # Open any volumes created by cryptsetup:
 if [ -f /etc/crypttab -a -x /sbin/cryptsetup.static ]; then
   # First, check for device-mapper support.
@@ -75,6 +54,9 @@
     LUKSOPTS=""
     if echo $OPTS | grep -wq ro ; then LUKSOPTS="${LUKSOPTS} --readonly" ; fi
 
+    # Skip LUKS volumes for which the device file is not currently avaiable.
+    # (It might become available during lvm processing later)
+    [ ! -e $DEV ] && continue
     # Skip LUKS volumes that were already unlocked (in the initrd):
     /sbin/cryptsetup.static status $LUKS 1>/dev/null 2>/dev/null && continue
     if /sbin/cryptsetup.static isLuks $DEV 2>/dev/null ; then
@@ -102,6 +84,65 @@
   done
 fi
 
+# Initialize the Logical Volume Manager.
+# This won't start unless we find /etc/lvmtab (LVM1) or
+# /etc/lvm/backup/ (LVM2).  This is created by /sbin/vgscan, so to
+# use LVM you must run /sbin/vgscan yourself the first time (and
+# create some VGs and LVs).
+if [ -r /etc/lvmtab -o -d /etc/lvm/backup ]; then
+  echo "Initializing LVM (Logical Volume Manager):"
+  # Check for device-mapper support.
+  if ! grep -wq device-mapper /proc/devices ; then
+    # Try to load a device-mapper kernel module:
+    /sbin/modprobe -q dm-mod
+  fi
+  # Scan for new volume groups:
+  /sbin/vgscan --mknodes --ignorelockingfailure 2> /dev/null
+  if [ $? = 0 ]; then
+    # Make volume groups available to the kernel.
+    # This should also make logical volumes available.
+    /sbin/vgchange -ay --ignorelockingfailure
+    # Re-run cryptsetup to process any newly available logical volumes if necessary:
+    if [ -f /etc/crypttab -a -x /sbin/cryptsetup.static ]; then
+      # NOTE: we only support LUKS formatted volumes (except for swap)!
+      cat /etc/crypttab | grep -v "^#" | grep -v "^$" | while read line; do
+        LUKS=$(echo $line | tr '\t' ' ' | tr -s ' ' | cut -f1 -d' ')
+        DEV=$(echo $line | tr '\t' ' ' | tr -s ' ' | cut -f2 -d' ')
+        PASS=$(echo $line | tr '\t' ' ' | tr -s ' ' | cut -f3 -d' ')
+        OPTS=$(echo $line | tr '\t' ' ' | tr -s ' ' | cut -f4 -d' ')
+        LUKSOPTS=""
+        if echo $OPTS | grep -wq ro ; then LUKSOPTS="${LUKSOPTS} --readonly" ; fi
+
+        # Skip LUKS volumes that were already unlocked (in the initrd or previous cryptsetup pass):
+        /sbin/cryptsetup.static status $LUKS 1>/dev/null 2>/dev/null && continue
+        if /sbin/cryptsetup.static isLuks $DEV 2>/dev/null ; then
+          echo "Unlocking LUKS crypt volume '${LUKS}' on device '$DEV':"
+          if [ -n "${PASS}" ]; then
+            if [ -f ${PASS} ]; then
+              /sbin/cryptsetup.static ${LUKSOPTS} --key-file=${PASS} luksOpen $DEV $LUKS
+            elif [ "${PASS}" != "none" ]; then
+              # A password field of 'none' indicates a line for swap:
+              echo "${PASS}" | /sbin/cryptsetup.static ${LUKSOPTS} luksOpen $DEV $LUKS
+            fi
+          else
+            for i in seq 1 3 ; do
+              /sbin/cryptsetup.static ${LUKSOPTS} luksOpen $DEV $LUKS </dev/tty0 >/dev/tty0 2>&1
+              [ $? -eq 0 ] && break
+            done
+          fi
+        elif echo $OPTS | grep -wq swap ; then
+          # If any of the volumes is to be used as encrypted swap,
+          # then encrypt it using a random key and run mkswap:
+          echo "Creating encrypted swap on device '$DEV' mapped to '${LUKS}':"
+          /sbin/cryptsetup.static --cipher=aes --key-file=/dev/urandom --key-size=256 create $LUKS $DEV
+          mkswap /dev/mapper/$LUKS
+        fi
+      done
+    fi
+  fi
+fi
+
+
 # Enable swapping:
 /sbin/swapon -a
Hope that helps.
 
