this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2025
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Encrypting without full disk encryption question (piefed.ca)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by teppa@piefed.ca to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
23 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I use a headless server connected to nothing but an ethernet cable in my basement, and I'd prefer to allow the thing to boot by itself and start up without me needing to unlock the disk encryption every single time I do an update or power back on. Its a Dell 9500t NUC that I'm using it as a server and am wondering whether its possible to encrypt everything still.

I do generally use docker containers, so could I potentially encrypt just the containers themselves, assuming I'm worried about a smash and grab rather than someone keeping the machine powered up and reading my ram?

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[โ€“] theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If it can power up and decrypt the docker volumes on its own without prompting you for a password in your basement, it will also power up and decrypt the docker volumes on its own without prompting the robbers for a password in their basement

[โ€“] morethanevil@lemmy.fedifriends.social 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Exactly, I don't get why people want (full disk) encryption, but with automounted keyfiles after reboot ๐Ÿ˜‚

[โ€“] ryokimball@infosec.pub 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

First reason I think of to use fde all the time even if it's automatically unlocked, is it's simple to securely delete everything all at once. Just delete all the keys or overwrite that section of the desk.

[โ€“] lorentz@feddit.it 5 points 1 year ago

Second reason. It may run your vpn, with the server down you cannot connect to it and provide the decryption key unless you are connected to the same network.

There are some good answer around where the server can easily decrypt automatically as long as it is connected in your home but will likely fail at a thief's home. These are a much safer setup than keeping data unencrypted even if they are not bullet proof.

[โ€“] catloaf@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Depends on how you want to define "securely". A sufficiently motivated attacker could attack the remaining encrypted data, either through brute force or exploiting a weakness in the algorithm.

[โ€“] ftbd@feddit.org 5 points 1 year ago

If you find an encrypted drive, it's extremely unlikely you can recover anything from it. If there is no LUKS header, it's pretty much impossible.