From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Mar 4 19:23:42 2005 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 F388F16A4CE for ; Fri, 4 Mar 2005 19:23:41 +0000 (GMT) Received: from mail.shagadelic.org (isc-temp1.netbsd.org [204.152.190.30]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A07CB43D41 for ; Fri, 4 Mar 2005 19:23:39 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from thorpej@shagadelic.org) Received: from [17.221.46.63] (A17-221-46-63.apple.com [17.221.46.63]) by mail.shagadelic.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D21C03CA27B; Fri, 4 Mar 2005 11:23:38 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <200503030033.j230XG4G086979@marlena.vvi.at> References: <200503030033.j230XG4G086979@marlena.vvi.at> Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v619.2) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Message-Id: Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Jason Thorpe Date: Fri, 4 Mar 2005 11:23:36 -0800 To: "ALeine" X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.619.2) X-Mailman-Approved-At: Sat, 05 Mar 2005 13:01:48 +0000 cc: elric@imrryr.org cc: tls@rek.tjls.com cc: phk@phk.freebsd.dk cc: hackers@freebsd.org cc: tech-security@NetBSD.org cc: crypto@metzdowd.com Subject: Re: FUD about CGD and GBDE 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: Fri, 04 Mar 2005 19:23:42 -0000 On Mar 2, 2005, at 4:33 PM, ALeine wrote: > You need 2^128 steps to break the encryption of a single sector. > But you have no idea which of the 2^128 sectors is the right one, You may not know "for sure", but you can make a pretty well educated guess. You are basically ignoring Roland's argument that disks are well-structured. Start by looking for the MBR partition map / disklabel / GPT. Those are kept in well-known places, so you can greatly narrow your search space. Use the info contained therein to find likely superblock locations. Etc. You do not have to brute-force the entire disk. You just have to be smart about how you search. -- thorpej