Issues with LUKS Password Management Options

Issues with LUKS Password Management Options

[Kiss István]

Dear Developers,

I would like to bring to your attention an issue regarding the password 
management of LUKS-encrypted volumes. Currently, the LUKS password 
prompt offers three options for remembering the password, with the 
default setting being to remember the password until logout. However, I 
rarely turn off my computer, and I often keep it in standby mode for 
weeks. As a result, the LUKS-encrypted volume remains unlocked for 
extended periods, which is not ideal from a security perspective.

Every time, I have to manually ensure that the password is only stored 
temporarily (forgotten immediately), which can be inconvenient and is 
easy to overlook. I believe it would be helpful if users had the option 
to set "forget the password immediately" as the default behavior, 
perhaps through a simple checkbox, avoiding unnecessary compromises 
between convenience and security.

I would like to ask if such a change is planned for the future or if you 
have any suggestions on how this can be more efficiently handled with 
the current system configuration.

Thank you for your attention, and I look forward to your response.

Best regards,
     István Kiss

Re: Issues with LUKS Password Management Options

[Michael Kjörling]

On 11 Oct 2024 09:08 +0200, from keraform@gmail.com (Kiss István):
> I would like to bring to your attention an issue regarding the password
> management of LUKS-encrypted volumes. Currently, the LUKS password prompt
> offers three options for remembering the password,

Neither cryptsetup nor dm-crypt has any concept of storing a container
passphrase for later use for unlocking purposes, except for the case
of reading a container passphrase being provided out-of-band to the
tooling (for example by being stored in a file).

You are _probably_ using a front-end provided by your desktop
environment, which does LUKS container passphrase handling using
whatever secrets infrastructure it uses.


> I would like to ask if such a change is planned for the future or if you
> have any suggestions on how this can be more efficiently handled with the
> current system configuration.

This question, while legitimate in itself, is almost certainly better
directed somewhere that people in the know about your particular
desktop environment are likely to frequent. You should also specify
which desktop environment and version, and possibly of other relevant
software, you are using.

If you are uncertain, a forum dedicated to your particular Linux
distribution is probably a good place to start.

I hope you get the answers you seek, but the cryptsetup mailing list
is the wrong place in which to ask your question at least as posed.

-- 
Michael Kjörling                     🔗 https://michael.kjorling.se
“Remember when, on the Internet, nobody cared that you were a dog?”

Re: Issues with LUKS Password Management Options

[Ondrej Kozina]

On 11/10/2024 09:08, Kiss István wrote:
> Dear Developers,
> 
> I would like to bring to your attention an issue regarding the password
> management of LUKS-encrypted volumes. Currently, the LUKS password
> prompt offers three options for remembering the password, with the
> default setting being to remember the password until logout. However, I
> rarely turn off my computer, and I often keep it in standby mode for
> weeks. As a result, the LUKS-encrypted volume remains unlocked for
> extended periods, which is not ideal from a security perspective.

There's no such feature in cryptsetup or libcryptsetup. I guess, you're 
referring to systemd options for caching passphrases in kernel keyring, 
or some other "feature" stacked on top of it, probably even distro specific?

cryptsetup does not cache any secret unless user explicitly asks for
it.

With regards
O. Kozina

> 
> Every time, I have to manually ensure that the password is only stored
> temporarily (forgotten immediately), which can be inconvenient and is
> easy to overlook. I believe it would be helpful if users had the option
> to set "forget the password immediately" as the default behavior,
> perhaps through a simple checkbox, avoiding unnecessary compromises
> between convenience and security.
> 
> I would like to ask if such a change is planned for the future or if you
> have any suggestions on how this can be more efficiently handled with
> the current system configuration.
> 
> Thank you for your attention, and I look forward to your response.
> 
> Best regards,
>       István Kiss
> 
> 

Re: Issues with LUKS Password Management Options

[iam.frightful278]

i had the same response and request that Kiss istvan has... im surprised the devs don't seem to be aware of this feature (maybe you's don't utilise any GUI at all for cryptsetup usage?...)

but for us GUI users, that when plug in a drive to the computer, we get the GUI with LUKS password box, under this there is the option to forget password immediately or til logout etc (as kiss described).. and the default, IMO, 'should'/could be the 'forget password immediately'... i also felt this, and wondered how i could change this feature... as it take another few clicks to access my drives. 

im running a linux mint machine, cinnamon desktop, if that helps. 

regards
phil

Sent with Proton Mail secure email.

