Ubuntu :: Does Encrypted /home Stop SSH Access On LAN?
Sep 22, 2010
I've upgraded to my old dell from Xubuntu 9.10 to Xubuntu 10.04 and set up separate /home partition. I chose to encrypt the /home folder when I installed. I'm wondering if that's the quick answer for why I can no longer sftp from my Ubuntu Jaunty laptop. Both machines are on my desk, and I've been happily using ssh to get files between them before this. The Xubuntu machine has openssh server and client installed, the Jaunty machine has only ever had only the ssh client. Now I get a popup saying "Could not open location ..." and the sftp address, and "Host key verification failed." I've not done much with this new install, so I don't mind just re-installing again. I don't need an ecrypted /home, but I do want very much to be able to continue to ssh into that machine. Is it my encrypted /home that's causing this?
I have choosen to encrypt Ubuntu 10.10 during installation (no alternate installation). After some time of working properly I get following error message after I put in correct password :
"Could not update ICE authority file /home/surf1/.ICE authority"
When I click "ok" following error message is shown :
"there is a problem with the configurationserver (/usr/lib/libconf2-4/gconf-sanity-check-2 finished with status 256)"
When I click this "ok" next error message appears :
"Nautilus could not create following necessary files : home/surf1/Desktop,/home/surf1/.nautilus"
After I click here ok nothing else happen anymore and I get not access to my account and so to my data.
I had issues on my last install , I couldn't boot into it cause I accidentally uninstalled python 2.6 and everything it was attached to. So I reinstalled on a separate hard drive, I can see my other file system from the media folder but the only thing in my home dir isthese 2 files 1 read methatsaysPHPCode:THIS DIRECTORY HAS BEEN UNMOUNTED TO PROTECT YOUR DATA.From the graphical desktop, click on: "AccessYour Private Data"orFrom the command line, run: ecryptfs-mount-private and then this file Access-Your-Private-Data.desktopbut when I click it and try to run it I get thisrrorPHPCode:Untrusted application launcherThe application launcher "Access-Your-.desktop" has not been marked as trusted. If you do not know the source of this file, launching it may bensafe.
I tried upgrading to 10.04, and now when it boots it just goes into a grub2 terminal and doesn't display a boot menu. I tried re-installing grub2 from the live cd, but that didn't do anything. I figured if I've hosed the last install I'll install from scratch, but I can't even access my files from the live cd! I did a bit of searching and everyone seems to just encrypt ~/Private, whereas I've encrypted the whole home directory. So much for security... In the live cd, it has a readme.txt and says to type "ecryptfs-mount-private" to access the files, but it just gives the error "ERROR: Encrypted private directory is not setup properly". What do I do?
I'm still running 9.10, but now would like to install 10.10. Now I'm wondering about how to keep access to my encrypted home folder.
Usually, I don't do an 'upgrade', but a fresh re-install. I have a separate /home partition, so normally this works just fine. However, my home directory is encrypted (a feature that was introduced with 9.10, I believe).
So, if I whack the system partition and do a fresh reinstall there, will the new install still be able to read my home directory? Or do I need to save a key file from somewhere?
I've done something a bit stupid. I've already encrypted my home folder and just set it to log in without requesting my password. When i do log in now, no startup sound plays, several error messages appear but no desktop. I think it's because I now don't have an opportunity to enter my home folder password, and it doesn't work at all. Is there any way to edit account settings from 'root' or anything because this really has crippled my computer.
I have installed Kubuntu 10.04 x64 from scratch using the alternate installation CD and unfortunately I'm experiencing some serious troubles. Everything worked fine, installed packages, moved my backed-up data to my encrypted /home partition - until I rebooted. Usually I reboot the system right after the installation process to see if the boot process shows any errors, but what can I say, seems like I forgot to do it this time .
The problem is that the boot process just "hangs" right before the login window should disappear. By "hang" I mean dead: no switching to virtual terminals, no CTRL-ALT-DEL - the system just freezes. I'm quite familiar with doing things shell-wise, so I started the "Rescue Mode" from the alternate CD and was able to mount my root partition.
Problem #1: No faulty log entries whatsoever: dmesg, boot.log, messages etc. all looking fine - except Xorg.0.log. I suspect the proprietary Nvidia drivers to be the culprit here, because what I'm getting is: "Caught signal 11 (Segmentation Fault). Server aborting"
Running "startx" as root from the rescue shell gives the same results: complete system freeze. "Looks like a reinstallation candidate, let's just backup my data" I thought, which brings us to
Problem #2: I can't mount my encrypted /home from the rescue shell. The exact steps involved are:
Mount my root partition and chroot to it. Issuing "ecryptfs-mount-private" gives the following error message: "ERROR: Encrypted private directory is not setup properly" Becoming my user "su - faulty" and trying step 2 again yields the same results. I feel like I'm almost there: I'm executing commands in my root environment, just can't seem to access my data which I'd like to backup before doing a clean reinstall. Any thoughts?
