Messages in this thread | | | Date | Sun, 29 Dec 1996 15:29:06 -0500 (EST) | From | Gregory Maxwell <> | Subject | Encrypted Filesystems (was: signing fs's) |
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Hmm.. Everyone was yakking about boot time passwords so that someone couldn't reboot with an alternate kernel or steal the computer.. How about this: The computer contains a simple card with cmos like memory (and power source).. It contains the magic key... It's attached to a microswitch on the case... If the case is opened then it 'forgets' the password.. Also the floppy would be disabled inside the case... This way if theres a power out or a system reboot in the middle of the night a sysadm doesn't need to be there to check it out... As for signing stuff... A md5 is NOT a signature as would be useful for a security check... (it would have to be public-key encrypted to call it that).. What could be done is that every user could have a public-private key pair which could be loaded by the login process and used to sign blocks.. But I dont see much point as a sysadm could foul this and no one but a sysadm would be a threat to current methods... And more importantly: This does NOT belong in THIS mailing list... :) I'm sure there is a security mailing list... :)
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