Emily you are so smart and I always like reading what you’ve typed when I am smart enough to understand it.
Myself and many others would like to know what you mean. Do you mean putting two OSes on a external drive with one that is Qubes and one not using the Veracrypt hidden OS guide? Do you mean something else?
@Qubes Modo. Sugestion:
I think it should be an option at Qubes install, to create a vanilla environment (or not: optional) that looks like a common OS.
Like the ability to create a WinLE envionment which will (minimally) run on surface.
When installing, if the option is selected, then Qubes will create a first screen environment (a Qubes outside of Dom0) that will pop-up when the computer is started, with a few basic applications, navigator, games, so whenever lambda officer at border open it to check it out, is starts right into this.
But somewhere inside that fake OS, there is a key to open the actual Qubes-os, with or without a code.
If someone wants to try to implement something, they could look at how Split Linux is doing a decoy OS
Exactly !
That’s exactly what I had in mind … Qubes should have a front-screen/decoy OS
SplitLinux install a system with containers, in which the first container is not protected, and open up straight at login;
Unless loging-in with a login that leads to a protected container.
I’m wondering if Qubes would work if installed into one of those containers ?
Question:
If I install a vanilla OS how do I make it look like it takes up the 4TB of disk ?
Let say Suse leap 15, which would be thenonly one showing up in the boot menu since Qubes /boot would be on a separate USB
How do I install Suse so when an agent opens it, they see its size is the entire disks (2TB+2TB+512Go) would an expandable LVM works ?
Actual install = 64Go, make-beleive install = 4,5To
Or is it too much trouble for no result, as it would be too easy to spot ?
In order to resist to the basic searches (like border inspection), why not having a simple dual-boot managed by the UEFI, with a default boot to the “decoy” OS ?
And then if one would like to boot into an alternate OS, they have to be able to reach the UEFI boot menu that they will protect by a password. Then if during a short search the inspector ask for the boot menu password (it feels unlikely), simply state that it’s a corporate laptop and only your employer will have the UEFI passwords.
Also, in order to keep the “decoy” OS credible, it’s possible to start physically installed OS into VM. So simply make a VM with it (I’m not sure how to proceed with Xen, I’ve made this with VirtualBox and KVM) and perform low security tasks on them.
Of course, this will be useful only against basic inspections. For everything which involves real forensic, the threat protection will require much more creative solutions, but also many good pratices, and will need to be adapted to your threat actors.
This post went on a tangent from a simple duress password as described here:
to complicated multilayer encryption, and to a ‘decoy OS’ implementation.
You dont want to use TPM for secrets.
Hacking a laptop with TPM sealed m$ bitlocker can be done using salae-clone logic analyzer and lang.solder a bit of software…
It is a pain, I know. If one has a brain stroke and can not remember his luks mantra anymore…
TPM cant be trusted (firmware made by infineon in Augsburg, Germany, which sat on some issues for years (hi yubikey) and did not solve it. Also backdoors, who knows).
It is a real pain on how to securely hand over security credentials in case of accident to friends/family.
Also family is often weaker to resist against police interrogations and rubber hose attacks.
(there was an FS called rubber hose, made my a unknown person called assange, maybe anyone knows.)
Most is not usable and some design went into truecrypt but this text is of high importance.
If you have any solution for sharing secrets of encryption and for saving it against rubber hose attacks let me know. TPM wont save you here. TPM is a booby trap imho.
Maybe, you want additionally a cheap amazon android tablet as it does not have LTE and no GPS so it can not reveal location data, because it is too stupid for it.
This is nice for using VOIP APPS behind VPN.
You can use a bluetooth gps mouse for offline navigation using organic maps or the like, But then no internet, just gps via bluetooth. And after the navigation gig switchoff the gps mouse.
Better to have a cheap tablet for navigation purposes only, maps get transferred using a usb stick and again this navigation device does not use internet at all, just a gps receiver. Best is external (usb cable) so you can put it unter the windshield in the edge for perfect reception, on foot use a gps bluetooth mouse which you can also put unter your base cap for perfect reception.
gps bluetooth?
Yes, gps and bluetooth on foot as cables are annoying in a car gps and a usb cable
Yes, I had to search for it too. Apparently the item in the image below is called a “GPS Mouse”:
It’s basically a GPS antenna/module on the end of a cable (or sometimes Bluetooth, apparently…).
I honestly thought they were called “antennas” or “receivers”, but apparently not…
This changes everything… *sits down and contemplates*
Whoever decided to name it a “mouse”, knowing that literally almost everyone in the world would be like “Wait…MOUSE…? What?” is simultaneous the biggest genius in the world, and the biggest troll in the world…
What about this:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=perfectly+deniable+steganographic+disk+encryption
Link an absolute URL instead of a search query that will produce different results for everyone.
In the 2000 years business people and police (with professional mounts) put a toughbook in their car, the magnetic gps mouse on the roof and then they used early navigation software made by navtec and tomtom to drive to their customers.
The GPS mouse is a complete receiver and it somehow looks like a optical mouse for apple users. press it down for click would be possible, hence the name.
It is about law enforcement or evil governments just use stupid people to beat you up. The do not understand about crypto but you may loose your health in the “interrogations”.
hidden volume in vera crypt.
A hidden qubes would be interesting but not easy to do.
Maybe to have qubes behave a bit like the blue pill attack on an actual windows (decoy) install. Qubes (sys-net and sys-usb) sniffs the windows’ communication aka “airport mode”.
You should also get rid of all metadata associated to what you store in this.