Re: USB pen drives and safe cryptosystems (looking for references)

Peter Fairbrother wrote:

> Of the stego encryptors, TrueCrypt hidden volumes on Windows systems fail
> against a thorough forensic analysis. So do FreeOTFE hidden volumes, and I'm
> pretty sure all the rest do too. It's not a failing in the crypto, it's an
> environmental failing - Windows is just not reliably secureable that way.

[...]

> However, if you use a USB drive for encrypted files created using FreeOTFE
> or TrueCrypt from a BartPE CD boot environment, with a seperate key for each
> file, you have a chance - leaves no on-disk traces :)

the older verwsion, TrueCrypt 4.0 was shown here in sci.crypt to have
the hidden volume detectable

this was 'corrected' by the TrueCrypt people in the later editions

the current version of TrueCrypt is 4.2

is there a reference describing an analysis that detects the presence
of a hidden volume for version 4.1 or later?
(assume the BartPE CD boot)

and is there a minimum hidden file/carrier ratio needed for detection?

(i.e. most *critical* information, special secret keypairs and
keyrings, etc.
can easily be contained in 5 mb of space,
so,
for a 5gb TrueCrypt volume, would a 5mb hidden volume (0.1%) be
detectable?)


TIA,

vedaal