Apparently after an upgrade, I lost access to my encrypted home directory. Looks like upgrade scripts changed the scripts that mounted my encrypted home directory. As I don't have my ecryptfs password handy, is there any way to revert the things back as they were? I have liked Ubuntu all the way but after this upgrade-mess-up, I might change my view.
I had errors pop up when I tried updating my 10.10 to 11.04 so I ended up having to do it from a Live USB which installs it over everything (fine by me).Unfortunately I forgot I had an encrypted /home directory. So various messages and stuff came up when I tried to log in.nfortunately I don't remember what my encryption passphrase is offhand, so I moved it to a slightly different folder name and had to have a new directory created for my username.It's still there, but how can I try to open it trying the various versions of the passphrase I think it may be? Can I double-click it and try?Also, in the future what is the best way to handle a "fresh" install that I want to connect to my encrypted /home directory?
I just tried reinstalling ubuntu 11.04 from the live disc, installation went well but afterwards I cannot get access to my home directory which is encrypted and I stupidly forgot to note the mount passphrase. is there anything I can do? where would the mount passphrase be stored from the previous installation and is there any chance of recoving it. Home and the root are on the same drive and the installation did not format the drive.
I logged in to Recover Mode ("Drop to root shell prompt") this morning to do something. Naturally, I wanted access to my encrypted home folder.
The README file says to run ecryptfs-mount-private. However, that command returns an error: "ERROR: Encrypted private directory is not setup properly."
This cannot be correct, because if I log in normally, I get my home folder without any problem.
How can I access my encrypted home folder when I boot via Recover Mode?
I've set up a Lucid system with software RAID and encryption, with three encrypted partions - swap (/dev/md1), the root filesystem (/dev/md2), and /home (/dev/md3). The unencrypted /boot partition is /dev/md0.
This works well but the passphrase had to be entered three times at bootup. Obviously it would be preferable to enter the passphrase once to unlock the root partition, then have the others unlocked via key files. So I added key files to the swap and home partitions and modified /etc/crypttab to use them:
Code: md1_crypt UUID=8066adbc-584c-4766-b188-bc2a7b61a2f0 /root/keys/swap-key luks,swap md2_crypt UUID=bac82294-f3b9-45e4-89ad-407cf8b19b7b none luks md3_crypt UUID=7d82a0b7-c811-4cc3-9fe7-1961c74b5ff2 /root/keys/home-key luks The key files are owned by root and have 0400 protection. (The /root/keys
[Code].....
Since the swap partition is no longer referenced in fstab or crypttab, why is there still a bootup password prompt for it? What else needs to be done to stop it?
I am trying to give access to ONE single user to start and shutdown tomcat server. The problem being, when I enter syntax: username ALL= /etc/init.d/tomcat5, /usr/local/tomcat/webapps, PASSWD:ALL This gives the user access to start and stop tomcat but also gives user access to start and stop other services within /etc/init.d - such as httpd etc... What is the proper way to give user access to start and stop service, and limiting that power to only one service....
Dummy me let root run out of space because I didn't know to use logrotate. I was able to compress the system logs but not before the damage was done me thinks; now the computer is unbootable. I booted from a LiveCD and got my old partitions mounted under /media/oldroot to try and recover files; however, I forgot that I had encrypted my home. I found [URL] and was following it; however, I seem to run into a bunch of path issues after I chroot.
The chroot command returns: bash: groups: command not found
The su command returns: -su: cut: command not found -su: getent: command not found -su: expr: command not found -su: groups: command not found
Finally, the ecryptfs-mount-private command returns: -su: ecryptfs-mount-private: command not found
I have separate partitons for /, /home, /tmp, /usr, and /usr/local and bothered to mount the first 2. (If only I had been ambitious enough to create a /var). I was running Ubuntu 10.10.
I'm recently switched my work laptop from running winXP to runing karmic. I'm still at the stage of getting my various bits and bobs working correctly. One of these I (may) have a problem with is backup's. I've ran backuppc on a ubuntu 9.04 box in the attic for the last year or so and I've been backing up my laptop to that. But since the switch, since I have an encrypted home dir, what is being backed up is the encrypted files. First, can I recover these if needed (I kept a copy of my passphrase), or can I get backuppc to ssh in as me with my home dir mounted correctly?
