Disk encryption may not be secure enough....

[fart_plume]

Just found this disturbing article..........

http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-987...?tag=nefd.lede

[hecktic]

dam...

[aiya_au]

would be interesting to hear what Steve Gibson at GRC.com thinks about it.

If you went to the lengths of full disk encryption with super sensitive data on the computer, you probably wouldn't put it into sleep mode anyway and expose the risk of scanning the ram for encryptions keys.

[largon]

This works only when the encrypted volume is mounted and accessible by any program. For example in TrueCrypt, simply dismounting the volume results in the keys being erased from RAM thus making this "exploit" impossible. TC also automatically dismounts all volumes once the user logs off or the system enters a sleep mode.

Supercooling RAM?

[STEvil]

Nice trick cooling the ram to make it hold its information while hotswapping it.

[Jaivan]

Thats some pretty cool stuff!!

[FischOderAal]

This works only when the encrypted volume is mounted and accessible by any program. For example in TrueCrypt, simply dismounting the volume results in the keys being erased from RAM thus making this "exploit" impossible. TC also automatically dismounts all volumes once the user logs off or the system enters a sleep mode.

Supercooling RAM?

exactly. so they need direct access to your RAM, for instance via a trojan horse. if they have direct access to the computer while it is running and the volumes are mounted they don't even have to take a look into the RAM

I don't see a big problem here

[Jaivan]

Well if your encrypting your hdd would you not run a decent firewall/antivirus/spyware/maleware etc. to prevent a trojan.

[KoHaN69]

I want to see this in practice on video.

[FischOderAal]

Well if your encrypting your hdd would you not run a decent firewall/antivirus/spyware/maleware etc. to prevent a trojan.

brainwall.exe is sufficient for most cases...

[saaya]

software encryption will never be 100% secure, this isnt news...
what you need is hardware encryption

[Ugly n Grey]

software encryption will never be 100% secure, this isnt news...
what you need is hardware encryption

The problem with hardware encryption is whoever made the hardware has the key or the backdoor. IBM keys are probably not secure as they likely give them to the feds in the US anyhow. Trust no one

[w0mbat]

I want to see this in practice on video.

here u go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDaicPIgn9U

[theystolemyname]

There aren't any known exploits to attack AES or serpent. saaya, please show some evidence that supports your theory that AES / serpent volumes created in truecrypt aren't "100% secure" short of brute force attacks.

[xb1az3x]

And to think I thought the weak point for all of this software encryption was the fact that really it is protected by a password.

[iddqd]

Nice trick cooling the ram to make it hold its information while hotswapping it.

Also a nice trick: soldering a power supply to it in parallel. Y'know, doesn't require it to be near zero kelvin to work.

[darkone414]

Anyone know if True Crypt would store the key files coming off a USB drive in the RAM?

Edit: Now that I think about it some more I guess it does since you can remove the drive and still have the volume open. Can someone confirm that True Crypt does in fact wipe the RAM once the volume is closed?

[kryptobs2000]

I don't see such a big deal here. This isn't really news even is it? We've known how ram works forever. I'm really not too worried about someone taking the ram out of my computer, if I have data on a computer that is that sensitive and someone were able to take the ram out of it, I don't think the problem lies on the fault of the encryption.

[largon]

There aren't any known exploits to attack AES or serpent. saaya, please show some evidence that supports your theory that AES / serpent volumes created in truecrypt aren't "100% secure" short of brute force attacks.

But this exploit is not about the encryption. It's all about how encryption softwares handles the keys.

TrueCrypt documentation states that the master key is stored unencrypted in the RAM as long as the volume is mounted.

Inherently, unencrypted master keys have to be stored in RAM as well. When a TrueCrypt volume is dismounted, TrueCrypt erases its master keys (stored in RAM). When the computer is cleanly restarted, all TrueCrypt volumes are automatically dismounted (thus, all master keys stored in RAM are erased by the TrueCrypt driver).

edit:
On a completely unrelated note:
kryptobs2000,
I think there's an unwritten rule on internet on forums that prohibit male users from using avatars that depic males who aren't either of these:
1. the user himself
2. celebrity that has considerable amount of "street kred"