the encyclopedic entry of FreeOTFE

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Overview

FreeOTFE was initially released by Sarah Dean in 2004, and was the first open source disk encryption system that provided a modular architecture allowing 3rd parties to implement additional algorithms if required.

This software is compatible with Linux encrypted volumes (e.g. LUKS, cryptoloop, dm-crypt), allowing data encrypted under Linux to be read (and written) freely. It was the first open source transparent disk encryption system to support Windows Vista and PDAs

Optional two-factor authentication using smart cards and/or hardware security modules (HSMs - also known as security tokens) was introduced in v4.0, using the PKCS#11 (Cryptoki) standard developed by RSA Laboratories.

FreeOTFE also allows any number of "hidden volumes" to be created, giving plausible deniability and deniable encryption, and also has the option of encrypting entire partitions or disks

Algorithms implemented

Due to its architecture, FreeOTFE provides great flexibility to the user with its encryption options.

Ciphers

There are a number of ciphers implemented in FreeOTFE, including:

All of the NIST AES finalists are included in FreeOTFE, and all of the ciphers can be used with multiple different keylengths

Cipher modes

Originally FreeOTFE offered encryption using CBC with ESSIV, though from v3.00 introduced LRW and also the more secure XTS mode, which supersedes LRW in the IEEE P1619 standard for disk encryption.