CMTAB(5) User commands CMTAB(5)
NAME
cmtab - static information about filesystems managed by cryptmount
DESCRIPTION
Information about the encrypted filing systems managed by cryptmount is contained in the file /etc/cryptmount/cmtab. Each filesystem is
labelled by a target name which can be used as an argument to cryptmount and which appears in /etc/cryptmount/cmtab in front of a list of
parameters describing where that filesystem is stored, and how it is encrypted.
The format of the cmtab is flexible, with the description of each target being delimited by braces, parameters being specified by KEY=VALUE
pairs, and white-space being freely usable. Comments are prefixed by a `#' character, and can start at any point in a line, lasting to the
end of the line. The backslash character `' can be used to ignore any special significance of the following character, for example to
include a space in a filename.
/etc/cryptmount/cmtab contains entries of the following form:
TARGET_NAME {
dev=DEVICE
flags=FLAG,FLAG,...
startsector=STARTSECTOR
numsectors=NUMSECTORS
loop=LOOPDEV
dir=MOUNT_POINT
fstype=TYPE
mountoptions=MOPT,MOPT,...
fsckoptions=FOPT;FOPT;...
cipher=CIPHER
ivoffset=IVOFFSET
keyformat=KEYFORMAT
keyfile=KEYFILE
keyhash=KEYHASH
keycipher=KEYCIPHER
keymaxlen=KEYMAXLEN
passwdretries=NUMATTEMPTS
}
wherein the fields `flags', `startsector', `numsectors', `loop', `ivoffset', `keyformat', `keymaxlen' and `passwdretries' are optional.
Any field which contains non-numerical values (e.g. not `startsector', `ivoffset' etc.) can contain references to environmental variables
of the form $(HOME). The following variables are recognized, all based on the characteristics of the user currently running cryptmount :
* $(HOME) - the home directory, as obtained from /etc/passwd
* $(UID) - the numerical identifier of the user
* $(USERNAME) - the printable name of the user
* $(GID) - the numerical identifier of the user's current group
* $(GROUPNAME) - the printable name of the user's current group
TARGET DEFINITIONS
The fields in each target definition have the following meaning:
TARGET_NAME
is the name that cryptmount uses to refer to a particular filing system. The special name "_DEFAULTS_" may be used to set default
values in subsequent targets for various parameters such as 'flags', 'fstype', 'mountoptions', 'cipher', 'keyformat', 'keyhash',
'keycipher', 'keymaxlen', 'passwdretries'.
DEVICE is the name of the raw device (e.g. /dev/hdb63) or ordinary file (e.g. /home/secretiveuser/private.fs) that contains the encrypted
filing system.
FLAG is a configuration switch, such as
* "user" (any user can mount),
* "nouser" (only root can mount),
* "fsck" (automatically check filesystem before mounting),
* "nofsck" (don't check filesystem before mounting),
* "mkswap" (format swap partition before use),
* "nomkswap" (don't format swap partition).
This parameter is optional and defaults to "user,fsck,nomkswap".
STARTSECTOR
is the number of sectors (512-byte blocks) into DEVICE at which the filing system is to start. This parameter is optional, and
defaults to zero.
NUMSECTORS
gives the total length of the filing system in sectors (512-byte blocks). This parameter is optional, and defaults to -1 which is
shorthand for the total available length of DEVICE.
LOOPDEV
can be used to specify a particular loopback device (e.g. /dev/loop0) used when DEVICE is an ordinary file. This parameter is
optional and defaults to "auto".
MOUNT_POINT
is the directory onto which the encrypted filing system will be mounted.
TYPE is the filing system type (as used by mount (8)). This must be set to "swap" if the device is to be used as an encrypted swap par-
tition.
MOPT is a filesystem mounting option, as used by mount (8). MOPT can typically be "default", "noatime", "noexec", "nosuid", "ro", "sync"
etc.
FOPT is a filesystem-checking option understood by fsck (8). FOPT can typically be "-C", "-V" etc.
CIPHER is the encryption algorithm used on the DEVICE. The available algorithms are determined by the system kernel. This parameter is
optional and defaults to "aes-cbc-plain".
KEYFORMAT
specifies which encryption engine is used to manage the KEYFILE. The available engines are determined when cryptmount is built, but
may include "libgcrypt", "luks", and "openssl-compat", in addition to "builtin" and "raw". This parameter is optional: if absent,
"builtin" will be used on first generating the key, with an automatic choice being made when reading a pre-existing key.
KEYFILE
is an ordinary file that contains the key used by the CIPHER algorithm to decrypt the filing system. This key is itself encrypted in
a way specified by the KEYHASH and KEYCIPHER
IVOFFSET
is the offset added to the sector-number used in constructing the cipher algorithm's initialization vector. This parameter is
optional, and defaults to 0.
