Ways to encrypt an SD card?

[kagato]

I look forward to being able to use my Pandora for business use as well as games. It could hold my client data so I wouldn't need to lug my laptop everywhere.


However, I don't want to store client data in an unencrypted form on something as easily misplaced as an SD card. Is there a good way to encrypt data (or the whole card), that's ideally transparent to applications?


I'm thinking maybe an encrypted file system on the card, so that you can be prompted for a password on mount/insertion, and forget about it from there. It wouldn't need to be readable on another device, and I don't care if a third party can scrub the card & reuse it, so long as the private data isn't accessible.


Is there already something along these lines in Angstrom,or does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Christoph.Krn]

There is a question that would have to be answered so people can provide useful answers:

• Do you want to use the SD card to run an operating system off of it, or merely for data storage?
  

Since you didn't include information to answer this question in the first place, I'm assuming that your expectation of an encryption is that it makes your data secure. Keep in mind that as long as you don't create a security concept (that encryption can be part of), any "security feature" (including encryption) might even become a security RISK because you might falsely rely on it and thus actually decrease security (the information behind this link is written with Windows in mind, but it gets the point across in any case and contains some of the points that have to be considered) more words which make this link even longer. Don't underestimate the importance of a security concept, especially when it's about business things.

 

[Austin25]

Can't you encrypt it when you format it? (If you use Palimpsest Disk Utility)

 

[kagato]

I'm not transporting state secrets, or financial records. I'm not even holding particularly sensitive personal information.


It's more things like invoices, contact details and unreleased projects.


Clients have a reasonable expectation that this information is not casually released.


The same data is on my laptop, and not encrypted at all; it only has the trivial protection of password-protected logins. But I'm not too worried about it.


Yes, the laptop could be compromised or stolen, but I'm taking reasonable higher-level steps to avoid those situations. That's good enough.


SD cards, however, are tiny, easy to lose, and easy to conceal if someone wanted to palm it; and once they've got it it's an open book from the start.


I'm looking for the equivalent of a briefcase lock to prevent casual examination of the card contents. I don't personally need a bank vault.

 

[Eridger]

I think truecrypt was ported to the Pandora. That'd work.

 

[Prometheus]

I think truecrypt was ported to the Pandora. That'd work.

It was indeed.

 

[Eridger]

I think truecrypt was ported to the Pandora. That'd work.

It was indeed.

Lookie there. She even linked it. I'm way too lazy to do that.


There ya go, OP. Should be fairly straightforward. If you have any problems with it feel free to ask (obviously).

 

[kagato]

Cool, thanks guys. When my Pandora finally arrives, I'll try it out and post the results.

 

[Eridger]

Cool, thanks guys. When my Pandora finally arrives, I'll try it out and post the results.

I'd test it out on your desktop while you're waiting so you can get used to the program if you've never used it before. You'll need it anyways when you want to access your encrypted disk or folder from your PC.

 

[mrdremel]

I look forward to being able to use my Pandora for business use as well as games. It could hold my client data so I wouldn't need to lug my laptop everywhere.


However, I don't want to store client data in an unencrypted form on something as easily misplaced as an SD card. Is there a good way to encrypt data (or the whole card), that's ideally transparent to applications?


I'm thinking maybe an encrypted file system on the card, so that you can be prompted for a password on mount/insertion, and forget about it from there. It wouldn't need to be readable on another device, and I don't care if a third party can scrub the card & reuse it, so long as the private data isn't accessible.


Is there already something along these lines in Angstrom,or does anyone have any suggestions?

[jokes] Pr0n to hide from other people using the Pandora?[/jokes]

 

[dreamer]

Instead of truecrypt I am looking to port a fully foss alternative to the pandora.


Namely Tomb. Currently there is a lot of development going on for this tool and I am closely involved with the Dyne.org crew.


As I currently don't have my pandora yet this will not be readily available soon. Unless someone wants to start porting.


Pretty much the only dependencies are zsh, cryptsetup and luks.


The biggest drawback currently is the need for sudo-power to mount the created filesystem.

 

[Eridger]

I believe that Truecrypt is under an open-source license pretty similar to GPL.


I don't think any other encryption tools exist for the Pandora. You'd have to port one yourself or wait for someone to do it for you.

 

[mahousaru]

Instead of truecrypt I am looking to port a fully foss alternative to the pandora.


Namely Tomb. Currently there is a lot of development going on for this tool and I am closely involved with the Dyne.org crew.


As I currently don't have my pandora yet this will not be readily available soon. Unless someone wants to start porting.


Pretty much the only dependencies are zsh, cryptsetup and luks.


The biggest drawback currently is the need for sudo-power to mount the created filesystem.

If you have cryptsetup and luks why not just use that?

 

[dreamer]

^ the point is to make a tool that any noob can use.


Tomb imho has the potential to do some really cool stuff.


They are also planning to implement steganography to hide your keys and tricks like that.


@ Eridger: according to a lot of distributions and the FSF, truecrypt is not compatible with the GPL and as such not Free Software.

 

[widarr]

Hello!  Since yesterday I'm finally too a proud Pandora User

I wanted to ask if there is already some progress in porting dm_crypt / cryptsetup to the pandora? I would really like to use it here too

 

[A2000]

Maybe you want to look into this thread, too:


http://boards.openpandora.org/index.php/topic/11275-anybody-need-full-system-encryption-andor-automatic-tor-network-routing/#entry210065

 

[laurencevde]

An earlier version of truecript's license said that nothing in the license should be construed as a covenant not to sue for copyright-infringement, effectively mooting the license... Luckily, that part got changed in the current license, and now only applies if you do not comply with the license.

Furthermore, any distributed derivative may not carry the name "truecrypt", and must be made available to the public free of charge. As such, it's open-source, but not Free, and many distros do not allow that sort of licensing in their repos.

Fedora's wiki links to a BSD-licensed truecypt-compatible tool called tcplay as a replacement.