losetup-utils

Utilities to create, mount and unmount encrypted volumes using losetup

losetup is still fast, easy and practical in many situations like:

• Sending sensible information over the internet.
• Transporting sensible information on CDs, DVDs, pendrives, etc.
• Storing private data on a hard disk.
• Storing private data on the cloud.

This scripts attempts to use losetup a bit easier and faster.

Install

You can clone this repository or download it as a zip file. To clone:

$ git clone https://github.com/david-moreno/losetup-utils

Move to the losetup-utils directory:

$ cd losetup-utils

Copy the scripts to /usr/bin (or another directory with executables in your $PATH):

# cp *loopfs* /usr/bin      # You must be root.

Alternatively, you can use sudo:

$ sudo cp *loopfs* /usr/bin

Usage

Creates a 500 MB encrypted volume (will ask for a password):

# mkloopfs myvolume 500
  ...
  password:
  ...
  ext2 volume 'myvolume' created successfully

Mounts the volume in /mnt/volume. Will ask for a password and finally, informs us which loop device is using (loop0 in this case):

# mount.loopfs myvolume /mnt/volume
  password:
  'myvolume' mounted in '/mnt/volume/' using '/dev/loop0' loop device

Unmounts the volume using loop0:

# umount.loopfs /dev/loop0
  /dev/loop0 unmounted

Examples

If you want to create a volume specifying units different than megabytes:

# mkloopfs myvolume 2 G      # Creates a 2GB volume.
# mkloopfs myvolume 1 Y      # 1YB volume.

You can specify a cipher, a filesystem type and a label for your volume. To create a 4GB volume with an ext4 filesystem using the serpent cipher and labeled "my secret volume" you must write:

# mkloopfs secret_volume 4 G serpent ext4 "my secret volume"

If you specified a cipher for a volume, you must indicate it when mounting:

# mount.loopfs secret_volume /mnt/volume serpent

All the volumes unmounts in the same way, regardless of the filesystem or encryption ( loop0 in this case):

# umount.loopfs /dev/loop0