Hi! I want to try out fedora workstation in the near future (once 39 is out) and was wondering if systemd-homed is ready for everyday use yet.
I’m a bit paranoid and really need my private data encrypted. However, I don’t think that full disk encryption is practical for my daily use. Therefore I was really looking forward to the encryption possibilities of systemd-homed.
However, after reading up on it, I was a bit discouraged. AFAIK, there’s no option to setup systemd-homed at installation (of fedora). I was an Arch then Manjaro, then Endeavour user for years but don’t have the time/patience anymore to configure major parrts of my system anymore. Also, the documentation doesn’t seem too noob-friendly to me, which also plays into the time/patience argument.
Is it ready? Can anyone seriously recommend it for a lazy ex-Arch user who doesn’t want to break another linux installation?
Thank you in advance. :)
I read from your answers on other comments, that you do want to have even protection if someone forces you to give up your password and at the same time have the convenience of a quick boot process and avoid full disk encryption? (Not provoking, just want to make sure I get you right). Please consider, that if you don’t make your thread-model clear it will be really hard to give a proper advice.
Please be aware that it’s often a trade between usability and comfort on the one hand and proper security on the other hand. I’m not really sure if you want to target both at the same priority, that might not work out. You will not achieve Maximum convenience and maximum security at the same time.
If you want to actually commit to high security, there’s a thing with LUKS or VeraCrypt supporting plausible deniability. Main concept is, you have one key that decrypts sort of a mock up file system with uncritical data (or misleading, slightly compromising stuff, however you want to play it). Then you have a way longer key, that unlocks the actual data. This can cover your ass for the thread model of some actor forcing you to give up you password. Have a look at the VeraCrypt documentation on plausible deniability.
Another great read for me was hitchhikers guide to online anonymity. Might be off topic, but there are some great advices and guides to increase your anonymity and considerations about online security too. If you want to go fully paranoid on a Snowden level, that might be you way to go. Took it as a inspiration to get myself a QubesOS setup and got a lot of insights with that one.
I really don’t want to discourage you, it’s the opposite! I appreciate everyone thinking about how to secure their stuff properly, but be aware that you might need to dig yourself deep into it, if you want to achieve the goals you mentioned.
Wow! Thank you for the thorough answer!
You misunderstood one thing, though: I don’t consider someone forcing me to give up my password to be a valid attack vector. My devices can be stolen and all hardware keys with them. But I woun’t get blackmailed to give anything up. Maybe plausible deniability is a good backup, though.
I’d like to go into further detail, but I feel like I already said too much for a non-throwaway account.
I do realize that convenience and security are a two ends of a see-saw. Thank you for the Vera.crypt hint. Even though I don’t know if I would use it, it sure sounds interesting.
To go back to basics, why is FDE not suitable for your needs?
Simple convenience. I usually don’t have the time to wait one or two minutes until my full disk is decrypted (I am often late and the only person in a group meeting who brought a laptop for taking minutes).
I also use a weird keyboard layout (Neo 2) and I never got grub to load with that layout. Typing a 40+ passphrase in QWRETZ is just cumbersome to me.
Also: I hate to admit it, but I am a bit vain and simply would like a nice gui for entering my password.
Edit: I forgot to add that I’m playing with the idea of getting a surface tablet and installing linux on it. Then I couldn’t count on awlays having a usb keyboard with me.
You can setup FDE that utilizes TPM like Windows does with bitlocker, in such a way that your backup phrase is only necessary if something about your hardware changes.
Last I set it up however, there wasn’t any easy/automatic way. Searching “luks TPM” should get you started.
I’ve been using this guide for ages.
https://fedoramagazine.org/automatically-decrypt-your-disk-using-tpm2/
I need more than data security at rest. Reading out the keys from ram is well within my threat model.
In that case systemd won’t help you either.
Care to elaborate why? I thought that systemd can encrypt your home partition when locking your device.
Haha are you serious? In that case nothing short of full disk encryption and secure boot with your own keys is remotely adequate. Do you realize, that just encrypting your /home is at most a mild obscurity measure? If an attacker has potentially access to your computer and parts of it are unencrypted or unsigned, they could easily install a keylogger that sends out your data and/or password the next time you use your computer?!
If your situation is not just a psychological case of paranoia, but a real threat, then you absolutely need to work on your security knowledge a good amount!
I don’t really hppreciate your tone. Could you be a little less of a dick, please?
Keyloggers aren’t in my threat model (i.e.: they aren’t in the MO of my potential attackers).
I have a LUKS-encrypted laptop (1GB SSD), it takes about 10 seconds between typing in the password and the start of the boot process.
Good for you. I have the same setup and it feels too slow to me.
That’s not answering his question.
I’d like to tell you why you get downvoted:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY_problem
X Y problems exist. And are fairly common in IT. That’s why it’s a good idea to ask questions like this.
He doesn’t need to explain why he doesn’t like FDE, there are plenty of reasons. Shared device, or maybe 2nd level of encryption, whatever. He already said it wasn’t what he wanted, the why is none of your business. If you can answer his question, do. If you can’t, just say you can’t. His preference is his preference. Now, you going to help the guy or not?
Also, I honestly don’t give a flying f if I get downvoted for telling you what you did wrong. Being in the right is all I need, thanks. Won’t be seeing your reply, blocking you before you try to be more of a smug ass.
Short interception here: I actually appreciate the question. I think I didn’t thoroughly explain what bugged me with FDE. And the X Y problem is something I’d like to be aware of.
The implied problems with FDE might actually not fit my situation or threat model, why I think it was important to elaborate.
Edit: Just thought of it in this way: In this context, I’d rather be asked than have things inferred about me.
Wow. This is not going well… Thanks for trying but I guess we left the realm of reason somehow. I’m glad neither of us wants to continue.
Wth kid. I stick up for you against someone assuming you don’t know anything, and then you stick your hand up and say you actually don’t? Fine, you deserve one another.
For the record, if you can afford the performance hit and are on SSD, I recommend either LUKS FDE or filesystem based encryption (ZFS, for example) + Home directory encryption. Don’t forget to encrypt the swap, too. That way if you ever have to share the FDE passphrase with someone you share a computer with, your data in your home directory is still safe, and it can encrypt the filenames, too. If you’re on spinning disk, you can still go that hard, but it’ll be noticeably slower.
FDE is fine for most work computers. Home directory encryption is for shared computers, or to stack on FDE if you’re sufficiently paranoid.
Works for me on arch linux. No hickups or anything and I am using it since it was first announced.
Never used systemd-homed, but i know an alternative to full disk encryption is having the root partition unencrypted, and the home partition unlocked at boot. For a single user machine at least, i don’t see any difference when using it than unlocking at login. But then having 2 partitions is mandatory, and that may be a problem when running out of space.
