This is a technical feature comparison of different disk encryption software.

Background information

Operating systems

Features

* Hidden containers: Whether hidden containers (an encrypted container (A) within another encrypted container (B) so the existence of container A can not be established) can be created for

deniable encryption In cryptography and steganography, plausibly deniable encryption describes encryption techniques where the existence of an encrypted file or message is deniable in the sense that an adversary cannot prove that the plaintext data exists. The user ...

. Note that some modes of operation like CBC with a plain IV can be more prone to

watermarking attack In cryptography, a watermarking attack is an attack on disk encryption methods where the presence of a specially crafted piece of data can be detected by an attacker without knowing the encryption key. Problem description Disk encryption suites g ...

s than others. * Pre-boot authentication: Whether authentication can be required before booting the computer, thus allowing one to encrypt the

boot disk A boot disk is a removable digital data storage medium from which a computer can load and run ( boot) an operating system or utility program. The computer must have a built-in program which will load and execute a program from a boot disk meeting ...

. * Single sign-on: Whether credentials provided during pre-boot authentication will automatically log the user into the host operating system, thus preventing password fatigue and reducing the need to remember multiple passwords. * Custom authentication: Whether custom authentication mechanisms can be implemented with third-party applications. * Multiple keys: Whether an encrypted volume can have more than one active

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (ma ...

. * Passphrase strengthening: Whether key strengthening is used with plain text passwords to frustrate

dictionary attack In cryptanalysis and computer security, a dictionary attack is an attack using a restricted subset of a keyspace to defeat a cipher or authentication mechanism by trying to determine its decryption key or passphrase, sometimes trying thousands o ...

s, usually using

PBKDF2 In cryptography, PBKDF1 and PBKDF2 (Password-Based Key Derivation Function 1 and 2) are key derivation functions with a sliding computational cost, used to reduce vulnerabilities of brute-force attacks. PBKDF2 is part of RSA Laboratories' Publ ...

. * Hardware acceleration: Whether dedicated

cryptographic accelerator In computing, a cryptographic accelerator is a co-processor designed specifically to perform computationally intensive cryptographic operations, doing so far more efficiently than the general-purpose CPU. Because many servers' system load consist ...

expansion cards can be taken advantage of. * Trusted Platform Module: Whether the implementation can use a TPM cryptoprocessor. * Filesystems: What filesystems are supported. *

Two-factor authentication Multi-factor authentication (MFA; encompassing two-factor authentication, or 2FA, along with similar terms) is an electronic authentication method in which a user is granted access to a website or application only after successfully presenting ...

: Whether optional security tokens ( hardware security modules, such as Aladdin eToken and smart cards) are supported (for example using PKCS#11)

Layering

* Whole disk: Whether the whole physical disk or logical volume can be encrypted, including the partition tables and master boot record. Note that this does not imply that the encrypted disk can be used as the boot disk itself; refer to pre-boot authentication in the features comparison table. * Partition: Whether individual

disk partition Disk partitioning or disk slicing is the creation of one or more regions on secondary storage, so that each region can be managed separately. These regions are called partitions. It is typically the first step of preparing a newly installed disk, ...

s can be encrypted. * File: Whether the encrypted container can be stored in a file (usually implemented as encrypted

loop device In Unix-like operating systems, a loop device, vnd (vnode disk), or lofi (loop file interface) is a pseudo-device that makes a computer file accessible as a block device. Before use, a loop device must be connected to an extant file in the file ...

s). * Swap space: Whether the swap space (called a "pagefile" on Windows) can be encrypted individually/explicitly. * Hibernation file: Whether the hibernation file is encrypted (if hibernation is supported).

Modes of operation

Different modes of operation supported by the software. Note that an encrypted volume can only use one mode of operation. * CBC with predictable IVs: The CBC (

cipher block chaining In cryptography, a block cipher mode of operation is an algorithm that uses a block cipher to provide information security such as confidentiality or authenticity. A block cipher by itself is only suitable for the secure cryptographic transforma ...

) mode where initialization vectors are statically derived from the sector number and are not secret; this means that IVs are re-used when overwriting a sector and the vectors can easily be guessed by an attacker, leading to

s. * CBC with secret IVs: The CBC mode where initialization vectors are statically derived from the encryption key and sector number. The IVs are secret, but they are re-used with overwrites. Methods for this include ESSIV and encrypted sector numbers (CGD). * CBC with random per-sector keys: The CBC mode where random keys are generated for each sector when it is written to, thus does not exhibit the typical weaknesses of CBC with re-used initialization vectors. The individual sector keys are stored on disk and encrypted with a master key. (See GBDE for details) * LRW: The Liskov-Rivest-Wagner tweakable narrow-block mode, a mode of operation specifically designed for disk encryption. Superseded by the more secure XTS mode due to security concerns. * XTS: XEX-based Tweaked CodeBook mode (TCB) with CipherText Stealing (CTS), the SISWG (IEEE P1619) standard for disk encryption. *

Authenticated encryption Authenticated Encryption (AE) and Authenticated Encryption with Associated Data (AEAD) are forms of encryption which simultaneously assure the confidentiality and authenticity of data. Programming interface A typical programming interface for ...

: Protection against ciphertext modification by an attacker

Notes and references

External links

DiskCryptor vs Truecrypt
– Comparison between DiskCryptor and TrueCrypt

– Overview of full-disk encryption, how it works, and how it differs from file-level encryption * Disk encryption software * Disk encryption software