From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Sep 7 20:54:44 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 311CB16A4CE for ; Tue, 7 Sep 2004 20:54:44 +0000 (GMT) Received: from ds.netgate.net (ds.netgate.net [205.214.170.232]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 076B843D2D for ; Tue, 7 Sep 2004 20:54:44 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from ctodd@chrismiller.com) Received: (qmail 9654 invoked from network); 7 Sep 2004 20:54:43 -0000 Received: from vp4.netgate.net (ibrew@205.214.170.248) by ds.netgate.net with SMTP; 7 Sep 2004 20:54:43 -0000 Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2004 13:54:43 -0700 (PDT) From: ctodd@chrismiller.com X-X-Sender: ibrew@vp4.netgate.net To: Steve Watt In-Reply-To: <200409072022.i87KM7Kf049770@wattres.Watt.COM> Message-ID: References: <200409072022.i87KM7Kf049770@wattres.Watt.COM> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII cc: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Booting encrypted X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 07 Sep 2004 20:54:44 -0000 > Having the password compiled in to something that's necessarily clear-text > on the same media? If the authorization mechanism is limited to plain text, then yes. I know that "strings" can be used to attempt to find the passphrase in the load, but there may be ways to prevent the passphrase from being retrieved in this manner. > You're not adding anything resembling a challenge for someone who's really > interested in reverse-engineering your system. Any user (I won't call such > a person *acker) incapable of getting around such a thing probably won't > be trying to reverse-engineer it anyhow. Well the point is to have a system where the entire filesystem (except the loader of coarse) is encrypted. Runtime access to the system via the shell would be removed or locked down. I wasn't able to find any info about booting encrypted filesystems, but I can't believe I'm the only one that has raised the question. Chris