Ubuntu Security :: Security, Passwords & Encryption Keys?
Jun 7, 2011
I am not very security minded...I'm aware of it, and always made sure I had up-to-date overall protection in Windows but firewalls, and the blasted passwords are largely a thorn in my side!When I got my iPhone last year I suddenly discovered password managers & "wallets" to keep all that kind of information in and syncable across different devices. My life got so much easier. Of course now I need to figure out encryption keys, and how they work (I'm clueless). I also need to find a program or system that I can move my existing low-tech info (mailnly user name & passwords) that will also accomodate the increased needs of Ubuntu security and still be sync-able. I started a little research weeks ago, but my current "wallet" only exports .csv so I quit since I'm going to have to do a lot of data entry whatever I go with.So here goes:
1) what is the difference (bare bones) between using an encryption key (e.k.) vs. a standard user created password? what situations are better suited for e.k.?
2) I have seahorse (default intall with Ubuntu I guess) but the only thing in it is Login under passwords which leads to a login keyring (?) and a drop-down list of about 6-10 of the gazillon passwords I use daily. The other tabs are for keys which I don't have any concept of.
3) I know FF also "remembers" user id & passwords as you choose to have it do so. Is that information transferable into seahorse or another program?
4)I'm also (today) getting ready to really set up my system for user names & security across my little home network. How can I integrate that into whichever program/app I go with to store my pwds and keys?
5)give me links to fairly current documentation on this stuff?
6) Any program/app recommendations.Pros/cons uses, what they can & can't do or be used for, etc.
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Mar 11, 2011
Is it possible to have two passwords associated with one account, one that is the actual one, and another one, a duress password, that upon entering gives a similar (desktop) environment with "decoy data"?
The idea is to have the bogus password go to an encrypted home drive that looks as if it were the real deal, but it is wiping particular sensitive (encrypted) data that is visible only with the real password in the background, so that the actual data that need to be protected are not compromised. While the person who unlocked the computer tries to find the information on it between all the rubbish files, the real files are securely wiped. The files are very sensitive in nature, so it's better to have then destroyed than have unauthorized people access them, in the event of that happening.
I happen to know that TrueCrypt has a similar option but that requires an entire decoy operating system (and I think that might be a bit conspicuous), but is there a native linux way to do it?
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Mar 10, 2010
I would like to be able to store all my important details and passwords in such a way that it is encrypted, easy to get the information out and is cross-platform. Basically, I am thinking that if I kick the bucket that I would like to make it as easy as possible for others to be able to access this information using a pre-arranged password.
Ideally I would like the files to contain the program that is needed to extract the data i.e. importantinfoLinux.sh inportantinfoWin.exe (Just like a self-containing zip). I haven't found anything along those lines.
The things I am currently thinking of is:
1) A password database program that is cross-platform like KeePass. WIth the bundle contining the relevant installers for win, linux and OS X and the database file.
2) An AES encrypted zip of the data with relevant programs to open it e.g. 7-zip on windows, peazip on linux and OS X
Has anyone got any thoughts on this? Any self-containing java encryption apps?
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Jun 20, 2010
I'd like to know if there's a simple way to create a LUKS encryption drive with different passwords? A real one that leads to one set of data, and another that leads to a whole different set of data. Is this even possible with LUKS?
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May 1, 2011
I just recently upgraded from 10.10 to 11.04, but using the classic desktop instead of unity, mainly because unity sucks big time, but that's a different story, anyway, when I used 10.10 I had a key setup for access to my remote SSH server, but now when I try to set up a new key using passwords and encryption, I get:- "Couldn't configure secure shell keys on remote computer", followed by:- '** (process:2532):WARNING **:couldn't open fd 27:Bad file desciptor' 3 lines of this with different process numbers then I got ''** (process:2535):WARNING **:couldn't open fd 27:Bad file descriptor: Permission Denied. Please try again'
I have not changed anything on the remote server at all. I can access SSH using PuTTy sucessfuly, but I want to set up a key using the ubuntu passwords and encryption key program, but since ugrading to 11.04 I can not do that for some reason.
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Oct 22, 2010
I know this has probably been asked too many times here but I need to secure my emails. Personal matters of course. But yeah. I use the program "Password and Encryption Keys" to generate a key to sign my emails with but I do not know what to do. To be blunt, I'm stupid when it comes to this. IF not, steps in creating a key? and giving it (my public key) to the significant other? Finding where both keys are? Implementing it into Thunderbird? If it helps any here's some extra information: Ubuntu distro: Ubuntu 10.04 Email client: Thunderbird
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Oct 19, 2010
I have a lot of passwords and keys for FTP and SSH connections that I need to keep. When using the "Passwords and Encryption Keys" the Export menu is sensitive/disabled.
