AFAIK at least /boot needs to be unencrypted, then follow sggested link
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root filesystem encryption
hi,
i have a system that is on many peoples hands. i'm looking for best way to encrypt my laptops hd so that nobady cant open it anywhere else then in my system. so example same encrypted root partition encryption, and the password is example public key or mac-adderess md5 or so. and if someone tries to mount the disk in some other system it should stay closed. so how to do such a system? some script before root fs mount to create the key and open it, or some kernel modification or what? whitch encryption, what is the speed cost, and how to do it? and i want whole fs to be encrypted, if there is no other way to do it else then create a ext boot partition to open encrypted partion that is the last option, space is quite limited. but help for that also needed.
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Answers
i don't really know how to do what you're asking, but have a couple of suggestions relating to encryption. you probably want to make sure you use a symmetric key (as opposed to a pair of public/private assymetric keys) for speed considerations.
all security systems have three ways of authenticating who you are:
1. something you know (e.g. a password)
2. something you have (e.g. a key)
3. something you are (e.g. a fingerprint)
i'm not sure what you're trying to protect against - unauthorized people accessing the data, or people accessing the data at an unauthorized location. in the first case, storing the key on a hardware device (e.g. a usb keychain) might be the way to go. a key stored on a usb device will make sure that only the user with the appropriate key *and* the appropriate password will access it.
if you want to limit it to a physical location, you should physically secure the laptops. i think kensington makes some good laptop locks with really loud alarms. this, of course, still doesn't prevent somebody from physically disassembling the laptop and stealing the hard drive. to prevent that, you could get those laptop cages that are used to secure laptops in computer and electronics stores. at that point your organization should be doing background checks on your fellow employees, too.
kevin
you can encrypt the entire rootfs, this is accomplished by using an initrd. Basically you boot off something that has all the tools to unencrypt the rest of the disk then continue booting. This can either be done by leaving /boot encrypted (less secure) or ideally by booting off another medium (usb / floppy). I am in the process of rewriting the current linux howto on this (its not appropriate to paste the entire thing in here) but I suggest two links to get you started:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/
this is the current "default" howto but is largely outdated by the recent kernel developments in dm-crypt. the best link for that is:
http://www.saout.de/misc/d
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by: Dragon_KromePosted on 2004-05-12 at 02:08:16ID: 11047999
I'm not sure that you can encrypt the whole rootfs (maybe with a patch or something, but AFAIK there is no such thing), but you can create a loopback encrypted fs (a file which is encripted an can be mounted as a partition via the loopback mechanism).
Please take a look at:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/
There are also other solutions, see www.jetico.com for example.