KEYHASH
is the hashing algorithm used to turn the user's password into the decryption key used by the KEYCIPHER algorithm. The available
hashing algorithms are determined by the chosen key-encryption engine specified by KEYFORMAT . This parameter is optional and the
default depends on the value of KEYFORMAT .
KEYCIPHER
is the encryption algorithm used to secure the decryption key of the filing system itself. The available key-encryption algorithms
are determined by the chosen key-encryption engine specified by KEYFORMAT. This parameter is optional and the default depends on
the value of KEYFORMAT.
KEYMAXLEN
is the maximum number of bytes of the decryption key that will be read from KEYFILE . This parameter is optional, and defaults to
0, indicating that the full length of KEYFILE should be read.
NUMATTEMPTS
is the number of password-entry attempts that can be made before cryptmount will exit with an error-code when trying to mount or
configure the target.
CHOICE OF KEYMANAGER
cryptmount supports a variety of different ways of protecting the access key associated with each encrypted filesystem. For most users,
the default "builtin" keymanager will provide a good level of security and flexibility. Alternative keymanagers offer a wider choice of
different password-hashing schemes and compatibility with other encryption tools. The strengths and weaknesses of the different keyman-
agers are discussed below.
builtin
This keymanager is supported by cryptmount-2.0 or later, and uses a separate key-file. A password-based key derivation function (PBKDF)
using the SHA1 hashing algorithm, together with blowfish-cbc encryption is used to protect the filesystem key. That key-derivation func-
tion was changed in cryptmount-4.0 to improve the security of new keyfiles, while preserving compatibility with existing keyfiles. If you
need to write keyfiles in the previous format, you can specify "keyformat=builtin:0". The KEYHASH and KEYCIPHER parameters are ignored.
libgcrypt
This keymanager is supported by cryptmount-1.1 or later, and uses a separate key-file. A password-based key derivation function (PBKDF) is
used to protect the filesystem key, with any hashing or cipher algorithm supported by the installed version of the libgcrypt library being
available.
luks
This keymanager is supported by cryptmount-3.1 or later, and provided compatibility with the Linux Unified Key Setup (LUKS) disk-format.
Instead of a separate keyfile, LUKS uses a header within the encrypted filesystem itself. It is advisable to choose the same value for
both the 'dev' and 'keyfile' parameters, or leave 'keyfile' unspecified. As with all cryptmount filesystems, the 'dev' parameter may point
to either a raw disk partition or an ordinary file. However, because of the filesystem structure assumed by LUKS, it is strongly recom-
mended that you do not use either the 'startsector' or 'numsector' parameters.
openssl/openssl-compat
This keymanager has been supported since the earliest release of cryptmount, and uses a separate keyfile which is compatible with the for-
mat used by the 'openssl' command-line encryption tool. Since cryptmount-3.0 this file-format has been provided via the libgcrypt library,
and is preferably specified by "keyformat=openssl-compat". A password-based key derivation function (PBKDF) is used to protect the
filesystem key, with a choice of hashing or cipher algorithms being available. Most algorithms supported by the 'openssl' command-line
tool should be available, provided the underlying algorithms are available within libgcrypt.
password
This keymanager is supported by cryptmount-4.0 or later, and does not require any separate keyfile, but instead derives the filesystem key
directly from the user's password. This means that it is not possible to change the access password without re-encrypting the entire
filesystem. The 'keyhash' and 'keycipher' parameters are ignored.
raw
This keymanager is supported by cryptmount-1.1 or later, and uses a separate keyfile where the access key is stored directly and without
any encryption. This keymanager is most useful for managing encrypted swap partitions, where the keyfile can be chosen as /dev/random, and
hence where the access key will be different every time it is read. If the keyfile is an ordinary file, it offers minimal security, and
should preferably be stored separately from the disk containing the encrypted filesystem, e.g. on a USB flash disk.
SECURITY
Because cryptmount needs to operate with setuid privileges, it is very important that its configuration file is kept secure. Ideally
/etc/cryptmount/cmtab should be managed only by the system administrator, and all key-files should be readable only by their owner.
cryptmount makes basic checks on the security of /etc/cryptmount/cmtab each time it runs, and will refuse to operate unless the following
conditions are met:
* cmtab must be owned by root
* cmtab must be a regular file
* cmtab must not be globally writable
* the directory containing cmtab must be owned by root
* the directory containing cmtab must not be globally writable
In addition, for each target within /etc/cryptmount/cmtab, all paths must be absolute (i.e. starting with '/').
When using unencrypted keyfiles (i.e. when KEYFORMAT is "raw"), it is recommended that the KEYFILE is stored with access permissions no
less restrictive than 0600, or on a removable device such as a USB flash-disk. (With recent versions of cryptmount the "builtin" key-for-
mat should be portable between different installations and vastly more secure than "raw" keyfiles.)
It is very important that you do not lose or damage the KEYFILE as this file is essential to providing access to your encrypted filesystem.
