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When you enter data and you want to save a file, the SED encrypts the data but where does the encryption process occur to be exact? Does SED encrypt data in memory before it gets to the disk? Or do they re-encrypt a block or page on SSD once the writing is done?

netrox
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    Have you looked any of this up? This was my first hit when I Googled your title: https://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Self-encrypting-drives-SED-the-best-kept-secret-in-hard-drive-encryption-security – schroeder Jul 20 '18 at 00:07
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    That is a subscription, can't read it. Besides I don't think it's addressing my question. Does encryption happen in memory and write encrypted data into "page" or does it re-encrypt "page" after data is written? That is the exact process I want to know. – netrox Jul 20 '18 at 00:23
  • That's not a subscription - scroll down – schroeder Jul 20 '18 at 07:19
  • Ah, I did not scroll down long enough. It made it look like I have to sign for continued reading and when I did scroll down, there was "blank area" for a while, had to scroll a lot down to get to the content. Useful information down there. – netrox Jul 22 '18 at 00:49

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The encryption process takes place in the embedded processor on the SSD. Consequently, it's in the computer's RAM and the SATA (or PCIe) bus in plaintext, then copied to RAM on the SSD, encrypted, and written out to a flash block. The unencrypted plaintext should never hit the flash of the SSD.

David
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