On Friday, October 11th, 2024 at 7:08 AM, Kiss István <keraform@gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Developers,
> 
> I would like to bring to your attention an issue regarding the password
> management of LUKS-encrypted volumes. Currently, the LUKS password
> prompt offers three options for remembering the password, with the
> default setting being to remember the password until logout. However, I
> rarely turn off my computer, and I often keep it in standby mode for
> weeks. As a result, the LUKS-encrypted volume remains unlocked for
> extended periods, which is not ideal from a security perspective.
> 
> Every time, I have to manually ensure that the password is only stored
> temporarily (forgotten immediately), which can be inconvenient and is
> easy to overlook. I believe it would be helpful if users had the option
> to set "forget the password immediately" as the default behavior,
> perhaps through a simple checkbox, avoiding unnecessary compromises
> between convenience and security.
> 
> I would like to ask if such a change is planned for the future or if you
> have any suggestions on how this can be more efficiently handled with
> the current system configuration.
> 
> Thank you for your attention, and I look forward to your response.
> 
> Best regards,
> István Kiss
>

Re: Issues with LUKS Password Management Options

[Arno Wagner]

I do not disagree, but you are on the wrong mailing list here.
This is just for cryptetup (the CLI tool) and LUKS (the spec
and implementation), not for GUIs some other people have
written for it.

Regards,
Arno

On Fri, Oct 11, 2024 at 16:01:09 CEST, iam.frightful278@slmail.me wrote:
> i had the same response and request that Kiss istvan has...  im surprised
> the devs don't seem to be aware of this feature (maybe you's don't utilise
> any GUI at all for cryptsetup usage?...)
> 
> but for us GUI users, that when plug in a drive to the computer, we get
> the GUI with LUKS password box, under this there is the option to forget
> password immediately or til logout etc (as kiss described)..  and the
> default, IMO, 'should'/could be the 'forget password immediately'...  i
> also felt this, and wondered how i could change this feature...  as it
> take another few clicks to access my drives.
> 
> im running a linux mint machine, cinnamon desktop, if that helps. 
> 
> regards
> phil
> 
> Sent with Proton Mail secure email.
> 
> On Friday, October 11th, 2024 at 7:08 AM, Kiss István <keraform@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Dear Developers,
> > 
> > I would like to bring to your attention an issue regarding the password
> > management of LUKS-encrypted volumes. Currently, the LUKS password
> > prompt offers three options for remembering the password, with the
> > default setting being to remember the password until logout. However, I
> > rarely turn off my computer, and I often keep it in standby mode for
> > weeks. As a result, the LUKS-encrypted volume remains unlocked for
> > extended periods, which is not ideal from a security perspective.
> > 
> > Every time, I have to manually ensure that the password is only stored
> > temporarily (forgotten immediately), which can be inconvenient and is
> > easy to overlook. I believe it would be helpful if users had the option
> > to set "forget the password immediately" as the default behavior,
> > perhaps through a simple checkbox, avoiding unnecessary compromises
> > between convenience and security.
> > 
> > I would like to ask if such a change is planned for the future or if you
> > have any suggestions on how this can be more efficiently handled with
> > the current system configuration.
> > 
> > Thank you for your attention, and I look forward to your response.
> > 
> > Best regards,
> > István Kiss
> >
> 

-- 
Arno Wagner,     Dr. sc. techn., Dipl. Inform.,    Email: arno@wagner.name
GnuPG: ID: CB5D9718  FP: 12D6 C03B 1B30 33BB 13CF  B774 E35C 5FA1 CB5D 9718
----
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