I need to back them up, amongst other things, as I'll be re-partitioning my hard drive which will most likely result in a fresh install of Ubuntu.
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Jan 7, 2010
I wonder if it is possible to have two passwords for one user account in 9.10. I have a long login password (5 words about 45 characters with spaces caps). I would like to set a shorter password for Authentication, sudo, etc. While retaining the original for logging in.In short:Have long password to login to computer.Have short password for everything after login.
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Jan 2, 2010
Im a total beginner when it comes cryptography and networking. Finally managed to create a connection with OpenVPN on Ubuntu to a vpn provider called ivacy. On this page:http://ivacy.com/en/doc/user/setup/winxp_openvpn they give configuration files and keys, which I used. The question is, if someone wanted to see my network traffic, could they do it using the keys provided on that page. Reading the OpenVPN documentation i saw that it is also possible to create your own keys. Would that be more secure?
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Dec 15, 2010
I use Ubuntu on my netbook, which I uses for browsing and email. It's way faster than the Windows which came on the machine. That's a nice feature, as is the price.
I like it except for the constant, perpetual, ever-present, super-annoying need to be entering passwords and "becoming root user" and so on. I am the only one using this appliance. I don't even care if someone steals it, really. There must be some way (I hope) of disabling this idea that I am a CIA agent with TopSecret materials.
I just want a simple, easy to use appliance. If not Ubuntu, is there any distro that is aimed at normal people?
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Sep 18, 2010
DRG SSH Username and Password Authentication Tag Clouds
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Aug 31, 2010
Lately I adapted my /etc/fstab to mount samba shared network drives. I had to put the password in the configuration file in order to log in automatically. Isn't there another way? It feels a little akward to me to put passwords in a plain text-file.
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Jul 25, 2010
I think ubuntu/canonical should start releasing a new flavour geared towards meeting needs of computer security professionals just like backtrack distro
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Dec 27, 2010
How would You encrypt Passwords [emails,forums,accounts] onto USB Flash the most Secure way? (It should be command line so I can use any Linux distribution on it.) Is gpg -c <filename> secure enough ? And what FAST distro would you install on it? I'm learning on old USB flash and found SliTaz pretty damn cool,I use it as a LiveUSB. Also I've tried Kubuntu but it's bit slow. Going to try Lubuntu soon too. Any other idea?
And I'd like to install some FAST distro onto new 8GB mini USB flash drive,maybe Kubuntu as well. How would you partition its Flash drive? Probably separate partition for stored encrypted files?
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Feb 20, 2011
I am looking for some software (not Tryecrypt) where I can just right click a file and it will encrypt it for me. It would be nice to unencrypt on Windows but not essential.
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Jul 19, 2010
Sitting at the console, I log in with any user name and NO PASSWORD IS REQUESTED. I get logged in automatically without entering the user's password.
I did:
passwd joeuser
To change his password and still he goes right in without being asked for a password!
Possibly related- 10 days ago, my smtp server was breached as a spam relay. The username they cracked was deleted. I added fail2ban for postfix. The logs show no further intrusion.
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Jun 6, 2011
I have joined a number of websites over time and it seems harder to manage them. Would like advice on how to generate passwords and to store and keep track of them. I would like to hear of systems or programs that are good for this.
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Aug 11, 2010
How to make users, groups, paswords and their IDs be the same on several computers (for example, on cluster)?
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Jun 14, 2010
i have found this xor encryption program
Code:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#define MAX_SIZE 256
[code]....
Its working fine, it can encrypt and decrypt. but how strong is it ? is it all depending on the specified key ?
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Jun 16, 2010
As I am a paranoid bastard, I made a bash screencap-script for my Ubuntu-computer, so I can check if anyone uses my computer for things I don't want them to do (eg. checking if anyone is viewing passwords stored in FireFox, looking at private files, or other things I find disturbing). There might be other people than me that is paranoid and want to monitor what's going on on their computers while they are away or letting someone else use their computer when going to the bathroom.
This is a small script, I'd like to hear if there is any improvements that can be done, so I can learn more and become better at such scripting.
The script requires Imagick (sudo apt-get install imagemagick) and a folder in the ~-directory (/home/username) called ".screen" (hidden, as this makes it more difficult to "intruders" to find it and it looks more like a system-folder than a monitoring-folder).
The script:
Code:
#!/bin/bash
i=1;
j=`date`;
user=`whoami`;
[Code]....
