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Recommended Encryption Software: VeraCrypt, Cryptomator, PicoCrypt, and OpenPGP - Privacy Guides |
Encryption Software |
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Encryption of data is the only way to control who can access it. These tools allow you to encrypt your emails and any other files. |
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Encryption is the only secure way to control who can access your data. If you are currently not using encryption software for your hard disk, emails, or files, you should pick an option here.
The options listed here are multi-platform and great for creating encrypted backups of your data.
Protects against the following threat(s):
- :material-bug-outline: Passive Attacks{ .pg-orange }
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Cryptomator is an encryption solution designed for privately saving files to any cloud :material-server-network: Service Provider{ .pg-teal }, eliminating the need to trust that they won't access your files. It allows you to create vaults that are stored on a virtual drive, the contents of which are encrypted and synced with your cloud storage provider.
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Cryptomator uses AES-256 encryption to encrypt both files and filenames. Cryptomator cannot encrypt metadata such as access, modification, and creation timestamps, nor the number and size of files and folders.
Some Cryptomator cryptographic libraries have been audited by Cure53. The scope of the audited libraries includes: cryptolib, cryptofs, siv-mode and cryptomator-objc-cryptor. The audit did not extend to cryptolib-swift, which is a library used by Cryptomator for iOS.
Cryptomator's documentation details its intended security target, security architecture, and best practices for use in further detail.
Protects against the following threat(s):
- :material-target-account: Targeted Attacks{ .pg-red }
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Picocrypt is a small and simple encryption tool that provides modern encryption. Picocrypt uses the secure XChaCha20 cipher and the Argon2id key derivation function to provide a high level of security. It uses Go's standard x/crypto modules for its encryption features.
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Protects against the following threat(s):
- :material-target-account: Targeted Attacks{ .pg-red }
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VeraCrypt is a source-available freeware utility used for on-the-fly encryption. It can create a virtual encrypted disk within a file, encrypt a partition, or encrypt the entire storage device with pre-boot authentication.
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VeraCrypt is a fork of the discontinued TrueCrypt project. According to its developers, security improvements have been implemented and issues raised by the initial TrueCrypt code audit have been addressed.
When encrypting with VeraCrypt, you have the option to select from different hash functions. We suggest you only select SHA-512 and stick to the AES block cipher.
Truecrypt has been audited a number of times, and VeraCrypt has also been audited separately.
Protects against the following threat(s):
- :material-target-account: Targeted Attacks{ .pg-red }
For encrypting the drive your operating system boots from, we generally recommend enabling the encryption software that comes with your operating system rather than using a third-party tool. This is because your operating system's native encryption tools often make use of OS and hardware-specific features like the secure cryptoprocessor in your device to protect your computer against more advanced physical attacks. For secondary drives and external drives which you don't boot from, we still recommend using open-source tools like VeraCrypt over the tools below, because they offer additional flexibility and let you avoid vendor lock-in.
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BitLocker is the full volume encryption solution bundled with Microsoft Windows. The main reason we recommend it for encrypting your boot drive is because of its use of TPM. ElcomSoft, a forensics company, has written about this feature in Understanding BitLocker TPM Protection.
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BitLocker is only supported on Pro, Enterprise and Education editions of Windows. It can be enabled on Home editions provided that they meet the prerequisites.
Enabling BitLocker on Windows Home
To enable BitLocker on "Home" editions of Windows, you must have partitions formatted with a GUID Partition Table and have a dedicated TPM (v1.2, 2.0+) module. You may need to disable the non-Bitlocker "Device encryption" functionality (which is inferior because it sends your recovery key to Microsoft's servers) if it is enabled on your device already before following this guide.
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Open a command prompt and check your drive's partition table format with the following command. You should see "GPT" listed under "Partition Style":
powershell Get-Disk -
Run this command (in an admin command prompt) to check your TPM version. You should see
2.0or1.2listed next toSpecVersion:powershell Get-WmiObject -Namespace "root/cimv2/security/microsofttpm" -Class WIN32_tpm
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Access Advanced Startup Options. You need to reboot while pressing the F8 key before Windows starts and go into the command prompt in Troubleshoot → Advanced Options → Command Prompt.
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Login with your admin account and type this in the command prompt to start encryption:
manage-bde -on c: -used
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Close the command prompt and continue booting to regular Windows.
