Hi, I have recently posed a question on my Gentoo Linux forum regarding the strength of LUKS and loop-AES. I want to know which one is more secure based on its key length. I am no a cryptologist, but I do understand that AES only has either a 128-bit, 192-bit or 256-bit key length. I also know that loop-AES in multi-key v3 mode will use 64 keys and a 65th for the IV. What I really would like to know is, when I use a USB stick with LUKS, will it just be a substitute for the password and only act to encrypt the master key stored in a key slot on disk, or will it become the actual master key, allowing several different keys (similar to the mentioned loop-AES system) to be used? Don't be confused, I don't mean several different master keys, since this is not possible. I am not an advocate of either, and dm-crypt with LUKS is easier to set up. I just want to use the one that requires the most effort to break. It seems that dm-crypt with LUKS is only as strong as the password(s) given, because the master key is of fixed length, and is stored on disk. Also, is it possible to gain more sophisticated/advanced information on the implementation of dm-crypt with LUKS, or just dm-crypt itself? Information such as modes of use for AES (CBC, ECB, PCBC), length of master key in bits and similar information would be helpful. The link to the forum post is: <http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?p=3353555>http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?p=3353555 Thank you for your time, Michael Cassaniti --------------------------------------------------------------------- - http://www.saout.de/misc/dm-crypt/ To unsubscribe, e-mail: dm-crypt-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxx For additional commands, e-mail: dm-crypt-help@xxxxxxxx
