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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Question About TPM Autodecrypt (mander.xyz)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

19 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I have setup my fedora to use LUKS encryoted partitions. But entering two passwords gets quite tiring, as I shutdown my laptop quite often to get the benefit of LUKS (I am assuming nothing is encrypted when in suspend, please correctme if I am wrong)

I am thinking about setting up TPM autodecrypt. However, I was wondering does the decryption happen on boot or after I login?

If it happens on boot, then it seems like the benefit is pretty limited compare to a unencrypted drive. Since the attacker can simply boot my laptop and get the unecrypted drive.

Am I missing something here? I was wondering is there a way for me to enter my password once and unlock everything, from disk to gnome keyring?

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[–] hunger 9 points 1 year ago

The idea behind TPM-locked boot is that you can boot into your system unattended, but it stops booting into any other system. Typically no password is needed, but you can also assign an additional (non-user) password if you want.

This is nice if you trust your system to be basically secure. Nothing else can access its filesystems, so no external tool can be used to break into it. Rescue disks can not access any data without knowing a special rescue key -- so make sure to set one up! A nice side effiect is that the key is only available while setting up disks in the initrd and totally inaccessible at any other time. That makes it very hard to extract the password once the system is running.

You can encrypt the home directories of users using other services like systemd-homed. That will prevent anyone from accessing any data in the user's directory while that user is logged out. Homed will basically use your password to unlock your disk and if that works, then the password is accepted. So you do not need that user to be listed in the traditional /etc/passwd file, which is useful as you can just copy the users homedir image file onto another system to move a user account over.