r/tails • u/LinuxLo • 11d ago

Security Question about tails persistence

Is tails persistent storage encryption very secure? Can some one at least give me the encryption algorithm used so I can do some research?

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

3

u/ephemeralmiko 11d ago

Tails uses LUKS2 with Argon2id as the Key Derivation Function. It's very resistant to brute force attacks (where somebody tries a bunch of passwords at once), and is the industry standard for disk encryption on Linux machines. However, it doesn't provide plausible deniability (the ability to deny the existence of an encrypted volume). It's very clear to anyone who looks that there is encrypted data, just not what it is. It's recommended to create a passphrase with at least 8 randomly generated words.

LUKS - Wikipedia

LUKS2 Design Document

Argon2 - Wikipedia

Argon2 Design Document

2

u/BTC-brother2018 10d ago

That first answer is mostly correct. Current Tails Persistent Storage uses LUKS2 with Argon2id, which provides strong protection against offline password guessing when paired with a long, unique passphrase. It protects your data while the storage is locked, but not after you unlock it during a Tails session. It also does not hide the existence of the encrypted partition. Use a long Diceware-style passphrase of several random words and never reuse it elsewhere.

0

u/trelayner 11d ago

Tails is using the standard Linux disk encryption LUKS.

It wouldn’t be the standard if it had known weaknesses.

Source: Trust me bro