How do I migrate from ecryptfs to a similar setup using ext4 filesystem level encryption?

3

Currently I'm using ecryptfs - it's a software layer that encrypts my home folder with a key which is in turn encrypted with my password, and it hooks into PAM to unlock it on login.

Unfortunately, ecryptfs is slow. If I haven't accessed it in a while, a simple ls ~ can take up to 20 seconds...

I'd like to switch to ext4 encryption - since it's way faster and can generally do everything ecryptfs did.

I'm on debian sid, but as far as I know there isn't any overarching project that I can one-liner install that will do the same as ecryptfs with ext4 encryption. On top of this, instructions concerning ext4 encryption seem few and far between.

tldr: I'm looking for instructions on ext4 encryption for my home folder that will work on login.

J V

Posted 2016-05-15T20:41:55.347

Reputation: 446

What ext4 encryption are you referring to? I'm familiar with file encryption like eCryptfs & block encryption like LUKS, and some filesystems have their own encryption (ntfs?), does ext4 too? Not mentioned in man mke2fs – Xen2050 – 2016-05-16T18:57:21.513

Ext4 got file level encryption in Linux 4.1, but apparently it's stable enough to use with 4.6. https://lwn.net/Articles/639427/

– J V – 2016-05-23T16:34:53.643

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Asked: 2016-05-15T20:41:55.347

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Active: 2016-05-15T20:41:55.347