On Fri, 17 Sep 2004 12:35:12 +0100, Richard Hall wrote: > My main query is what would be difference between the way the gentoo 2.6 > kernel and the SuSe 2.6 kernel handle the Crypto loop devices. I tried > both the Cryptoloop that is in the standard SuSe kernel and I also > compiled a custom Kernel without the loop device and compiled the > loop-aes loop device that I downloaded from sourceforge. Both gave the > same results of a sucessful execution of the losetup command but with an > unreadable ext2 FS. I have checked the key is correct and it is, but the > results are as if it was wrong. The only thing I can think of is that > there is some difference between the two systems in the way the keys are > handled, or there is some sort of seeding that I am unaware of. Yeah, you got it. Gentoo's losetup is closer to that of the stock util-linux package, in that it no longer hashes the passphrase. You would have had to use hashalot for that. OTOH SuSe's losetup has patched in the old passphrase hashing code. So the key to your loop device is actually the unhashed passphrase, but SuSe is trying to decrypt it with the hashed passphrase. Your best bet is to download util-linux <URL:ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>, build losetup from there, and then use that losetup to access your data. After that, you'll want to re-create the loop devices with SuSe's losetup, because an encrypted device with an unhashed passphrase is kinda weak. HTH, - -Ben -- Ben Slusky | People who do stupid things sluskyb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx | with hazardous materials often sluskyb@xxxxxxxxxx | die. PGP keyID ADA44B3B | -Jim Davidson - Linux-crypto: cryptography in and on the Linux system Archive: http://mail.nl.linux.org/linux-crypto/
