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Private Home Directories for Ubuntu 21.04

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Re: Private Home Directories for Ubuntu 21.04

#51

Post by MikeHalcrow »

G3rn0ti wrote: post #39
alfiedotwtf wrote: post #29

I remember a while ago, Ubuntu used encryptfs for home directories, but it was removed. Weird, because I thought it was a great idea

I’ve been using fscrypt to encrypt my home directory for over a year now and it seems to work fine: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fscrypt

Hi! Author of fs-crypt dropping in from the interwebs.

I also created eCryptfs, which was Ubuntu's original home directory encryption technology, with lots of additional distro integration work by Dustin Kirkland. Unfortunately I had to make some compromises when going with the stackable model, and that caused some problems.

I took the lessons I learned from that first attempt and created fs-crypt as a sort of atonement. I think I got a lot more right on my second attempt at file-base encryption in Linux. At least, it's good enough to be the technology that now encrypts Android storage.

The problem with Linux supporting stuff forever is that some things really need to be retired once a better solution has come along. However so long as there are eCryptfs users out there, I don't think it's going to ever go away at this point.

Re: Private Home Directories for Ubuntu 21.04

#53

Post by iudqnolq »

Guest42 wrote: post #21
alamortsubite wrote: post #18

Makes sense to me, but I'd be much more excited to go back to not having the snap directory shoved in my face.

I’ve heard good things about pop os. Have you tried and liked any of the others? It was a bit unnerving to have my Firefox windows change all of a sudden due to upgrade.

Pop OS also has a great WIP tiling wm if you want something that doesn't require you to replace all the other creature comforts like sway or i3.

Re: Private Home Directories for Ubuntu 21.04

#54

Post by _trampeltier »

ohazi wrote: post #48

To me, user accounts have always seemed like the more reasonable approach to sandboxing vs. cloning the universe to run a single program in a container. Most of my systems have a user for myself, and one or two other users like `sketchy` or `test` or something for programs that I trust enough to run, but don't trust enough to not fuck up my home directory in some way (including modifying startup scripts, which IMHO s…

Me too, I have on each system at least 6 users just for myself. I'm also an Ubuntu user at moment, and I change also the access rights for the home directory just for the user each time. I used SuSE before and they allways had just user access for the user.

Re: Private Home Directories for Ubuntu 21.04

#55

Post by throwawayboise »

bombcar wrote: post #40
sillysaurusx wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh. Looks like I’ve been out of the game longer than I thought. It’s suddenly been 6 years. Welp. Yes, I misremembered that specific example. Still, you’d be amazed how often people leave json credentials in their homedir that can be used to pivot to e.g. S3.

The number of bash history files with accidental passwords pasted into them is quite high. Another reason I don’t sudo and instead ssh

Shell history files for admin accounts should be disabled (or at least kept short) for this reason.

Re: Private Home Directories for Ubuntu 21.04

#56

Post by zaphirplane »

lightgreen wrote: post #46
intricatedetail wrote: post #17

Ubuntu should develop shadow accounts - the user will log in to a completely different account of the same login depending on password. That is if someone forces you to log in you could use different password and pretend it is your stuff.

Just create second account. This feature you describe is needed like to one in a million users.

True, Not many actually need it. A 2nd account with all the disk space would raise some questions

Then again checks foil hat, that’s what you want us to believe ;)

Re: Private Home Directories for Ubuntu 21.04

#57

Post by akvadrako »

pkulak wrote: post #44
krick wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this encryption is still the same as it used to be a couple of years ago (encfs, IIRC), it's good they aren't. I stumbled on that multiple times before I learned not to turn this shit on. Every time on a new installation (which doesn't happen that often, so it's natural I was forgetting) I chose "do encrypt" option (because why not?), it was working perfectly fine long enough for me to settle in, and then one day…

That's a shame. Honestly though, full-disk is just so darn easy, and nearly as secure. I'll probably just stick with that for a good long while. EDIT: Looks like LUKS is supported now, which is nice: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd-homed#LUKS_home...

Full disk encryption is more secure. If you can't trust your system files who knows whats happening when you enter your password.

Re: Private Home Directories for Ubuntu 21.04

#59

Post by G3rn0ti »

alfiedotwtf wrote: post #43
G3rn0ti wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been using fscrypt to encrypt my home directory for over a year now and it seems to work fine: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fscrypt

Thanks for that... I’ll check it out

BTW: The only issue I‘ve come across was that the pulseaudio user daemon couldn’t initialize during login (because it started before fscrypt unlocked home dir). There is an easy workaround for Ubuntu 20: https://github.com/google/fscrypt/issues/270

Re: Private Home Directories for Ubuntu 21.04

#60

Post by cik »

alamortsubite wrote: post #18

Makes sense to me, but I'd be much more excited to go back to not having the snap directory shoved in my face.

I left Ubuntu because of snap - and I don't see myself going back. It's funny, I feel like eventually every distribution has to do something to irritate long-term users, but endear themselves to others. It's part of a weird growth phase.
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