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Date:      Mon, 5 Oct 2020 09:50:46 -0600
From:      Alan Somers <asomers@freebsd.org>
To:        Eric McCorkle <eric@metricspace.net>
Cc:        FreeBSD Hackers <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Mounting encrypted ZFS datasets/GELI for users?
Message-ID:  <CAOtMX2jk9YzmKSQGaTAmwBgKK4AVW0%2B%2BbtJR6kxM%2Ba=NYjjjqg@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <630f9133-4f67-92bd-41f9-fb04d985c159@metricspace.net>
References:  <8d467e98-237f-c6a2-72de-94c0195ec964@metricspace.net> <CAOtMX2hbt-2MBryLUJLU9CLgvZO29vNzMwtSrR1YXvknHFaGjA@mail.gmail.com> <630f9133-4f67-92bd-41f9-fb04d985c159@metricspace.net>

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On Mon, Oct 5, 2020 at 9:40 AM Eric McCorkle <eric@metricspace.net> wrote:

> On 10/5/20 11:12 AM, Alan Somers wrote:
>
> > First of all, what kind of thread are you concerned with?  Disk
> > encryption does not protect against an attacker with access to a live
> > machine; it only protects against an attacker with access to an off
> > machine, or to the bare HDDs.  Per-user encryption would presumably
> > protect one user from another user who has physical access to the off
> > server.  Is that what you're worried about?  If not, then you shouldn't
> > bother with per-user encryption.  Just encrypt all of /home or all of
> > the pool with a single key.
> >
> > -Alan
>
> I am evaluating options for domains where use of per-user encryption is
> mandated, often as a means of protecting against insider threats.
>

But if the victim user and the aggressor user are logged in at the same
time, then both users' home directories will be decrypted, and unix
permissions will be the only thing protecting the victim, right?  That
situation doesn't sound any better than no encryption at all.  And insiders
who have offline access to the HDDs would be thwarted by global encryption
just as much as per-user encryption.  I'm not denying that you may be under
some legal mandate for per-user encryption; I just don't understand the
motivation.

OmniOS has a module that creates a new home directory ZFS dataset the first
time.  But the last time I looked at it, it didn't include any encryption.

-Alan



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