Cryptsetup Nuke Keys Patch

[marmarek]

Reported by anonymous on 9 Nov 2014 21:03 UTC
Feature Request: Cryptsetup Nuke Keys Patch

Upstream Provider: Kali Linux

Kali Linux webpage: kali.org

Nuke Keys Git Repo: https://github.com/offensive-security/cryptsetup-nuke-keys

Arch Linux AUR package: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/cryptsetup-nuke-keys/

Where: dom0

Purpose: Allows user to erase keyslots using an alternate "nuke" password.
Easier than other erasure methods.
Does not require input of decryption password.
Resistant to user error via overwriting non-keyslot data using alternate erasure methods.

How: User chooses a 'nuke' passphrase.
Upon using nuke passphrase, all keyslots are wiped, rendering drive unusable.
Keyslots can be restored later using keyslot backups.

Note: May require modification from original files to work.

Migrated-From: https://wiki.qubes-os.org/ticket/921

[marmarek]

Modified by marmarek on 11 Nov 2014 02:44 UTC

[marmarek]

Comment by John on 2 Dec 2014 05:53 UTC
The pros and cons are described in section 5.21 of the official FAQ of the cryptsetup project:

https://github.com/mbroz/cryptsetup/blob/master/FAQ

In short: it fails to increase security to any significant degree.

[andrewdavidwong]

Recent discussion about the usefulness of this feature:
https://groups.google.com/d/topic/qubes-users/1Qu0v2b7-bg/discussion

[andrewdavidwong]

Older thread on the same topic:
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/qubes-users/tKOVanAupFE/jkOYaN44zksJ

[DemiMarie]

To be effective, this needs to either:

1. Store the key in (and only in) a TPM that supports secure erase.
2. Use the disk secure erase functionality.

Otherwise it must be assemed that the key can be recovered (at significant expense) by someone with specialized tools and prolonged physical access.