Old 05-30-2009, 02:18 AM   #7
gargamel
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Thanks! I'll try this, then.

But I have two more question for better understanding.
With LVM it should in principal be possible to combine
multiple hard discs to one logical volume, that can be
managed as one big partition, then.
Now, with LUKS and dm-crypt I can encrypt this logical
volume. What would happen, if one of the discs crashes?
Would I have a chance to access the data on the other discs?
My current understanding is, that the failure of one of
the discs is likely to cause the loss of the data on all
discs or partitions of the logical volume. Is this correct?
Probably this would even be the case, if the volume was
not encrypted.

My 2nd question is: If I encrypt a physical volume that is
not on the system disk (here I mean hard disc) using the
crypttab method, and want to move the data disk to another
computer, can I unlock it there, by just copying over the
crypttab and key files?
My current understanding is, that this should be possible,
as LUKS can to my knowledge be used for portable drives,
such as external USB harddiscs.

BTW: What's the correct spelling (English is not my native
language):
Hard disc
Hard disk
Harddisc
Harddisk


Thanks again!

gargamel
 
Old 05-30-2009, 03:59 AM   #8
gargamel
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GazL View Post
I have a 2 disk lvm setup on slackware exactly as you describe.
The disks are split into 2 volume groups: sysvg and datavg. The PV for sysvg is unlocked manually by entering the password. The PV for datavg is unlocked by using a keyfile and crypttab exactly as rayfordj has described above.

The manual page for crypttab is indeed missing in slackware 12.2 but if you google for it you'll find it without too much trouble and despite the missing man-page, crypttab is supported during slackware startup so you can still use it as described.

However, if you're planning to encrypt at the lvm PV rather than the LV level then you'll need to patch rc.S as the startup scripts in slackware aren't setup to cope with more than one encrypted lvm PV.

If you don't want to use the patch, then you'll have to encrypt the LVs rather than PVs which will avoid the problem.

Here's the patch I wrote to resolve the issue (submitted to Pat a week or two before 12.2 came out):

[...]

Hope that helps.
Thanks a lot, it certainly DOES help!
Only, whenever I learned something about all this (LVM, LUKS etc.), new questions arise.

If I read the README_CRYP.TXT correctly, it describes LVM PV level encryption. If I would prefer not to use the patch (e. g. because I don't like to touch the init scripts, as this might cause conflicts in case of 'official' patches that might appear) and wanted to encrypt at LV level: How would I go about this?

Assumption:
Code:
# pvcreate /dev/mapper/dataluks
# vgcreate datavg /dev/mapper/dataluks
# lvcreate -L 5G -n data datavg
# vgscan --mknodes   (is this needed?)
# vgchange -ay   (is this needed?)
# mkdir /etc/cryptkeys
# chmod 0600 /etc/cryptkeys
# dd if=/dev/random of=/etc/cryptkeys/lvdata.key bs=512 count=1024
# chmod 0400 /etc/cryptkeys/lvdata.key
# cryptsetup luksAddKey /dev/datavg/data /etc/cryptkeys/lvdata.key
And in /etc/crypttab:
Code:
dataluks     /dev/datavg/data     /etc/cryptkeys/lvdata.key
Correct?
But where do I associate the physical device with the mapped device, i. e. /dev/sdb1 with /dev/mapper/dataluks?

Thanks a lot again!

gargamel

Last edited by gargamel; 05-30-2009 at 04:03 AM.
 
Old 05-30-2009, 06:32 AM   #9
GazL
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Q1 If you have two physical disks, each formatted as an lvm pv and you add them both to the same volume group then if one fails then with manual intervention you should be able to recover any logical volumes which remain on the unaffected disk, however any LVs that were on the bad disk and any LVs that spread across both disks will be destroyed in the process. This is true whether the LVs are encrypted or not.

LVM recovery can be a little involved, which is why many people don't recommend its use, especially for those who don't fully understand it's concepts and how to manage it properly.


Q2. To use a luks encrypted device on another machine, all you need is a way to unlock it. It's crypttab entry and keyfile should be enough. Personally, what I always do is give the luks device both a key and a manual passphrase (make it a good strong one). That way if you lose the key, you can still unlock it with the passphrase. A luks device can have upto 10 keys/passphrases if memory serves me correctly.


As for the correct spelling, I believe it's 'Hard Disk'. The correct British english spelling of 'disk' is 'disc', but much of computing technology has an american origin therefore 'disk' has become the one everyone uses, even for those of us who know how to spell colour correctly.

The correct spelling 'disc' still remains in places, such as optical media like "Compact Disc", probably because it was invented by a european company (with a little help from a japanese one) so no americanization that time.


Now, onto your second post.

I'm afraid you've got it a bit messed up. If you're going to encrypt an LV what you're actually doing is encrypting a filesystem, which just happens to be on an LV and not a real partition. The LV itself is unencrypted (It's what's on it that's encrypted). You set it up just as you would a normal(non-lvm) luks encrypted filesystem except that instead of the partition name, you use the LV name. You don't pvcreate or even lvcreate on the luks device in this case, you use a normal unencrypted lvm setup.

Think of it as layers on layers like this:

hda2 (Partition) <--> hda2 (PV) <--> datavg (VG) <--> /dev/datavg/data (LV) <--> /dev/mapper/luksdata (LUKSdev) <--> /data (filesystem)

Now contrast that to PV encryption:

hda2 (Partition) <--> /dev/mapper/pvhda2 (LUKSdev) <--> /dev/mapper/pvhda2 (PV) <--> datavg (VG) <--> /dev/datavg/data (LV) <--> /data (filesystem)

The red shows which objects can be considered encrypted in each case.


I've tried to explain the concepts rather than just tell you how to do it, as you really need to understand this stuff well if you're going to use it safely.

Last edited by GazL; 05-30-2009 at 06:34 AM.
 
Old 05-30-2009, 07:53 AM   #10
rayfordj
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gargamel,
GazL is absolutely accurate with his information as I understand the technologies being explained.

GazL,
Well said. Honestly, I'm not certain I would have been able to articulate it as well as you did. I'm still working on being able to clearly articulate and express opinions and ideas, so thoroughly enjoy reading posts such as yours. Thanks! On another note, we'll just have to agree to disagree on the spelling of color
 
Old 05-30-2009, 08:45 AM   #11
gargamel
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Thanks again for your patience, your advice is much appreciated!
In fact I am trying to get a better understanding of these things and their interdependencies, and of the way the device mapper works and can be used. Your explanation really brought me more than one step forward, here!

However, I don't have it working, still. My system boots properly, but /data is not opened and/or mounted.

I have one primary partition on /dev/hdb. I did:

Code:
# pvcreate /dev/hdb1
# vgcreate datavg /dev/mapper/dataluks
# lvcreate -L 38G -n data datavg
# lvcreate -L 2G -n swap datavg
# vgscan --mknodes   (is this needed?)
# vgchange -ay   (is this needed?)
# mkdir /etc/cryptkeys
# chmod 0600 /etc/cryptkeys
#
# for /data on /dev/hdb1
# dd if=/dev/random of=/etc/cryptkeys/lvdata.key bs=512 count=1024
# chmod 0400 /etc/cryptkeys/lvdata.key
# cryptsetup luksAddKey /dev/datavg/data /etc/cryptkeys/lvdata.key
#
# same for swap with adapted filenames: dataswap, lvdataswap.key etc.
#
# Create a file system on the LV 
# mkfs.ext3 /dev/datavg/data
#
# Test
# cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/vgdata/data
# cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/vgdata/data dataluks -d /etc/cryptkeys/lvdata.key
# vgscan --mknodes
# vgchange -ay
So far, so good. However, I am unable to mount either /dev/mapper/dataluks or /dev/vgdata/data unter /data.

Code:
# mount /dev/vgdata/data /data
mount: /dev/mapper/vgdata-data already mounted or busy
My feeling is that I am almost there, just not quite, but maybe I have understood something fundmentally wrong. I'd be grateful for yet another hint. What's missing or wrong in the above sequence of commands?

Thanks a lot!

gargamel

Last edited by gargamel; 05-30-2009 at 08:54 AM.
 
Old 05-30-2009, 08:48 AM   #12
gargamel
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rayfordj View Post
gargamel,
GazL is absolutely accurate with his information as I understand the technologies being explained.

GazL,
Well said. Honestly, I'm not certain I would have been able to articulate it as well as you did. I'm still working on being able to clearly articulate and express opinions and ideas, so thoroughly enjoy reading posts such as yours. Thanks! On another note, we'll just have to agree to disagree on the spelling of color
Seconded!

gargamel
 
Old 05-30-2009, 09:28 AM   #13
rayfordj
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there may still be some confusion on where the pieces fit or how they layer.

based on the information you've provided, i think this might be what you are after

Code:
pvcreate /dev/hdb1
vgcreate datavg /dev/hdb1
lvcreate -L 38G -n data datavg
lvcreate -L 2G -n swap datavg
# vgscan --mknodes   (is this needed?) <-- probably not but do not see it hurting anything
# vgchange -ay   (is this needed?) <-- probably not but do not see it hurting anything
mkdir /etc/cryptkeys
chmod 0600 /etc/cryptkeys
#
# for /data on /dev/hdb1
dd if=/dev/random of=/etc/cryptkeys/lvdata.key bs=512 count=1024
chmod 0400 /etc/cryptkeys/lvdata.key
cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/datavg/data /etc/cryptkeys/lvdata.key
# when you first create it you format it.  I agree with GazL about using luksAddKey to \
#    provide at least one strong passphrase in addition to using the key file
#
# Open the luks initialized LV
cryptsetup -d /etc/cryptkeys/lvdata.key luksOpen /dev/datavg/data luksdatalv
#
# Create a file system on the LV 
mkfs.ext3 /dev/mapper/luksdatalv
#
# you would then mount the luksdatalv dm device for use
mkdir /data
mount -t ext3 /dev/mapper/luksdatalv /data
you don't really need a key for swap, but may do so if desired. In configuring the luks encrypted lv for swap in crypttab it has a facility to use random data and initialize it on each boot.

the crypttab might look something like this
Code:
luksdatalv     /dev/datavg/data     /etc/cryptkeys/lvdata.key
luksswaplv     /dev/datavg/swap     swap
It really is at your discretion if you would like to also use a static key for your swap LV. If done as demonstrated above, the /dev/datavg/swap LV will be destroyed during every boot.

once you have that working you can add the necessary information to fstab so that it is automatically mounted (for luksdatalv) and swap activated (for luksswaplv) at boot.

Last edited by rayfordj; 05-30-2009 at 09:31 AM.
 
Old 05-30-2009, 10:00 AM   #14
GazL
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Thanks for the kind words Rayford. Anyone who takes pride in the way they write and makes a stand against the creeping evils of l33t5p34k or txt-speak can spell colour with three Ls and a V as far as I'm concerned!

Gaz.

PS. Wanna go 10 rounds on hood/bonnet, trunk/boot and petrol/gasoline?



edit:

@gargamel. I see Rayford has already done a good job of putting you right with what you're doing. Just want to add that as this is your second vg, you don't need to have the swap stuff on it as you should already have a swap partition on your hda disk/sysvg.

Last edited by GazL; 05-30-2009 at 10:14 AM.
 
Old 05-30-2009, 02:42 PM   #15
gargamel
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You guys are so great!!! So many thanks, it works now!

While you, GazL, described the way precisely, I was stubborn, and although I read your explanation more than once, somehow I simply didn't get it, before I saw (and copied, to be honest) the solution elaborated by you, Rayford.

You demonstrated the difference between a sucker (me) and a real slacker (you): You are both very knowledgable, and very patient with stubborn guys who can, but refuse to read.

I apologise for just not accepting the obvious. What is more: I like your sense of humor.


@GazL: As it happens I am collecting stuff like what you mentioned and occasionally post it on my personal web site. I enjoy idiomatic phrases that would get a totally different meaning if anyone tried to translate them word by word, and I find it quite entertaining to improve my Englisch, including learning the differences of the various variants. My favourite single-language dictionary is Chambers, BTW.
Most of the stuff I collect is in my mother tongue (German), but maybe I'll post a little bit of English on my personal web site (http://www.iverbi.de). It's not a good web site by any measures, just a link list. But if you have some input, e.g. about entertaining differences between genuine (i. e. British) English and American English, I'd be interested to hear from you (no stuff for LQ.org, but for personal mail, obviously).

gargamel
 
  


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