Author Topic: Encryption without Truecrypt  (Read 406 times)

Offline tschommer

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Encryption without Truecrypt
« on: February 10, 2013, 06:28:59 AM »
Once again I've learned a great deal without having to type a single letter myself!

I've been following this thread and only now learned that, besides encrypting a whole volume, I can create a container similar to the kind I've been using with Truecrypt.

So now I can get rid of Truecrypt and sudo and want to thank daveski for being so curious and, of course, muungwana for his expertise on this matter  ;)

Gosh, I simply love this place  :D
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Offline ghostbunny

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Re: Encryption without Truecrypt
« Reply #1 on: February 10, 2013, 08:15:47 AM »
Hi

the tool ccrypt mentioned by rick in the linked topic is now available in testing :)

seems like it is also an easy to use alternative.

just call

Code: [Select]
ccrypt -e <file to encrypt>
and

Code: [Select]
ccrypt -d <file to decrypt>
works well here.

regards
ghostbunny
The full life is a big mess

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I'm German. Sorry because of possible mistakes in my written messages xD


Offline muungwana

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Re: Encryption without Truecrypt
« Reply #2 on: February 10, 2013, 08:59:02 AM »

There is cryptsetup version 1.6.0 and zuluCrypt 4.6.1 in testing.

Installing both will allow you to open your truecrypt volumes

If you create a LUKS based container,you can have up to 8 different passwords to open the volumes.

With zuluCrypt,you can also save your encrypted container passwords in kde kwallet and zuluCrypt wallet.Wallet support is there for LUKS volumes only.

Kde wallet usually gets open at log in time and stays open for the duration of logged in session and this may be problematic because any person who has access to the computer while logged in can open volumes with keys in the wallet.To work around this,another wallet called "zuluCrypt" is available and is opened separately from kwallet and is opened only when a user specifically opens a LUKS volume with a wallet key.
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Offline muungwana

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Re: Encryption without Truecrypt
« Reply #3 on: February 10, 2013, 09:19:48 AM »
Hi

the tool ccrypt mentioned by rick in the linked topic is now available in testing :)

seems like it is also an easy to use alternative.

just call

Code: [Select]
ccrypt -e <file to encrypt>
and

Code: [Select]
ccrypt -d <file to decrypt>
works well here.

regards
ghostbunny

just tried ccrypt from testing and it shows an odd behavior here.
When its done encrypting or decrypting,it deletes the input file.So if you want a file encrypted and still keep the plain text file,then the way to accomplish it is create a copy of the plain text file and then feed it to the tool.

.. 3 things are certain in life : death, taxes and software bloat ..
.. tell me something i don't know, something i can use as i struggle to reason with the world around me ..

Offline rich2005

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Re: Encryption without Truecrypt
« Reply #4 on: February 10, 2013, 09:54:04 AM »
Quote
just tried ccrypt from testing and it shows an odd behavior here.
When its done encrypting or decrypting,it deletes the input file....

Not odd behaviour at all considering the original precept,
'how do I encrypt the occasional file'
For LibreOffice & similar not a problem, it is built in.

For text files or similar, not to send to anyone, just to stop prying eyes (I assume).
Not much point keeping the plaintext in this instance and setting up a container for the odd file is a pain. Lots of ways to encrypt, as previous posts but then you have to delete the original. Not so with ccrypt.

For many people command line is a pain. It can be added to a file manager. I use Krusader and have this in my local Krusader actions file (~/.kde4/share/apps/krusader/useractions.xml)
Code: [Select]
<action name="encrypt_with_ccrypt">
   <title>Encrypt with ccrypt</title>
   <tooltip>Encrypt with ccrypt</tooltip>
   <icon>kgpg_key1</icon>
   <category>Encrypt</category>
   <description same_as="tooltip"/>
   <command>/home/rich/.TrueCrypt/ccrypt -e -K %aAsk("enter password","password","")% %aCurrent%</command>
   </action>
 <action name="decrypt_with_ccrypt">
   <title>Decrypt with ccrypt</title>
   <tooltip>Decrypt with ccrypt</tooltip>
   <icon>kgpg_show</icon>
   <category>Encrypt</category>
   <description same_as="tooltip"/>
   <command>/home/rich/.TrueCrypt/ccrypt -d -K %aAsk("enter password","password","")% %aCurrent%</command>
   </action>

This is still using a local ccrypt file, As you can see, I do not have a ccrypt icon and the single ccrypt file resides in my local trucrypt folder. (I use truecrypt but consider it a PITA). I will update this when ccrypt it is in the general repo. Bound to be something similar for Dolphin.

Bottom line is, depends what you want to do.
« Last Edit: February 10, 2013, 10:05:03 AM by rich2005 »