Backuppc is using rsync over ssh I've been using linux on and off since about redhat 5.0, so I'm not afraid of the command line or vi
I recently did a clean install of Ubuntu 9.10 and when I did I chose to have /home on it's own partition and have it encrypted. The more I think about it the more I regret this decision. What if I want to switch distros down the road? What if I have to boot from a live cd to back up files? Is there a way to "undo" the encrypted home folder permanently? I don't mind having it on it's own partition, it's just the encryption that makes me worry.
I recently installed Ubuntu Karmic on my netbook (I tried netbook remix but preferred the look of the regular desktop edition). When during installation, the option to encrypt the home folder appeared, and being mildly paranoid I thought, "sure, why not?" (I must warn you that I am a new user with little technical knowledge other than what I have managed to gather in a semi-passive manner over the past couple of months). The problem is, I (try to) backup my data weekly, and so today I gave it a shot (I got the desktop edition a week ago). I have encountered the following problem.
I backup my system following (approximately) the instructions at [URL] for Backup The exact command I enter at backup is:
(I exclude my music folder as it is huge and I already have it all in several other locations) When I executed this command all ran smoothly for a while, however it soon began backing up the directory /home/.ecryptfs/dan/.Private At this point, it started backing up the huge number of files in this directory. I assume these are encryption keys? Forgive my ignorance... Anyway, it took several hours going through this folder, and finally bzip gave up, complaining of excessive file size:
bzip2: I/O or other error, bailing out. Possible reason follows. bzip2: File too large Input file = (stdin), output file = (stdout)
I assume that excluding the encryption keys and such from the backup would be a bad idea: I guess that if I did not restore the relevant directories along with my home folder, it would be inaccessible? Is there a way to avoid backing up such a large amount of data?
During the installation of Ubuntu Karmic, I picked the option that encrypts my home directory.
A few questions:
(1) Shortly after installation, I was asked to run a command to print a key necessary for data recovery from a rescue CD. I didn't run it at the time and am now looking for the command to run. What is it?
(2) I think I read somewhere that this also encrypts swap. Great. Correct me if that's wrong.
(3) If I suspend the machine, is my home directory encrypted? That is, if I have this on a laptop and travel with the suspended laptop and someone steals it, are my data safe, or not?
(4) I assume the weakest point in the system is my relatively short login password (but I think the install tests it and found it okay). Is there a recommendation how long this should be?
I ran fsck on the wrong partition (which was mounted) and in my haste blew up the file system on that partition. Now here's the kicker, I had 450Gb of data and documents on that partition that was in an encrypted home directory. So the long and the short of it I ran fsck again and I was able to recover all the files, and they are now residing on a Lost+Found folder on my hard drive.I have located the encrypted files, but I don't know what to do with them.
I have a dual boot WinXP / Kubuntu system. Recently, I tried to upgrade from 9.10 to 10.04. I have my Kubuntu partition set up with separate partitions for / , /home , and swap. Naturally, I wanted to wipe the slate clean, so I formatted / and left /home alone before doing the install. However, my /home partition was encrypted with the standard crypto that you get when you install. I just deleted the way in by wiping my / partition. Now all of my files are on my drive but encrypted. I do have the unencrypted passphrase given to me when the hard drive was first encrypted, so I am sure there is some way to get my files, but I am unsure how to apply it.
so, after long time of succesfull use of kubuntu, i encountered a 1st major disaster yesterday while using kphotoalbum. It has somehow frozen my machine in so mighty way, that it apparently corrupted a directory with majority of my pictures , which now appears to be empty .My home lies on a separate partition, its encrypted aand using btrfs and I am using kubuntu 10.10. So, could anyone give me some clues how to unencrypt my home partition, that i could obtain an image of partition or whatever else usable for photorec to check for pictures?
I did some minor upgrades to my 10.04 box which grew and grew and grew until I'd hosed xorg, and after some unwise choices about uninstalling X11 as a means to rebuild the system I now have a drive I was using for 10.04 that basically doesn't have an O/S any more... don't ask! First class stupid.Anyhow, I've cracked open a new drive, installed 11.04 and was planning to mount the old /home/me folder as a symbolic link from 11.04. All that was fine until I remembered that 1) I no longer have an OS on my 10.04 drive and I've encrypted my home folder on the 10.04 machine. That home folder is still intact, but obviously not much use right now.
