Re: Re: Hard disk Encryption

[Alexander Klimov <alserkli () inbox ru>]

On Thu, 12 Apr 2007, Balaji Prasad wrote:
> I wanted to start a discussion on strong and weak algorithms for
> disk encryption, their popularity and specific tradeoffs. Do we know
> of any test tools that can break an encrypted hard disk? What
> possible options does a hacker have if they have access to an
> encrypted disk.

Despite what you can see in movies [1], the real-life
cryptographers believe [2] that it will not be possible to crack
AES with random 128-bit key long beyond 2030. Since AES is quite
fast there is no trade-offs -- just use AES.

The main problem is how you store (or derive) the key. For
example, if you use TPM to store the key, it will be easily
extracted by an attacker with hardware tools for bus access.


[1] <http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/04/blowfish_on_24.html>
[2] <http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-57/SP800-57-Part1.pdf>

-- 
Regards,
ASK