Privacy @lemmy.ml mayra @lemmy.world 6mo ago

Can Windows 11 access an encrypted Linux portion on a separate SSD?

Hello,

Suppose you have a PC with 2 separate SSDs. One is an install of Windows 11. The other is an install of a Linux distro, encrypted at time of installation (for example, with LUKS). Obviously you would only boot into one or the other at a time.

So a dual-boot, but each boot portion is on its own SSD (not sure if this matters, but its a relevant scenario).

Can the Windows 11 portion somehow get through the Linux encryption and access / read data on the Linux portion?

Sorry if this is a stupid or obvious question.

14 comments

Not without the encryption key, no.
- Thanks!
  
  Not even if Windows and Linux were on different partitions on the same disk would Windows be able to access the files on the Linux partition without the key.
  
  Just pointing out that s separate disks doesn't change anything. The data, in its encrypted form, will be inaccessible without the decryption key.
Sure you can. Here's one way that looks similar how I do it using wsl. This assumes you're on an EXT4 file system.

https://superuser.com/questions/584883/how-can-i-access-volumes-encrypted-with-luks-dm-crypt-from-windows#936284

There's quite a few options for this but this should at least get you closer to your goal.

I use btrfs on my Linux installs now and there's a windows driver that is phenomenal for that here.

https://github.com/maharmstone/btrfs

Good luck!
- Thanks for the detailed reply. Just to clarify, I'm asking if the Windows 11 system itself, without my intervention, can access the encrypted Linux portio on its own. Something like a system scan.
  
  No, that's the whole point of using encryption. If the windows boatloader had a means of scanning the content of an encrypted file system, it would have already been exploited to circumvent encryption.
- Heck just read the updates on that post linked above and it looks like someone wrote something just for this. My bad for missing it earlier. It is linked in the 4th-ish answer down.
  
  https://github.com/AlexSSD7/linsk
that would be pretty bad if it could. but no, there are no known ways to break luks encryption afaik.

never have a Windows partition on the same machine as an unencrypted ext4 partition/drive!! or any other unencrypted drive for that matter. Windows is fully capable of accessing them and sending data about your personal files back to Microdick HQ
- Thanks!
It can access the encrypted data and any unencrypted startup software that hands things off to the OS after decryption.
an encrypted Linux portion

So, uh, encrypted file or folder?
- Partition

14 comments