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The answer to this question used to be FreeOTFE (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeOTFE); sadly, the project has not been updated for three years and its website (http://www.freeotfe.org) is no longer online.

Is there any software available now that can be used to access LUKS/dm-crypt volumes from Windows, now that FreeOTFE is no longer maintained/available?

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  • 5
    Could you use a VM with Linux installed and mount the entire parition in the VM? I know it's not strictly accessing it directly in Windows, but would allow you to access it on an existing computer with Windows installed, to recover the files and put them in a more windows friendly format like TruCrypt.
    – Kibbee
    Aug 1, 2013 at 14:12
  • 2
    Yes, it works well. This is the way to go for me. No cluttering Windows with buggy and unstable third-party drivers. Just set up a Linux VM, mount the encrypted volume on a Samba share, then access the contents from the Windows host system. Jun 30, 2015 at 11:04

5 Answers 5

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LibreCrypt (formerly DoxBox, itself formerly FreeOTFE) offers LUKS-compatible disk encryption for Windows. It will also open legacy FreeOTFE volumes.

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    LibreCrypt has unfortunately been abandoned :-( Dec 1, 2017 at 1:39
  • 8
    FreeOTFE -> DoxBox -> LibreCrypt -> is there a 2018 successor?
    – flith
    Mar 19, 2018 at 11:04
  • 1
    @flith, Veracrypt also see alternativeto.net/software/doxbox
    – adam
    Oct 21, 2018 at 3:27
  • 3
    afaik Veracrypt is not compatible with LUKS containers
    – eadmaster
    Dec 14, 2019 at 13:16
9

WSL 2 on Windows10

Windows allows now to mount physical disks using the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL).

For people who are not familiar with WSL2:

... Windows Subsystem for Linux is a compatibility layer for running Linux binary executables natively on Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019. In May 2019, WSL 2 was announced, introducing important changes such as a real Linux kernel, through a subset of Hyper-V features. ...

find more on Wikipedia

The Windows 10 WSL2 now supports a mount command for linux filesystems called wsl.

First of all you have to install WSL2 on your windows10+ release. I recommend to simply follow the microsoft installation guide.

Now you can use apt commands as common on ubuntu/debian systems

sudo apt install cryptsetup

and use thecryptsetup luksOpen command.

Previous WSL didn't support CRYPT, and you had to recompile the kernel. To check if DM_CRYPT is supported on your system, open a wsl2 terminal and type the following command:

cat /proc/config.gz | gunzip | grep CONFIG_DM_CRYPT

The output should be CONFIG_DM_CRYPT=y without a hash (# ), and =y should be set.

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    This is only available in Insider Preview builds: devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/… Jun 21, 2021 at 20:53
  • Why don't I see any /proc/config.gz.
    – KalEl
    Mar 11, 2022 at 2:18
  • How I can mount a USB Drive Stick in WSL ? I can not see the media by entering df Feb 3, 2023 at 13:42
  • To see the device using df it is necessary to wsl-mount it first. USB-Sticks are currently not supported by WSL 2. I wasn't able to mount usb sticks with the wsl mount command.
    – UNIQUEorn
    Apr 27, 2023 at 9:31
0

FreeOTFE from 2010, although abandonware, is still available for download from here.

However, while as far as I know it is the only solution of its kind, there were still reports of problems and bugs with this product. Therefore @Kibbee's comment of using in Windows a Linux virtual machine might be the safest way to go.

I don't know of any successors to FreeOTFE.

I remark that Truecrypt is an excellent alternative to LUKS/dm-crypt, available on both Linux and Windows and still under development.

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    As of 5-28-14 Truecrypt is no longer under active development. May 30, 2014 at 23:33
  • 1
    DoxBox is the assumed successor of FreeOTFE. Jan 12, 2015 at 4:47
  • 2
    VeraCrypt may be considered the sucessor of Truecrypt. Jul 6, 2017 at 13:19
  • 1
    LibreCrypt is inactive at this day (2017-11-02)
    – Zulgrib
    Nov 2, 2017 at 7:55
  • 1
    @Zulgrib: Truecrypt itself is no longer under development. Its successors are VeraCrypt and CipherShed, as well as numerous other commercial and open-source products.
    – harrymc
    Nov 2, 2017 at 9:04
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As other commentors have mentioned, one approach is to use a VM running linux and copy the files out. For the sake of this process being easier to run for others, and for me when I want to do this again. These are the steps I followed:

  • Install VirtualBox
  • If you are mounting from USB you probably need to add the USB3 extension pack from here https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
  • Download debian linux from osboxes https://www.osboxes.org/debian/ and add a virtualbox image from this
  • Add a usb device from the preferences for this device
  • Install cryptsetup apt-get install cryptsetup
  • Run cryptsetup open /dev/$BLAH encrypted
  • You should then be able to mount /dev/mapper/encrypted and read files.
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  • Why is this answer downvoted? It looks like a pretty straight-forward solution which should work.
    – StaNov
    May 2, 2023 at 15:31
0

2023 Answer

You can use Linsk. It is a utility that wraps around a lightweight Alpine Linux VM, allowing you to mount any Linux file system (including LUKS) that is then exposed to the host machine through a network file share.

Disclosure: I'm the author.

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