LUKS

LUKS encryption

Getting Started

See Archwiki: dm-crypt/Device encryption.

Install cryptsetup

sudo apt install cryptsetup

Encrypting a device

# Examples
DEVICE=/dev/sda
NAME=arr1

# Setup encryption
cryptsetup -v --type luks2 --cipher aes-xts-plain64 --key-size 512 --hash sha512 \
           --iter-time 5000 --use-urandom --verify-passphrase luksFormat "${DEVICE}"

# Open encrypted drive to /dev/mapper/$NAME
cryptsetup open "${DEVICE}" "${NAME}"

# Create a partition
mkfs.btrfs /dev/mapper/${NAME}
mount -t btrfs /dev/mapper/${NAME} /media/${NAME}

# Fill the drive to overwrite any existing raw data (optional)
dd if=/dev/zero of=/media/$NAME/file status=progress

Mounting

# Open the encrypted drive
cryptsetup open "${DEVICE}" "${NAME}"
# Mount your partition
mount -t btrfs /dev/mapper/${NAME} "${MOUNT_LOCATION}"

Unmounting

# Unmount your partition
umount "${MOUNT_LOCATION}"
# Close the decrypted drive
cryptsetup close ${NAME}

Encrpytion Options

• You can see defaults using cryptsetup --help.
• --type options
  • luks defaults to luks1 on cryptsetup < 2.1.0, luks2 on cryptsetup >= 2.1.0
  • luks1 is the standard version of LUKS.
  • luks2 is a new version released in Dec 2017. Older versions of Grub (before 2.06 or June 2020) do not support booting from LUKS2.
  • plain is dm-crypt plain mode. Avoid this unless you know what you're doing.
  • loopaes Avoid this as well.
  • tcrypt Use this for mounting older truecrypt volumes.

• --iter-time dynamically determines the number of iterations used to hash your password. The number of iterations is determined when creating the luks key. E.g. 5000 means hash for 5 seconds worth of iterations on your particular CPU. You can see the number of iterations for each key with cryptsetup luksDump <device>.

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defaults

defaults on Ubuntu 18.04

Default compiled-in device cipher parameters:
	loop-AES: aes, Key 256 bits
	plain: aes-cbc-essiv:sha256, Key: 256 bits, Password hashing: ripemd160
	LUKS1: aes-xts-plain64, Key: 256 bits, LUKS header hashing: sha256, RNG: /dev/urandom

Benchmark

cryptsetup benchmark

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Example Output (i7-12700K)

# Tests are approximate using memory only (no storage IO).
PBKDF2-sha1      3057072 iterations per second for 256-bit key
PBKDF2-sha256    6452775 iterations per second for 256-bit key
PBKDF2-sha512    2432890 iterations per second for 256-bit key
PBKDF2-ripemd160 1289761 iterations per second for 256-bit key
PBKDF2-whirlpool 1148495 iterations per second for 256-bit key
argon2i      13 iterations, 1048576 memory, 4 parallel threads (CPUs) for 256-bit key (requested 2000 ms time)
argon2id     13 iterations, 1048576 memory, 4 parallel threads (CPUs) for 256-bit key (requested 2000 ms time)
#     Algorithm |       Key |      Encryption |      Decryption
        aes-cbc        128b      1976.6 MiB/s      7781.1 MiB/s
    serpent-cbc        128b       136.8 MiB/s       993.0 MiB/s
    twofish-cbc        128b       291.3 MiB/s       646.8 MiB/s
        aes-cbc        256b      1507.6 MiB/s      6406.3 MiB/s
    serpent-cbc        256b       138.2 MiB/s       984.0 MiB/s
    twofish-cbc        256b       295.3 MiB/s       647.1 MiB/s
        aes-xts        256b      6021.9 MiB/s      5909.9 MiB/s
    serpent-xts        256b       855.7 MiB/s       887.4 MiB/s
    twofish-xts        256b       597.8 MiB/s       608.0 MiB/s
        aes-xts        512b      5521.2 MiB/s      5505.7 MiB/s
    serpent-xts        512b       870.2 MiB/s       897.9 MiB/s
    twofish-xts        512b       602.9 MiB/s       607.1 MiB/s

Adiantum

If you're running a device which does not support hardware accelerated AES instructions (e.g. Raspberry Pi), you may be interested in Adiantum.
Adiantum is an encryption mode by Google which uses ChaCha12 for block encryption. It is included in Linux kernel v5.0.

Creation

cryptsetup -v --type luks2 --cipher xchacha12,aes-adiantum --sector-size 4096 \
           --key-size 256 --hash sha512 --iter-time 5000 --use-urandom \
           --verify-passphrase luksFormat <device>

Benchmark

cryptsetup benchmark -c xchacha12,aes-adiantum

Scripts

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mount_drives.sh

#!/bin/bash

function mount_luks {
    local fstype=$1
    local device=$2
    local name=$3
    local mountpoint=$4
    if [ ! -b /dev/mapper/"$name" ]
    then
        sudo cryptsetup open "$device" "$name"
    fi
    sudo mkdir -p "$mountpoint"
    sudo mount -t $fstype /dev/mapper/"$name" "$mountpoint"
}

mount_luks btrfs /dev/disk/by-id/<drive> lukscrypt1 /media/lukscrypt1

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unmount_drives.sh

#!/bin/bash

function unmount_luks {
    local name=$1
    local mountlocation=$2
    sudo umount "$mountlocation" && \
    sudo rm -r "$mountlocation"
    sudo cryptsetup close "$name"
}

unmount_luks lukscrypt1 /media/lukscrypt1

Resources

• nixCraft How To Linux Hard Disk Encryption With LUKS