Help/Question

Hello,

I have a question. Is LUKS viable to a cold boot attack. TrueCrypt is, but I'm not sure about LUKS. If it is, is there any discussion of encrypting keys in RAM (assuming the computer is immediately turned off, hibernating, or a container is unmounted).

Thank you,

Timothy

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I assume you mean "vulnerable"....

All software-based encryption is vulnerable to cold-boot attacks, LUKS is no exception. There is nothing that can be done about it, and hence there is no discussion.

An attacker can also simply go the full way and not cold boot, but remove the RAM modules and read them externally. This has been shown to work for a removal time in the minute range.

Unless very carefully implemented, hardware encryption is vulnerable too. And, of course, anybody with access to running hardware with openend crypto containers can just try to break into it.

Arno

Arno Wagner,     Dr. sc. techn., Dipl. Inform.,    Email: [email protected]
GnuPG: ID: CB5D9718  FP: 12D6 C03B 1B30 33BB 13CF  B774 E35C 5FA1 CB5D 9718
----
There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it
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