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Open an admin command prompt and run the following commands:
manage-bde c: -protectors -add -rp -tpm manage-bde -protectors -enable c: manage-bde -protectors -get c: > %UserProfile%\Desktop\BitLocker-Recovery-Key.txt
Tip
Backup BitLocker-Recovery-Key.txt on your Desktop to a separate storage device. Loss of this recovery code may result in loss of data.
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FileVault is the on-the-fly volume encryption solution built into macOS. FileVault is recommended because it leverages hardware security capabilities present on an Apple silicon SoC or T2 Security Chip.
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We recommend storing a local recovery key in a secure place as opposed to using your iCloud account for recovery.
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LUKS is the default FDE method for Linux. It can be used to encrypt full volumes, partitions, or create encrypted containers.
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Creating and opening encrypted containers
dd if=/dev/urandom of=/path-to-file bs=1M count=1024 status=progress
sudo cryptsetup luksFormat /path-to-fileWe recommend opening containers and volumes with udisksctl as this uses Polkit. Most file managers, such as those included with popular desktop environments, can unlock encrypted files. Tools like udiskie can run in the system tray and provide a helpful user interface.
udisksctl loop-setup -f /path-to-file
udisksctl unlock -b /dev/loop0Remember to back up volume headers
We recommend you always back up your LUKS headers in case of partial drive failure. This can be done with:
cryptsetup luksHeaderBackup /dev/device --header-backup-file /mnt/backup/file.imgProtects against the following threat(s):
- :material-target-account: Targeted Attacks{ .pg-red }
Tools with command-line interfaces are useful for integrating shell scripts.
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Kryptor is a free and open-source file encryption and signing tool that makes use of modern and secure cryptographic algorithms. It aims to be a better version of age and Minisign to provide a simple, easier alternative to GPG.
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Tomb is a command-line shell wrapper for LUKS. It supports steganography via third-party tools.
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Protects against the following threat(s):
- :material-target-account: Targeted Attacks{ .pg-red }
- :material-bug-outline: Passive Attacks{ .pg-orange }
- :material-server-network: Service Providers{ .pg-teal }
OpenPGP is sometimes needed for specific tasks such as digitally signing and encrypting email. PGP has many features and is complex as it has been around a long time. For tasks such as signing or encrypting files, we suggest the above options.
When encrypting with PGP, you have the option to configure different options in your gpg.conf file. We recommend staying with the standard options specified in the GnuPG user FAQ.
Use future defaults when generating a key
When generating keys we suggest using the future-default command as this will instruct GnuPG use modern cryptography such as Curve25519 and Ed25519:
gpg --quick-gen-key [email protected] future-default
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GnuPG is a GPL-licensed alternative to the PGP suite of cryptographic software. GnuPG is compliant with RFC 4880, which is the current IETF specification of OpenPGP. The GnuPG project has been working on an updated draft in an attempt to modernize OpenPGP. GnuPG is a part of the Free Software Foundation's GNU software project and has received major funding from the German government.
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GPG4win is a package for Windows from Intevation and g10 Code. It includes various tools that can assist you in using GPG on Microsoft Windows. The project was initiated and originally funded by Germany's Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) in 2005.
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Downloads
Note
We suggest Canary Mail for using PGP with email on iOS devices.
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GPG Suite provides OpenPGP support for Apple Mail and macOS.
We recommend taking a look at their First steps and Knowledge base for support.
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Downloads
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OpenKeychain is an Android implementation of GnuPG. It's commonly required by mail clients such as K-9 Mail and FairEmail and other Android apps to provide encryption support. Cure53 completed a security audit of OpenKeychain 3.6 in October 2015. Technical details about the audit and OpenKeychain's solutions can be found here.
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Downloads
Please note we are not affiliated with any of the projects we recommend. In addition to our standard criteria, we have developed a clear set of requirements to allow us to provide objective recommendations. We suggest you familiarize yourself with this list before choosing to use a project, and conduct your own research to ensure it's the right choice for you.
- Cross-platform encryption apps must be open source.
- File encryption apps must support decryption on Linux, macOS, and Windows.
- External disk encryption apps must support decryption on Linux, macOS, and Windows.
- Internal (OS) disk encryption apps must be cross-platform or built in to the operating system natively.
Our best-case criteria represents what we would like to see from the perfect project in this category. Our recommendations may not include any or all of this functionality, but those which do may rank higher than others on this page.
- Operating System (FDE) encryption apps should utilize hardware security such as a TPM or Secure Enclave.
- File encryption apps should have first- or third-party support for mobile platforms.