Security Tools for Ubuntu

Whaddaya know? There's a TrueCrypt for Linux! And the secure-delete package available in Synaptic has srm, secure remove with Peter Gutmann's algorithm (not to mention steghide and mcrypt...). Whee! All the stuff you need to get your Linux laptop impounded by TSA airport paranoia steam!

Update: Even though TrueCrypt uses Sarah Dean's OTFE library, it has implemented a few non-essential gotchas for careless or casual users. For one, the TrueCrypt GUI violates "plausible deniability" by providing three over-the-shoulder mounted volume types (Normal, Outer and Hidden). For another, ~/.TrueCrypt/Default Keyfiles.xml and ~/.TrueCrypt/Favorite Volumes.xml contain unencrypted, readable text which helpfully records the pathnames of your "secret" files. And again, only one fs type (FAT) is supported. The implications for "plausible deniability" are left as an exercise for the reader. LUKS, anyone?

TrueCrypt 4.3a's little quirks

Here's the main one:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TrueCrypt>
        <defaultkeyfiles>
                <keyfile>E:\Keyfiles\wok.zip</keyfile>
        </defaultkeyfiles>
</TrueCrypt>

With Vista, this information is squirreled away in C:\Users\Yourname\AppData\Roaming\TrueCrypt, plain as day. Favorite volumes is also there, also unencrypted.

That means, if you set up a turnkey system — i.e., one where favorite volumes automatically mount when you log in, because you use an empty password, plus you use a keyfile located on the USB flash drive mounted on drive E) anybody who cares to know, can know.

Also, I wonder why you can't cascade hash algorithms anymore; not since version 4.2, evidently. Cascading encryption is pretty much useless, since AES or Serpent or Twofish are each and all unbreakable in universes which have proton decay. Cascading hashes might actually prevent some sort of vulnerability in key generation, though; pipes leak at either end, usually through the numbnuts who select weak passwords and don't want to hassle with mysterious keyfiles.

Keyfiles are a gas. You can use them to set up turnkey systems, as noted above. No more passwords!