35
How do you manage your encryption keys?
(lm.paradisus.day)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2024
35 points (97.3% liked)
Selfhosted
39677 readers
160 users here now
A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.
Rules:
-
Be civil: we're here to support and learn from one another. Insults won't be tolerated. Flame wars are frowned upon.
-
No spam posting.
-
Posts have to be centered around self-hosting. There are other communities for discussing hardware or home computing. If it's not obvious why your post topic revolves around selfhosting, please include details to make it clear.
-
Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or github here. Just post the link for folks to click.
-
Submission headline should match the article title (don’t cherry-pick information from the title to fit your agenda).
-
No trolling.
Resources:
- selfh.st Newsletter and index of selfhosted software and apps
- awesome-selfhosted software
- awesome-sysadmin resources
- Self-Hosted Podcast from Jupiter Broadcasting
Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.
Questions? DM the mods!
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
There are many ways to go about this. Files like those keyfiles and encryption headers are extra sensitive because (a) they potentially provide access to everything and (b) losing them can block access to everything. Personally, I keep those types of files unencrypted in a directory that stays 100% offline (encrypted backups to external disks only). But there's no reason not to back those files up to an encrypted online repository (where you trust the encryption). Just make sure that's not your only backup of those files for obvious reasons.
A good practice to avoid painting yourself in a corner is to test your backups: Switch off your PC / server, put your mobile devices in a drawer (pretend they're gone), borrow / wipe a cheap laptop. How do you access your backup files using just that laptop?
But if your encryption keys to your offsite backup are on-site only, doesn't that make your offsite backup worthless in the case where "offsite" is important?
If your house burns down, you don't have your encryption keys to your only backup.
Good catch... and that's why I keep up-to-date encrypted offline backups in two locations (home and office) always. That should be enough really, but I've been thinking about swapping one of those drives with a third backup at one of my relatives' house from time to time, just to make irrecoverable failure even less likely.
So you keep an encrypted backup at work with the decryption key at home, and an encrypted backup at home with the decryption key at work?
No, that would clearly defeat the purpose of redundant backups. I remember the passphrases for my backups.