dm-crypt aes-xts-plain64 vs aes-cbc-essiv for volumes > 2TiB

Molly · 09-12-2010, 05:06 AM

I'm not a mathematician or cryptographer, only an end user of the technology trying to determine the "best" or safest future proof option to go with for long term archival while also maintaining reasonable performance with dual opteron ~2GHz or similar setup. I've noticed aes-cbc-essiv seems to be the default choice in various installers for reasons of backwards compatibility while others are moving towards XTS since the standardization. Feedback is appreciated and thanks in advance.

anomie · 09-13-2010, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Molly

... trying to determine the "best" or safest future proof option to go with for long term archival while also maintaining reasonable performance...

I'd mention that Rijndael was (arguably?) chosen as the Advanced Encryption Standard precisely because it's a good balance of secure + relatively quick.

I'll also add that there is no practical future-proof encryption. For now, AES-128 or AES-256 - with a strong key - is something I personally feel quite comfortable with.