Difference between revisions of "Full Disk Encryption"

Revision as of 02:32, 17 December 2007

Full Disk Encryption or Whole Disk Encryption is a phrase that was coined by Seagate to describe their encrypting hard drive. Under such a system, the entire contents of a hard drive are encrypted. This is different from Full Volume Encryption where only certain partitions are encrypted.

Some examples of full disk encryption:

Hardware Solutions

Seagate FDE

http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/marketing/PO-Momentus-FDE.pdf

Network Appliance (Decru)

http://www.netapp.com/ftp/decru-fileshredding.pdf

http://www.decru.com/products/pdf/dsEseries.pdf (NetApps DataFort)

http://www.decru.com/products/ltkm.htm (Decru Lifetime key Management)

http://www.forensicswiki.org/images/6/6f/Securing_Storage_White_Paper.pdf (Decru white paper)

Jetico BestCrypt

http://www.jetico.com/

beCrypt

http://www.becrypt.com/our_products/disk_protect.php

SecureDoc

http://www.smart-cardsys.com/security/securedoc.htm

Securstar driveCrypt DriveCrypt 4.20 - 1344Bit Hard Disk Encryption

http://www.securstar.com/products_drivecryptpp.php

Eracom Technology DiskProtect

http://www.eracom-tech.com/drive_encryption.0.html

Hitachi Bulk Data Encryption

http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/techlib.nsf/techdocs/74D8260832F2F75E862572D7004AE077/$file/bulk_encryption_white_paper.pdf

Software Solutions

TrueCrypt

Transparent full disk encryption for Linux and [[Windows]. Supports various ciphers: AES (256 bit), Serpent and Twofish.

It provides protection from watermarking and inference attacks (volumes cannot be distinguished from random data).

Supports hidden volumes within TrueCrypt volumes (plausible deniability).

http://www.truecrypt.org/

GBDE

GEOM Based Disk Encryption. Provides transparent full disk and swap encryption for FreeBSD. Supported ciphers: AES (128 bit).

Supports hidden volumes and Pre-Boot Authentification.

Since data loss can occur on unexpected shutdowns, GELI is recommended instead of GBDE.

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=gbde&apropos=0&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+6.2-RELEASE&format=html

http://phk.freebsd.dk/pubs/bsdcon-03.gbde.paper.pdf

GELI

Cryptographic GEOM class. Provides transparent full disk encryption for FreeBSD. Supports various ciphers: AES, Blowfish and 3DES.

Supports hidden volumes and Pre-Boot Authentification.

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=geli&sektion=8

CGD

Cryptographic Device Driver. Provides transparent full disk encryption for NetBSD.

Supports various ciphers: AES (128 bit blocksize and accepts 128, 192 or 256 bit keys), Blowfish (64 bit blocksize and accepts 128 bit keys) and 3DES (uses a 64 bit blocksize and accepts 192 bit keys (only 168 bits are actually used for encryption).

http://www.netbsd.org/docs/guide/en/chap-cgd.html

vnconfig

The -K option of OpenBSD vnconfig(8) associates and encryption key with the svnd device. Supports saltfiles. Supported ciphers: Blowfish.

http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=vnconfig&sektion=8

PGPDisk

Pretty Good Privacy Whole Disk Encryption provides transparent whole disk encryption with Pre-Boot authentification for Windows. Also supports MacOS X 10.4 (non-boot disks only).

Can use OpenPGP RFC 2440 keys and X.509 keys for authentification.

Supports USB Tokens for authentification.

Supported ciphers: AES (256 bit keys).

http://www.pgp.com/products/wholediskencryption/

BitLocker

Part of Windows Vista that uses AES 128 or 256 bit encryption

BitArmor

http://www.bitarmor.com/

dm-crypt

Transparent file system and swap encryption for Linux using the Linux 2.6 device mapper. Supports various ciphers and LUKS (Linux Unified Key Setup).

http://www.saout.de/misc/dm-crypt/

loop-AES

Transparent file system and swap encryption for Linux using the loopback device and AES.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/loop-aes/

SafeGuard Easy

Certified according to Common Criteria EAL3 and FIPS 140-2

Encryption algorithms supported: AES (128 and 256 bit) and IDEA (128 bit)

Provides complete hard drive encryption including the boot disk.

http://www.utimaco.us/products

PointSec

http://www.pointsec.com/