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106 lines
4.1 KiB
Markdown
106 lines
4.1 KiB
Markdown
# EncFS - an Encrypted Filesystem
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**This project is NOT maintained. For details, see the [Status](#status) section.**
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## About
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EncFS provides an encrypted filesystem in user-space. It runs in userspace,
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using the [FUSE library](https://github.com/libfuse/libfuse) for the filesystem interface. EncFS is open source
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software, licensed under the LGPL.
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EncFS was first released in 2003, making it one of the earlier FUSE filesystems!
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I wrote it because I needed to encrypt my data while traveling, and the existing NFS and
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kernel-based encrypted filesystems such as CFS had not kept pace with Linux
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development. When FUSE became available, I wrote a CFS replacement for my own
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use and later released it to Open Source when it seemed stable.
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EncFS encrypts individual files, by translating all requests for the virtual
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EncFS filesystem into the equivalent encrypted operations on the raw
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filesystem.
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For more info, see:
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- The [encfs manpage](encfs/encfs.pod)
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- The technical overview in [DESIGN.md](DESIGN.md)
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## Status
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In the time since EncFS was written, a lot has changed in the security,
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privacy, and computing landscapes. Computing power has increased enormously over
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what a circa-2003 laptop can provide, and so it is no longer a performance burden
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to encrypt the entire filesystem of a personal device. Software encryption has also
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spread widely - data encryption is built into most systems and programs, so there is
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far less of a need to have a separate encryption system.
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EncFS has been dormant for a long time now. I haven't used or worked on EncFS in
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many years. I've left the repository here because I don't want to prevent anyone
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from using it if they have a need that can't be met otherwise. I'm sure that I have
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some very old backups that would still require EncFS to access, so I expect that I
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might have to compile it again someday.
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Don't expect any updates on this project. You're free to fork it, of course, but
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remember that this is a 20+yr old codebase which was only funded by personal
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interest, so I wouldn't expect it to live up to modern-day coding standards.
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If you're considering setting up a new encrypted filesystem wrapper, I'd recommend
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looking into newer alternatives, such as the excellent [GoCryptFS](https://github.com/rfjakob/gocryptfs).
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Thank you all for the early support, especially the FUSE author Miklos Szeredi,
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and all the interesting discussions at Open Source and Linux meetups over the years.
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Valient Gough
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May 2024
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## Unique Features
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EncFS has a few features still not found anywhere else (as of Dec 2014)
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that may be interesting to you:
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### Reverse mode
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`encfs --reverse` provides an encrypted view of an unencrypted folder.
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This enables encrypted remote backups using standard tools like rsync.
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### Fast on classical HDDs
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EncFS is typically *much* faster than ecryptfs for stat()-heavy workloads
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when the backing device is a classical hard disk.
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This is because ecryptfs has to to read each file header to determine
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the file size - EncFS does not. This is one additional seek for each
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stat.
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See [PERFORMANCE.md](PERFORMANCE.md) for detailed benchmarks on
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HDD, SSD and ramdisk.
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### Works on top of network filesystems
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EncFS works on network file systems (NFS, CIFS...), while ecryptfs
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is known to still have [problems][1].
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[1]: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ecryptfs/+bug/277578
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## Development
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The master branch contains the latest stable codebase. This is where bug fixes
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and improvments should go.
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The [dev](https://github.com/vgough/encfs/tree/dev) branch contains experimental
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work, some of which may be back-ported to the master branch when it is stable. The
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dev branch is not stable, and there is no guarantee of backward compatibility
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between changes.
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## Windows
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EncFS works on Cygwin, there are also some Windows ports.
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See [the wiki](https://github.com/vgough/encfs/wiki)
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for additional info.
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## FAQ
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### What settings should I use for Dropbox?
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Use **standard mode**. There [have](https://github.com/vgough/encfs/issues/141)
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been [reports](https://github.com/vgough/encfs/issues/388)
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of a pathological interaction of paranoia mode with Dropbox' rename
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detection. The problem seems to be with `External IV chaining`, which is
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not active in standard mode.
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