Platform-independent encryption of (external) drive

[augenauf (florian)]

Hi,

I have to achieve something, which apparently I never had to do before. I have an external drive for some backups to be stored that originate from an NTFS system. I would like to store the backup encrypted but want to be able to access it from my Fedora Linux machine(s) as well as from the MS Win machines.

I did a little bit of research and it seems that there are not many solutions out there that have clients for GNU/Linux and MS Win 10.

Actually, I think VeraCrypt is the only one that can offer what I need.
Could someone confirm that their client is stable and reliable on Fedora?

I also read that recent cryptsetup releases can read and write to BitLocker volumes but the support seems to be experimental and that, in my opition, sounds to too dangerous for a backup. Does anyone have any experience with cryptsetup access to Bitlocker volumes on Fedora?

Or are there any Windows tools that can read/write to LUKS/dm-crypt encrypted drives?

Or should I rather give up on the idea of accessing this drive from Windows and Linux?

Any hints are appreciated.

[augenauf (florian)]

Follow-up information:

I decided to use Bitlocker since it’s the Windows-native tool and my backup will always be generated on a Windows system with NTFS filesystem.

After creating the Bitlocker volume (used password to protect the key, no TPM, nor smartcard), I just plugged the drive into my Fedora 33 with Gnome and I am asked for a password as if I would connect a dm-crypt/LUKS device. Upon entering the password, it opens nautilus and all files are shown. Incredible! I don’t dare to write on that device but I also don’t need to. I just want to be able to read out the data from my Fedora system. Very nice! (cryptsetup version is 2.3.4)

[paidhi (Markus Banfi)]

Glad you found a solution and interesting to know that Bitlocker works that good with Fedora.

Regarding your original question I would like to confirm anyway that VeraCrypt works fine with Fedora.
I am using VeraCrypt (GUI) on Fedora 33 & KDE to frequently exchange files with an Apple MacOS machine. The files are stored on an external USB harddrive (whole disk for VeraCrypt) and a USB thumb drive (encrypted volume file).

[augenauf (florian)]

Servus @paidhi
thanks for the information. Out of interest, I will install VeraCrypt GUI on both machines and give it a try with an old HDD that I have laying around here.

[computersavvy (JV)]

@augenauf

I decided to use Bitlocker since it’s the Windows-native tool and my backup will always be generated on a Windows system with NTFS filesystem.

After creating the Bitlocker volume (used password to protect the key, no TPM, nor smartcard), I just plugged the drive into my Fedora 33 with Gnome and I am asked for a password as if I would connect a dm-crypt/LUKS device. Upon entering the password, it opens nautilus and all files are shown. Incredible! I don’t dare to write on that device but I also don’t need to. I just want to be able to read out the data from my Fedora system. Very nice! (cryptsetup version is 2.3.4)

You may want to be certain that when you mount that drive on linux that you always mount it in read-only mode so a mistake is not made and you inadvertently write something to it.