So, have I just hosed myself completely (as I suspect) hosed myself or is there a way to capture the cleartext data from the encrypted folder and move it into the 11.04 machine, either with rsync, restoring the O/S to the formerly 10.04 drive and restoring the encryptied /home to that drive?
Goal 1) recovery contents of encrypted folder to plaintext, but lacking ability to log into O/S that generated the /home folder
2) move data to 11.04
3) attach the cleartext verison of home to my 11.04 account and get to work.
I just installed 9.10 on my laptop and selected the option for home folder encryption. I am running DropBox and placed the DropBox folder on my desktop (meaning it should be encrypted when I am logged out.) So I have two questions: 1) Shouldn't this setup cause my DropBox files on the server to be encrypted? Apparently they are not because they appear as unencrypted text using the DropBox Web interface. 2) If they were encrypted on the server (which doesn't appear to be the case right now), how would it be possible to share them with another client unless the encryption on both clients were set up identically?
I have a sh script that is in my home directory that I would like to run at startup. I have added it to the crontab @reboot and it will not run. I installed Ubuntu 9.10 Server x64 with encrypted home directories.If i move the script into another folder outside my home directory then it will run. I am guessing the home directory is not mounted unless I login???? For security purposes I would like to keep the script it in my home directory.how i can achieve this?
I purchased a larger hard drive to upgrade my HTPC running MythTV and a Samba file server. I put the old hard drive into an e-SATA enclosure and can still boot to it to access my files, but I can't seem to mount it correctly under the new installation to copy over my files even though I have the mount passphrase and encrypted filenames key.I have tried using this howto, but I run into problems with the encrypted filenames.This is how I'm doing it. I replaced the actual key data with A's and B's to protect my keys:
While setting up my laptop on a new hard drive (a bad mobo caused writes which pretty much rendered teh old hdd unusable) I was asked if I wanted to encrypt my home partition.
I've been wanting this for several years - even going as far as trying to get a copy of CheckPoint. That's waht my organization uses on all Wintendo laptops and is required.
In any case, I said "yes" and am happily using my laptop with an encrypted home partition. I'm assuming based on this - [URL] - that it is using EncryptFS as the scheme.
if I were to misplace my laptop, how easy would it be for a forensics team to retrieve my data. Let's assume I have a fairly strong passphrase, such as BisZumBitterenEnd3. [URL]
I had some major problems after the recent Ubuntu upgrade and had to boot from a live cd. I have a separate /home partition, but it was encrypted using the default install encryption in the 9.10 install cd. How can I get to my files so I can back them up?
I have tried this but it did not work: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1337693
I have an Acer Aspire One, Model ZG5 (also known as the 110 with 8GB SSD) which originally came with Linpus Lite installed on it.
I previously had 9.10 installed which was great, but I've done a fresh install of UNR 10.04 since I had a full /home partition and wanted to set up with more space.
This time, I opted for a larger /home drive (~4GB) and also to have it encrypted, which is a good idea for netbooks given their portability (and I have no idea why I didn't do it before!). Since I had very little space on my 8GB drive (if I wanted a larger /home) then I installed /home onto a separate partition, which is located on a 16GB SD card which lives in my machine permanently.
Installation was a breeze, and encryption seems to work fine. I have verified it and it seems to be working. However, I've now hit two related problems - one of which is to do with Thunderbird, and one which is an issue with the encrypted /home drive.
Firstly, I have a large gmail account which I like to replicate offline in Thunderbird (am using v 3.0.4). My online gmail tells me that I'm using 1.4GB of data space online. Using the old T'bird (v2.whatever) my offline T'bird storage was approximately the same size. This is not now true of my current offline storage file size, which is showing at 3.2GB for the same data. I started with a clean slate, just installing T'bird, setting up my account and then leaving it to download all data from Google.
Anyone know why this offline size is so much bigger than the online storage size or even the previous offline storage size?
Secondly, the encrypted /home drive. Given that I needed I put this on a separate card and partition, I had hoped to escape any issues with not having enough space. However, my system is now telling me that /home is out of space...
Specifically, I can see that I have used 3.6 of my 3.8GB storage for /home. This is due to the large size of my offline storage folder.
As I see it, I need to do one of two things (possibly both) - reduce the size of my offline e-mail storage, and increase the size of my /home partition.
Reducing the offline storage will be about finding out why it's so big in the first place.
However, if I wanted to increase the size of my encrypted /home file how would I do this? I have used gparted to make additional space after it - so I could increase the size if it's possible, but I am a little concerned.
If I just increase the size of the partition, would this work? Are there issues with the fact that it's an encrypted partition? What should I be aware of if I wanted to increase an already in-use partition, and how should I best go about this?
