Ecryptfs does not seem to encrypt home folder

System: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS amd64 "bento" vagrant box with VirtualBox 5.

Steps:

root@vagrant:~# adduser --encrypt-home citizenfour
root@vagrant:~# ssh citizenfour@localhost

citizenfour@vagrant:~$ echo "abcdefg" > secret.txt
citizenfour@vagrant:~$ chmod 0600 secret.txt
citizenfour@vagrant:~$ exit

root@vagrant:~# cat ~citizenfour/secret.txt 
# abcdefg

Question: Why can root still read citizenfour's secret even though we set up encryption for citizenfour's home folder? I.e. why was secret.txt not encrypted on logout?

H.-G. Buttentee

Posted 2016-11-10T13:24:24.043

Reputation: 3

Answers

You need to reboot the computer (or in your case do vagrant reload) after logging in with you citizenfour user.

Priit

Posted 2016-11-10T13:24:24.043

Reputation: 119

Okay, that works, but seems a little awkward, as most users on a server do not have the right to reboot it. Can you explain what triggers the re-encryption of the home directory and why it does not happen directly after logging off? – H.-G. Buttentee – 2016-11-10T14:28:46.697

Extended discussion: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=98227

– H.-G. Buttentee – 2016-11-10T16:55:38.227