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Breaking VeraCrypt: Obtaining and Extracting On-the-Fly Encryption Keys

82 pointsby polaralmost 4 years ago

8 comments

gruezalmost 4 years ago
&gt;To capture an image of the computer’s RAM, run EFDD on the computer on which the VeraCrypt disk is currently mounted.<p>This seems like a pointless exercise. If the disk is already decrypted and mounted, plus you have access to the computer, why not just... directly read the disk? Or initiate the decryption routine?
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aborsyalmost 4 years ago
The title (breaking veracrypt) is misleading (and probably a click bait).<p>Any mounted encrypted data has keys in RAM or an HSM. If you have access to inside of those, you have access to keys. This is not breaking anything.<p>You can encrypt or obfuscate data in RAM, but then the keys should be stored in disk, ram or HSM, which is subject to the same problem. Actually, TPM&#x2F;secure enclave merely binds the key to the device, and doesn’t help with key extraction, since it trusts the root, unless you set a PIN, which makes automated access impractical, or a max number of trials.<p>I liked some posts in this blog, particularly the one on synology which turned out to be consequential, but I think the authors should title their posts more modestly.<p>—————————————————-<p>VeraCrypt FAQ answers a question on root privilege, reading RAM and support for TPM:<p>“No. Those programs use TPM to protect against attacks that require the attacker to have administrator privileges, or physical access to the computer, and the attacker needs you to use the computer after such an access. However, if any of these conditions is met, it is actually impossible to secure the computer (see below) and, therefore, you must stop using it (instead of relying on TPM).<p>If the attacker has administrator privileges, he can, for example, reset the TPM, capture the content of RAM (containing master keys) or content of files stored on mounted VeraCrypt volumes (decrypted on the fly), which can then be sent to the attacker over the Internet or saved to an unencrypted local drive (from which the attacker might be able to read it later, when he gains physical access to the computer).”
upofadownalmost 4 years ago
I guess the interesting thing for a VeraCrypt user is that Elcomsoft can&#x27;t grab keys from memory if RAM encryption of keys and passwords is turned on. So that means such a user is immune to Elcomsoft forensics software if they have a strong passphrase.<p>I am not sure why Elcomsoft would want to write a blog article informing the world of this fact...<p>Anyway, here is the direct link to how VeraCrypt does their RAM encryption:<p>* <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;sourceforge.net&#x2F;p&#x2F;veracrypt&#x2F;discussion&#x2F;technical&#x2F;thread&#x2F;3961542951&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;sourceforge.net&#x2F;p&#x2F;veracrypt&#x2F;discussion&#x2F;technical&#x2F;thr...</a>
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jonnycomputeralmost 4 years ago
Can I just complain for a moment about this site&#x27;s popup with two buttons labeled, &quot;Subscribe&quot; and &quot;Keep Receiving our News&quot; with no close button or deny available.
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beermonsteralmost 4 years ago
“We’ve supported this workflow for years for multiple disk encryption packages, and now we have it for VeraCrypt, one of the most commonly used disk encryption package in the criminal world.”<p>Two things:<p>1. I’m sure FileVault and BitLocker are also commonly used by criminals. In fact probably more so in the first instance, unintentionally, it given it’s enabled by default in modern MacOS.<p>2. It seems to imply VeraCrypt is commonly used by criminals. That might be true I guess, but I’d bet more non-criminals than criminals use VeraCrypt.<p>Maybe VeraCrypt just stands out more as a red flag rather than using native LUKS&#x2F;FileVault&#x2F;BitLocker for Linux&#x2F;MacOS&#x2F;Windows accordingly.<p>I also don’t see what elcomsoft have to gain by writing these blogposts? Who are their target audience?
unnouinceputalmost 4 years ago
This is a non-issue for most users. If you&#x27;re part of the users who need fast dismount then an additional hardware can be deployed, as paranoid as turning your back to a camera and the eyes reading very primitive algorithm will shut down your PC.
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y7almost 4 years ago
This is such a weird article. It&#x27;s basically an ad for software that claims to &quot;break&quot; VeraCrypt by extracting encryption keys from a memory dump. And apparently it doesn&#x27;t even work if you set VeraCrypt to encrypt keys in memory.
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noxeralmost 4 years ago
Just as stupid ad for Elcomsoft Forensic Disk Decryptor with a click bait title.