[Lincs] February Meeting?

[Marc McGuinness]

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Hello James,

J wrote the following on 16.11.2004 18:47:
| 1) How can I encrypt a folder structure through the use of a key
| mechanism so that I can use it with normal programs through a mount
| style mechanism : for instance, I know I can create a file and mount
| this as a directory, and then place files into this. I also know i could
| encrypt this file, is there any way of creating some sort of script that
| would encrypt the data being sent to the file and un-encrypt the return
| of the data. What I'm worried about here is that I dont really
| understand the way this works - I know I just do it ...

What you usually do is mounting an encrypted file. This file is
decrypted only once when you mount it. It will be encrypted again when
you unmount it. You don't encrypt every single file inside that main file.

| for instance if I send the command "open file" through the encryptor,
| this might turn out the other end in the block file as something
| completly wierd. If all instructions get interpreted in this manner then
| we're going to have serious problems.

You don't send every single "open file" command through the encryptor.

| On the other hand, if I have to encrypt individual files, this still
| gives people the ability to see what I'm working on through the file
| names (I give my files obvious names - its a company policy).

You don't have to encrypt individual files, but people can still see
what you're working on, as long as your main file is mounted.

Another solution would be to set appropriate read/write permissions on
that mounted filesystem. You can write a script for mounting it. All you
have to do is entering your passphrase.

| I dont want to have to un-encrypt the entire directory then re-encrypt
| it everytime I want to open / write to a file.

No, that's not necessary.

| I want this to work at the OS level because I want to be able to put
| anything into these folders including applications and use any generic
| file based application on this directory (for instance I don't want to
| have to be forced into using emacs to edit the files because you can do
| it inside emacs or whatever).

Yes, you can do that.

| How would changing my keys work for such a system or allowing multiple
| keys to be used to access it?

I'm afraid I don't know anything about using multiple keys...

Sorry, I can't say anything about your CVS problem.

Marc
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