encrypted virtual filesystem

EdoardoC · 03-14-2004, 07:41 PM

Hi

I am looking for a linux sw that allows mounting a (usually large) file as a seprate encrypted filesystem.
IN WIndows there is a similar commercial product - safeboot vdisk.
what about linux ? I know it supports encrypted partitions, but I just want a file on the normal partition to be mountable as an encrypted fs

tia,
Edo

wapcaplet · 03-14-2004, 08:05 PM

Try the Loopback encrypted filesystem HOWTO. A loopback device lets you mount a regular file as a filesystem; the HOWTO gets into doing that with encryption as well.

EdoardoC · 03-15-2004, 06:04 PM

thanks!
I followed the
Encrypted filesystem HOWTO - but Sisce I am using kernel 2.6.3-4mdk and there are various cryptomodules available by default, which I loaded with modprobe, I hoped not to have to recompile the kernel - as the howto suggests.
Still, when executing
losetup -e ...
the result is invariably:
ioctl: LOOP_SET_STATUS: Invalid argument, requested cipher or key length (128 bits) not supported by kernel

what does it take to create an encrypted fs on mdk 10 ?

SciYro · 03-15-2004, 06:37 PM

take a look at the the program "bestcrypt" all you have to do is compile it, and load up the modules to the kernel, it handles the loop back and encryptions for you

http://www.jetico.com/

shedir · 03-16-2004, 03:12 PM

Hi

> ioctl: LOOP_SET_STATUS: Invalid argument, requested cipher or key length (128 bits) not supported by kernel
Are you sure that loop, cryptoloop and cryptoapi modules are loaded? Check also the man page of losetup. If there is only XOR and NONE listed as available ciphers, mandrake has not applied the necessary patch to util-linux.

ChrisD · 04-19-2004, 09:42 AM

EdoardoC : Do a 'modprobe cryptoloop' as root, you should be fine after that. I had the same problem after a clean install of 10.

EdoardoC · 04-19-2004, 10:16 AM

thanks Chris, that did the trick !!