Re: Discussion about backup passwords for LUKS encrypted filesystems before revising wiki

[rhkramer@gmail.com]

Roberto,

Thanks for the reply!

Good points, both of them.  I might (or might not) add your use case (the 
multiple user case) to the wiki as it sounds like a more plausible need.

On Tuesday, December 22, 2020 12:34:12 PM Roberto C. Sánchez wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 22, 2020 at 12:11:19PM -0500, rhkramer@gmail.com wrote:
> > My point is this: I think creating and saving backup passwords is of
> > minimal value.
> 
> Maybe to you as a single user.  However, I have worked in places where
> resources are protected by multiple passwords.  For instance there was a
> "normal" password given to the admins (or users, as the case may be) and
> a backup password was kept locked in a safe.  The backup password could
> be used if there was some sort of emergency where for some reason those
> who would normally have the password were not available.  (Think
> disaster recovery.)
> 
> Based on the content in the wiki it seems appropriate to inform the
> reader of the presence of the ability to store multiple passwords which
> can unlock an encrypted device.
> 
> > Far more important (but not mentioned) is making and keeping backup
> > copies of your encrypted data (possibly not encrypted but stored in a
> > bank vault ;-), yet that is not mentioned.
> 
> It probably is not mentioned since backups are not something which are
> unique to encrypted devices.  A general reminder would not be wrong or
> bad, but it would seem out of place to me.  I mean, we could also add
> reminders to make sure the firewall is up to date, secured, and enabled
> or to have SMART enabled and configured to send alerts if a HDD begins
> to exhibit symptoms of a potential failure.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> -Roberto