Disk encryption theory
Open-knowledge reference entry
Disk encryption is a special case of data at rest protection when the storage medium is a sector-addressable device (e.g., a hard disk). This article presents cryptographic aspects of the problem. For an overview, see disk encryption. For discussion of different software packages and hardware devices devoted to this problem, see disk encryption software and disk encryption hardware.
Problem definition
Disk encryption methods aim to provide three distinct properties:
The data on the disk should remain confidential.
Data retrieval and storage should both be fast operations, no matter where on the disk the data is stored.
The encryption method should not waste disk space (i.e., the amount of storage used for encrypted data should not be significantly larger than the size of plaintext).
The first property requires defining an adversary from whom the data is being kept confidential. The strongest adversaries studied in the field of disk encryption have these abilities:
they can read the raw contents of the disk at any time;
they can request the disk to encrypt and store arbitrary files of their choosing;
and they can modify unused sectors on the disk and then request their decryption.
A method provides good confidentiality if the only information such an adversary can determine over time is whether the data in a sector has or has not changed since the last time they looked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Disk encryption theory” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.