> In other words: how hard should we push for adding support for the
> TrueCrypt on-disk format in udisks and friends? (Until 15 minutes ago,
> I was convinced that it was the way to go, and prepared to go ping the
> right folks about it, but now you've planted some non-negligible
> amount of doubt in my mind, so I'm a bit lost in terms of strategy.)
if you want to ease your mind, all information needed regarding both
on-disk formats are to be found in the cryptsetup wiki[1][2]. in short:
on most systems LUKS with default settings offers a bit better
protection against brute force/dictionary attacks on low entropy
passphrases. the main difference is TrueCrypt fancying obscurity while
LUKS is providing an unencrypted header. other than that its just a
different combination of well known crypto - its the implementation
that matters, the format itself seems alright. more certainty after the
results of a complete crypto audit will finally be available this
spring[3]
regarding dbus calls to udisks for TrueCrypt support via cryptsetup:
imho this doesn't help too much unless your aim is to stall development
in userspace even further. from the remains of TrueCrypt another
slightly different on-disk format has been established already
(VeraCrypt, support will be in cryptsetup 1.7) more interesting are
developments like TOTP authentication.[4] recreating the cryptsetup api
on top of dbus/udisks is of course possible .. a much more flexible
approach would be controlled access to the device mapper from userspace
(see [5] and the linked discussion from dm-devel) since udisks and
device mapper are very close friends at redhat I'd be eager to hear the
pong to your ping - this is not rhetorical either ;)
cheers,
jasper
[1]
https://code.google.com/p/cryptsetup/wiki/FrequentlyAskedQuestions
[2]
https://code.google.com/p/cryptsetup/wiki/TrueCryptOnDiskFormat
[3]
https://cryptoservices.github.io/fde/2015/02/18/truecrypt-phase-two.html
[4]
http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6238
[5]
https://code.google.com/p/cryptsetup/issues/detail?id=208