Add this script to /usr/local/bin and then go to keyboard-shortcuts in GNOME and add a shortcut-key-combination of your own choice for the script. Call it whatever you'd like, and the command you want to run is simply "screen". To add a shortcut for stopping the script, you add another shortcut-key-combination to the command "killall screen".
This enables you to monitor activity on your computer while you're away, saving png-screenshots of your desktop every three seconds in the folder /home/username/.screen/date.
NOTE: I'm not taking any responsibility for what you do with this script. Remember that monitoring someone's activities is never the right way to handle anything. Also, it's illegal many places. Take care and use it only for educational and testing purposes.
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Oct 8, 2010
if you go to Edit > prefs > security and choose to show saved passwords they are displayed without entering root pw. This seems to be a huge security hole. How do we fix this?
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Nov 13, 2010
The ubuntu installation came with my ubuntu (it does not matter which version etc.) Contains sshd_config file with this interesting lines:
# Change to no to disable tunneled clear text passwords
#PasswordAuthentication yes
The same lines are seen in many Ubuntu-related internet pages. This is quite surprising to see.
This seem to contradict to the fact that ssh was created specially to provide authentication (with passwords, of couse) but without sending them by internet as clear text like previous programs did. But I could not find any clear confirmations of that neither in Kubuntu-related documents no anywhere else. I put below fragment of a document from RedHat. This seem to imply that if one will use two "yes", the passwords will be passed in encripted form (and this is what is recommended by RedHat). Is that true? Is this true for Ubuntu too? Is the quoted line from sshd_config wrong? Or incomplete?
[URL] RSAAuthentication yes
The option RSAAuthentication specifies whether to try RSA authentication. This option must be set to yes for better security in your sessions. RSA use public and private key pairs created with the ssh-keygen1utility for authentication purposes.
PasswordAuthentication yes
The option PasswordAuthentication specifies whether we should use password-based authentication. For strong security, this option must always be set to yes.
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Jan 17, 2011
I'd like to know if something like this already exists :have an ecryptfs encrypted user account on a laptop that accepts two logins, 1st logs normally, the second triggers a system format
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Jan 8, 2010
When 10.04 is released I'll encrypt my /home partition using luks. I've read that xts is good for hard drive encryption and aes is good for cipher encryption. I'm looking for something that is fairly secure without sacrificing a lot of speed.
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Aug 3, 2010
I want to create an encrypted directory using the cfs package. So far I've only been able to create the top directory. When I want to attach an encrypted directory using
Code:
cattach directory1 directory2
get the following message in command line:
Code:
RPC: unable to receive
When i look into my /crypt directory, nothing was added there. I have no idea what could be the problem. I use Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.
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Aug 3, 2010
I am currently running 8.10 with full-disk (excluding /boot) encryption. I am going to be installing 10.04 on a new laptop, and I was wondering whether it supports multi-factor authentication. Specifically, I would like to have a keyfile on USB/SD memory that is required, in addition to the password, to decrypt the disk. Anyone know of a guide out there? So far my searches have turned up nil.
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Sep 5, 2010
i have installed a ubuntu 10.04 (mini iso) w/ option of root encryption. Now i need to boot without ask for passphrase, but im trying to add a luks keyfile without success.i want to use a keyfile in the /boot partition or inside the initrd (cant be in external pendrive), but ubuntu aparently dont accept a keyfile in /boot or initrd file. I know, this way isnt very security, but i just need a basic encryption.So, how to force the use of a keyfile in /boot or inside the initrd for a crypt root partition?
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Oct 17, 2010
I've been using GPG keys for about a year now to send encrypted emails to family. But now I want to try and understand more, mainly on signing keys. I've read a ton of stuff, but not fully grasping the concept. So I thought I'd check my understanding people here. Please let me know if I'm wrong on something.
Signing keys seems to be just signing someone else's public key with my private(public??) key. Does that mean I don't sign my own keys? Or should I? There seem to be lots of keyservers out there, mainly I keep hearing about the MIT one and the ubuntu keyserver. Does it matter where I upload my public key? Somewhere I read that once you upload it once, it will slowly make its way to other servers. How is that possible. If someone signs my key on one server, will that also get pushed to other servers?
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Mar 7, 2011
I've read that blowfish encryption is much faster and still safe enough to transfer files between hosts.What's the default encryption used by openSSH? (if not already blowfish)
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Apr 20, 2011
Is there any available Ubuntu encryption stronger than a 4096-bit DSA PGP key that is natively supported or can be supported by Evolution?
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