You are strongly advised to consider keeping a backup of your KEYFILE in some form.
ENCRYPTED SWAP PARTITIONS & AUTO-FORMATTING
When the 'mkswap' option is selected for a particular target within /etc/cryptmount/cmtab, cryptmount will attempt to automatically format
an encrypted swap partition whenever you run "cryptmount --swapon <target>". This is often useful when there is no need to preserve swap
data between reboots, such as when not using the kernel's hibernation features.
Because reformatting will destroy any existing data on the chosen swap partition, cryptmount will do some basic checking on the first
megabyte of the partition, based on the degree of randomness (entropy) in the current contents. If the partition looks like it contains
pure noise, or has been zeroed, then the partition will be formatted automatically. If cryptmount determines that the partition may con-
tain non-random data, then it will ask you to run 'mkswap' manually.
As there is no fool-proof way of determining whether a partition (especially after encryption) contains valuable data, you should be very
careful about the raw device chosen for any target on which you select the 'mkswap' option.
EXAMPLE FILE
The following example of /etc/cryptmount/cmtab consists of five targets, using a variety of encryption algorithms and storing their
filesystems in different ways, including a target representing an encrypted swap partition:
# /etc/cryptmount/cmtab
# example file - please modify before use
_DEFAULTS_ {
passwdretries=3 # allow 3 password attempts by default
}
basic {
dev=/home/secretiveuser/crypt.fs
dir=/home/secretiveuser/crypt # where to mount
loop=auto # find free loop-device
fstype=ext3 mountoptions=default
cipher=aes-cbc-plain # filesystem encryption
keyfile=/home/secretiveuser/crypt.key
# use default sha1/blowfish key-encryption:
keyformat=builtin
}
partition {
dev=/dev/hdb62 # use whole disk partition
dir=/mnt/crypt62
fstype=ext3 mountoptions=nosuid,noexec
cipher=serpent-cbc-plain
# information about file used to store decryption key:
keyfile=/etc/cryptmount/crypt_hdb62.key
keyformat=openssl # use OpenSSL key-encryption
keyhash=md5 keycipher=bf-cbc # encryption of key file
}
subset {
dev=/dev/hdb63
startsector=512 numsectors=16384 # use subset of partition
dir=/mnt/encrypted subset of hdb
fstype=reiserfs mountoptions=defaults
cipher=twofish-cbc-plain # filesystem encryption
# information about file used to store decryption key:
keyfile=/etc/cryptmount/crypt_hdb63.key
keyformat=libgcrypt
keyhash=md5 keycipher=blowfish-cbc # encryption of key file
}
encswap { # encrypted swap partition
dev=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_ST500_ABCDEFG-part37
startsector=16896 numsectors=1024 # use subset of partition
fstype=swap flags=mkswap cipher=twofish-cbc-plain
# read fresh 16-byte key from /dev/random whenever used:
keyfile=/dev/random keymaxlen=16 keyformat=raw
}
luks { # partition created by cryptsetup-luks
dev=/dev/hdb63
dir=/mnt/luks-partition-$(USERNAME)
keyformat=luks
keyfile=/dev/hdb63
fstype=ext3
}
# end of cmtab
The 'basic' target uses an ordinary file "/home/secretiveuser/crypt.fs" to store the encrypted filesystem, perhaps within a normal user's
home directory. A loopback device will be automatically allocated (because of the "loop=auto") by cryptmount to turn this into a block-
special device, before mounting. The decryption key for the filesystem is also stored in this user's home directory, making it easier for
them to change the password protecting the key.
The 'partition' target uses a whole disk partition to store the encrypted filing system, with the decryption key stored in the main crypt-
mount configuration directory.
The 'subset' target is similar to the 'partition' target except that it does not use a whole disk partition. This would allow other groups
of blocks within that partition to be used for other filesystems managed via cryptmount or dmsetup.
The 'encswap' target uses a subset of blocks within a disk partition to form an encrypted swap device. A new encryption key is read from
the system random-number generator /dev/random every time the target is used.
The 'luks' target provides access to an encrypted partition created by the 'cryptsetup-luks' utility. By using the environmental variable
$(USERNAME), the filesystem's mount-point will vary depending on which user invokes cryptmount. For example, user 'joe' would find the
filesystem mounted below /mnt/luks-partition-joe. cryptmount will be able to mount and unmount the partition, but various advanced LUKS
features must be accessed through cryptsetup
FILES
/etc/cryptmount/cmtab - main configuration file
SEE ALSO
cryptmount(8), cryptmount-setup(8), cryptsetup(8), dmsetup(8), openssl(1)
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
cryptmount is Copyright 2005-2009 RW Penney
and is supplied with NO WARRANTY. Licencing terms are as described in the file "COPYING" within the cryptmount source distribution.
4.3.1 2011-05-30 CMTAB(5)