Arch Linux

hauntergeist

Member

From: Vienna

Registered: 2008-10-11

Posts: 56

What tool to encrypt files?

Hello.

I am searching for a tool to encrypt just a few files and not the whole harddrive like truecrypt does. For I am neither a security expert nor too much into cryptography it should be simple to use. When I installed the tool and encrypted some files, are there any precautions left to take care of, e.g. protecting .conf-files? Is there any protection against forcing me to reveal my passwords and therefore my encrypted content?

greetings,
hauntergeist

zyghom

Member

From: Poland/currently Africa

Registered: 2006-05-11

Posts: 432

Website

Re: What tool to encrypt files?

you can always use smal file (i.e. 30MB) and encrypt it with truecrypt then mount it during login

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Zygfryd Homonto

ataraxia

Member

From: Pittsburgh

Registered: 2007-05-06

Posts: 1,553

Re: What tool to encrypt files?

I suggest either:
Truecrypt
EncFS

If you want to go really light, and have just a couple of files, you can get by with this:

openssl aes-256-cbc -in plaintextfile -out ciphertextfile (to encrypt)
openssl aes-256-cbc -d -in ciphertextfile -out plaintextfile (to decrypt)

moljac024

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2008-01-29

Posts: 2,676

Re: What tool to encrypt files?

A few files ?
You can use gpg with a symmetric encryption.

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The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
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But if they tell you that I've lost my mind, maybe it's not gone just a little hard to find...

fflarex

Member

Registered: 2007-09-15

Posts: 466

Re: What tool to encrypt files?

GPG will get the job done, but maybe not ideal unless you also use it for email (its most common use). I use mcrypt when I only need it for a few files.

anrxc

Member

From: Croatia

Registered: 2008-03-22

Posts: 834

Website

Re: What tool to encrypt files?

Try Elettra, it provides plausible deniability http://www.winstonsmith.info/julia/elettra/

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You need to install an RTFM interface.

adamlau

Member

Registered: 2009-01-30

Posts: 418

Re: What tool to encrypt files?

GPG all the way...

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Arch Linux + sway
Debian Testing + GNOME/sway
NetBSD 64-bit + Xfce

hauntergeist

Member

From: Vienna

Registered: 2008-10-11

Posts: 56

Re: What tool to encrypt files?

Thank you very much for your suggestions. I'll read and try each of them.

ninian

Member

From: United Kingdom

Registered: 2008-02-24

Posts: 726

Website

Re: What tool to encrypt files?

@hauntergeist,

You couldn't get much smaller or simpler than the command bcrypt, available from the AUR at http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=12156.
It's cross-platform too, which is useful for me since I need to use some common files between Linux and Windows.
See http://bcrypt.sourceforge.net/

(If you need to encrypt folders or quite a few files, TrueCrypt as suggested earlier is hard to beat.)

Last edited by ninian (2009-03-15 17:27:27)

Ranguvar

Member

Registered: 2008-08-12

Posts: 2,549

Re: What tool to encrypt files?

eCryptFS is also an idea; it's a fake-ish filesystem that gets mounted to a folder. Anything that is stored inside will be encrypted and stored on the mother filesystem. Unmount eCryptFS and everything inside looks like garbage I believe. When kernel 2.6.29 comes out, it will be able to encrypt filenames too.

Be sure not to do a lot of serious encryption without encrypting things like swap, /tmp/, /var/tmp/, etc. A few files should be fine though.