Timeline for How does iOS / Android device encryption work?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
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| May 12 at 17:25 | history | edited | Ja1024 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 8 characters in body
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| May 12 at 17:24 | comment | added | Ja1024 | For VeraCrypt to even encrypt data, you have to boot the operating system, start the application, load the key into RAM etc. All of this can enable an attacker with physical access (or just sufficient privileges) to obtain the key. If you only consider the situation where the PC is completely shut off, the key hasn't been leaked, and the keyfile is inaccessible to the attacker, then, yes, this is theoretically more secure than an HSM. But in practice, the PC isn't always shut off, keys do get leaked (e.g., through an unencrypted swap parition), and keyfiles are sometimes accessible. | |
| May 12 at 17:17 | vote | accept | gaazkam | ||
| May 12 at 16:31 | comment | added | gaazkam |
But if you take physical attacks into account, then classical PCs are also vulnerable, so this isn't a HSM-specific problem. - yes, however, data stored on them should be safe (impossible to read by the attacker) as long as the key is not stored inside them? I mean a physical attack won't break VeraCrypt, will it?
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| May 12 at 16:27 | comment | added | Ja1024 | In theory, yes. In practice, you're dealing with extremely tightly packaged, tamper-resistant modules that will delete the key if you try to physically open them. There have been successful attacks against HSMs in the past. How far attackers have come with the Secure Enclave -- I don't know. This isn't necessarily publicly available information. But if you take physical attacks into account, then classical PCs are also vulnerable, so this isn't a HSM-specific problem. | |
| May 12 at 15:58 | comment | added | gaazkam | Wow, hardware security modules are new to me. I thought that every system that contains its own secrets is always security by obscurity. It is difficult for me to imagine how can a key be physically stored and yet it cannot be extracted, not even if the physical module is inspected microscopically. Also how can it be not possible to clone it? As long as we remain in the realm of classical physics, it should be, in principle, possible to recreate the exact structure of any given system? | |
| May 12 at 15:41 | history | answered | Ja1024 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |