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Peter Smit
Asked: 2011-12-14 07:50:46 +0800 CST

How to get a encrypted folder with passphrase

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I have some data that I want to encrypt in a single folder. I only need it rarely, so I would like to be asked for a pass phrase every time.

Preferably I could still back up the folder encrypted, and open it with the passphrase on another machine.

What approach shall I take?

11.10

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    If you want a graphical interface that integrates well with gnome, try cryptkeeper.

    The home page is here : http://tom.noflag.org.uk/cryptkeeper.html

    It is in the ubuntu repositories.

    Other options include Truecrypt, ecryptfs, and LUKS.

    ecryptfs is also in the ubuntu repository,and should be installed by default, If it is not:

    sudo apt-get install ecryptfs-utils

    Make an encrypted directory, to be decrytped when you log in with 

    ecryptfs-setup-private

    To make a directory that is not automatically decrypted when you log in you will need root access

    mkdir ~/secret
chmod 700 secret

    Encrypt the directory

    sudo mount -t ecryptfs ~your_user/secret ~your_user/secret

    You will be asked to enter a passphrase and a number of additional questions. Go with the defaults (hit enter) but answer y (yes) to "Enable filename encryption (y/n) [n]:" to encrypt file names.

    Place any data you wish encrypted in ~/secret .

    To encrypt the data

    sudo umount ./secret

    To decrypt the data, mount the directory again

    To make it easier you can give the options you desire to the mount command with the -o flag (all one line)

    sudo mount ~your_user/secret~your_user/secret -o key=passphrase,ecryptfs_cipher=aes,ecryptfs_key_bytes=16,ecryptfs_passthrough=no,ecryptfs_enable_filename_crypto=yes

    Either make an alias in ~/.bashrc or make a custom launcher.

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