[SOLVED] /home encryption at installation no longer a feature?

[lcharles]

I recently read this web article:

https://www.linuxuprising.com/2018/0...in-ubuntu.html

Which starts by stating Ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04 no longer include a feature to encrypt a /home partition when installing the system. To me it implied that encrypted /home folders are insecure.

Recently I installed Mint 20 on a dual boot system with Ubuntu 18.04. Using Mint I could see the contents of my supposedly encrypted /home on the Ubuntu partition. To say the least I was surprised. I haven't tired yet to see if a USB thumb drive live boot of Mint 20 will do the same thing.

Is there a way to check it a /home directory is in fact encrypted?

My knowledge of Linux in general is basic to moderate.

[hightokeinyoda]

now you have me curious im pulling up a chair for this one

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[claydoh]

Starting in 18.04, the encrypted $HOME was replaced with full-disk encryption, which is arguably much more secure.
The method used to do the previous $HOME encryption , ecryptfs, is not well maintained any longer, or at least it is purported to be. it's git repo looks to at least somewhat verify this.

Now as to seeing files from the encrypted disk, that my depend - does your Mint user account use the same username/password ? I will bet they do which of course would explain things if they are.
How did you encrypt the $HOME in 18.04, considering that 18.04 only offers full-disk encryption? You may want to verify that it actually is encrypted if you set it up manually.

From the running system, look at the output of the mount command.
If you have used ecryptfs to encrypt the home, look for instances of the term ecryptfs in the output.

Something like this:

/home/username/.Private on /home/username type ecryptfs

In this scenario, the encrypted files are actually stored in the hidden dir .Private and when decrypted they are mounted at the user's home dir. There could also be a dir called .ecryptfs along with or in place of the Private dir. From a liuve session, or a different user account, all tht would be visible would be one or both of these hidden dirs.

If you have used the default full-disk encryption with LUKS, use Gparted or KDE Partition Manager and look for instances of partitions marked as LUKS and LVM.

[lcharles]

Thanks, that answered the question but I need some kind of /home encryption.

[claydoh]

What's wrong with full disk encryption?

The *Ubuntu installer is purposefully simple so any other option will take manual setup methods.



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