Re: encrypted filesystems

On Aug 17, 11:13 pm, Tauno Voipio <tauno.voi...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

No - There are not too many supported filesystems
on Linux. Each has an easily detectable pattern of
administrative data which can be used as known
plaintext.

So this doesn't make any difference. If you use an encrypted volume,
your file system still has an easily detectable pattern of
administrative data. If you use an encrypted file system, your file
system has an easily detectable pattern of administrative data.

In fact, this weighs slightly in favor of encrypted file systems. If
you use an encrypted block device with a regular file system, there
will be no effort at securing the file system at all. All the security
will come on top of a pattern of known administrative data. With an
encrypted file system, there's at least a chance that the design of
the file system itself and its meta data storage will have some
leaning towards unpredictability and resistance against attacks based
on knowledge of how metadata is stored.

Filesystems like NTFS and ext2 do not make any attempt to provide this
kind of security, nor should they. Laying a filesystem with no
security design on top of an encypted volume means the two are not
designed as a unit and basically slapped together. The interface may
present vulnerabilities.

The OP said, "Block devices are much more secure than just encrypting
the files." Perhaps, but using an encrypted file system is better than
attaching an insecure file system to an encrypted block device.

DS
.

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