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it was suggested that my post (https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/73140/is-there-an-aes-256-luks-encryption-option-in-fedora?noredirect=1#comment120019_73140) would be better if I asked it here.

So here goes:

I have certain information on my drive that I don't want anyone (not even me ;) ) to gain access to. I read recently that Fedora only offers AES 128 LUKS encryption. This just isn't secure enough for me. I want 256 or stronger for my entire drive.

Now I'm confused because on this site: http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/14/html/Security_Guide/sect-Security_Guide-LUKS_Disk_Encryption.html it says that Fedora only supports 128 - bit. Though here: How secure is Ubuntu's default full-disk encryption? it says that LUKS uses 256 - bit, or is this for Ubuntu only.

Is there a way that I can use 256 or stronger AES full disk encryption on Fedora?

I'm sorry that I have to ask this question in two places. I thought that security forum would be better fit due to it being all about security. I didn't know that it is a system specific configuration/question.

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  • Yes, sorry, I don't feel that AES 128 is secure enough. I want AES 256. Nov 18, 2014 at 21:14
  • The documentation says that the default algorithm is AES 128, not that it's the only version available. Jun 17, 2018 at 18:01

1 Answer 1

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Yes. LUKS/dm-crypt/cryptsetup is available for Fedora, and AES 256 is supported.

But, if you are asking if the Fedora Installation GUI will allow you to do this, I do not know. It may default to AES-XTS with 256 bit keys--but I don't know.

However, this really isn't a distribution specific problem. LUKS, dm-crypt, cryptsetup, and kernel mods are a kernel level problem, and applies to each distribution.

ArchLinux generally has good info on technologies such as this.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Device_encryption

Search for this line on that page:

# cryptsetup -v --cipher aes-xts-plain64 --key-size 512 --hash sha512 --iter-time 5000 --use-random luksFormat <device>

Other Relevant Questions to Ask:

  1. How to Configure/Install LUKS after installation.
  2. How to encrypt Linux mount points after installation.
  3. How to encrypt Linux swap partitions.
  4. How to load dm-crypt kernel mods, to decrypt drive at boot.
  5. How to configure Grub and/or SysLinux to mount encrypted partitions at boot.
  6. How to configure crypttab and fstab to mount partitions at boot.
  7. How to configure Linux to mount LUKS partitions, EncFS or ecryptFS at login.

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