In computing, rubberhose (also known by its development codename Marutukku) is a
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 users ...
archive containing multiple
file system
In computing, file system or filesystem (often abbreviated to fs) is a method and data structure that the operating system uses to control how data is stored and retrieved. Without a file system, data placed in a storage medium would be one larg ...
s whose existence can only be verified using the appropriate cryptographic key.
Name and history
The project was originally named Rubberhose, as it was designed to be resistant to attacks by people willing to use
torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...
on those who knew the encryption keys. This is a reference to the
rubber-hose cryptanalysis
In cryptography, rubber-hose cryptanalysis is a euphemism for the extraction of cryptographic secrets (e.g. the password to an encrypted file) from a person by coercion or torture—such as beating that person with a rubber hose, hence the nam ...
euphemism.
It was written in 1997–2000 by
Julian Assange
Julian Paul Assange ( ; Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. WikiLeaks came to international attention in 2010 when it published a series of leaks provided by U.S. Army inte ...
,
Suelette Dreyfus
Suelette Dreyfus is a technology researcher, journalist, and writer. Her fields of research include information systems, digital security and privacy, the impact of technology on whistleblowing, health informatics and e-education. Her work exami ...
, and Ralf Weinmann.
Technical
The following paragraphs are extracts from the project's documentation:
Status
Rubberhose is not actively maintained, although it is available for
Linux kernel
The Linux kernel is a free and open-source, monolithic, modular, multitasking, Unix-like operating system kernel. It was originally authored in 1991 by Linus Torvalds for his i386-based PC, and it was soon adopted as the kernel for the GNU ope ...
2.2,
NetBSD
NetBSD is a free and open-source Unix operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). It was the first open-source BSD descendant officially released after 386BSD was forked. It continues to be actively developed and is a ...
and
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), which was based on Research Unix. The first version of FreeBSD was released in 1993. In 2005, FreeBSD was the most popular ...
. The latest version available, still in alpha stage, is v0.8.3.
See also
*
Rubber-hose cryptanalysis
In cryptography, rubber-hose cryptanalysis is a euphemism for the extraction of cryptographic secrets (e.g. the password to an encrypted file) from a person by coercion or torture—such as beating that person with a rubber hose, hence the nam ...
*
Key disclosure law
Key disclosure laws, also known as mandatory key disclosure, is legislation that requires individuals to surrender cryptographic keys to law enforcement. The purpose is to allow access to material for confiscation or digital forensics purposes and ...
*
StegFS
StegFS is a free steganographic file system for Linux based on the ext2 filesystem. It is licensed under the GPL. It was principally developed by Andrew D. McDonald and Markus G. Kuhn.
The last version of StegFS is 1.1.4, released February 14, ...
*
VeraCrypt hidden volumes
References
External links
*
Marutukku.org documentation and downloads{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716034441/http://marutukku.org/ , date=2012-07-16
Cryptographic software
Julian Assange
Steganography