[Tails-testers] Beta test TAILS w Veracrypt

Delete this message

Reply to this message
Autor: raisingcane
Data:  
Dla: tails-testers
Temat: [Tails-testers] Beta test TAILS w Veracrypt
To help you evaluate my beta test on the new TAILS with Veracrypt
included, please be advised that I have lots of experience with Veracrypt,
TAILS, and TOR. Also, I live in a place that would cause the use of these
tools to bring suspicion onto me. Therefore, I will only send this info
to you thru an anonymous email account on TOR. Sorry, but I must remain
safe.

I've run several experiments with the beta TAILS and Veracrypt (VC).
First, I tried opening a VC encrypted 32G thumb drive. That was quite
easy. It had no hidden volume, and opened and closed, mounted and
dismounted as expected. I did not need to use DISKS.

Next I tried a 1TB portable hard disk encrypted with VC. That disk
contained a hidden volume. I was able to use VC pretty easily to open the
outer volume. However, I was not able to properly unmount it. DISKS
showed it as unmounted, yet it remained as a disk on "home" and in DISKS,
even when that disk was unplugged. I was forced to reboot for the next
experiment, which was to mount and open the hidden volume. I used DISKS,
entering the password, checking the box "hidden", and showing a keyfile
and location. The result was the listing of the hidden volume, but to
access it required an admin password. Because of previous unsuccessful
mount attempts, I had set up an admin pw from the TAILS greeter, so was
indeed able to access the hidden volume and its contents. I tried
unmounting it, but only the DISKS entry for the device was removed; the
hidden volume remained on the list, both in home and DISKS, even when the
device was unplugged.

I suggest that many users will not anticipate the need to have an admin
password for certain VC containers or devices. That should somehow be
instructed. Second, the unmounting and removing of VC devices and
containers needs to be made more reliable. I tried all the same
experiments with my VC encrypted devices using Linux Mint 18.3 with no
problems at all.

You folks have done great work getting Veracrypt integrated into TAILS, so
I want to convey only thanks, praise, and some helpful suggestions. Keep
up the great work.

Cane