What the ...?

Cryptsetup is an open-source utility used to conveniently set up disk encryption based on the dm-crypt kernel module.

These formats are supported:

• plain volumes,
• LUKS volumes,
• loop-AES,
• TrueCrypt (including VeraCrypt extension),
• BitLocker, and
• FileVault2.

The project also includes a veritysetup utility used to conveniently setup dm-verity block integrity checking kernel module and integritysetup to setup dm-integrity block integrity kernel module.

LUKS Design

LUKS is the standard for Linux disk encryption. By providing a standardized on-disk format, it not only facilitate compatibility among distributions, but also enables secure management of multiple user passwords. LUKS stores all necessary setup information in the partition header, which enables users to transport or migrate data seamlessly.

Specification and documentation

• The latest version of the LUKS2 format specification.
• The latest version of the LUKS1 format specification.
• Project home page.
• Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Download

Release notes and tarballs are available at kernel.org.

The latest stable cryptsetup release version is 2.8.8

• cryptsetup-2.8.8.tar.xz
• Signature cryptsetup-2.8.8.tar.sign (You need to decompress file first to check signature.)
• Cryptsetup 2.8.8 Release Notes.

Previous versions

Source and API documentation

For development version code, please refer to the source page, with mirrors at kernel.org and GitHub.

For libcryptsetup documentation see libcryptsetup API page.

NLS PO files are maintained by TranslationProject.

Required packages

All major Linux distributions provide cryptsetup as a bundled package. If you need to compile cryptsetup yourself, various additional packages are required. Any distribution-specific build tools are preferred when manually configuring cryptsetup.

Below are the packages needed to build for certain Linux distributions:

For Fedora:

git gcc make autoconf automake gettext-devel pkgconfig openssl-devel popt-devel device-mapper-devel libuuid-devel json-c-devel libblkid-devel findutils libtool libssh-devel tar rubygem-asciidoctor

Optionally: libargon2-devel libpwquality-devel

To run the internal testsuite (make check) you also need to install

sharutils device-mapper jq vim-common expect keyutils netcat shadow-utils openssh-clients openssh sshpass

For Debian and Ubuntu:

git gcc make autoconf automake autopoint pkg-config libtool gettext libssl-dev libdevmapper-dev libpopt-dev uuid-dev libsepol-dev libjson-c-dev libssh-dev libblkid-dev tar asciidoctor

Optionally: libargon2-0-dev libpwquality-dev

To run the internal testsuite (make check) you also need to install

sharutils dmsetup jq xxd expect keyutils netcat-openbsd passwd openssh-client sshpass

Note that the list may change as Linux distributions evolve.

Compilation

The cryptsetup project uses automake and autoconf system to generate all files needed to build. When building from a git snapshot,, use ./autogen.sh && ./configure && make to compile the project. When building from a release tar.xz tarball, the configure script is pre-generated (no need to run autoconf.sh). See ./configure --help and use the --disable-[feature] and --enable-[feature] options.

To run the test suite that come with the project, type make check. Note that most tests will need root user privileges and will run dangerous storage failure simulations. Do not run tests with root privilege on production systems! Some tests will need the scsi_debug kernel module to be installed.

For more details, please refer to the automake and autoconf documentation.

Help!

Documentation

Please read the following before posting questions to the mailing list so that you can ask better questions and better understand answers.

• Frequently asked questions (FAQ),
• LUKS Specifications, and
• manuals (aka man page, man pages, man-page)

The FAQ is available online and in the source code for the project. The specifications are referenced above in this document. The man pages live within the source tree and should be available after installation using standard man commands, e.g. man cryptsetup.

Mailing List

For cryptsetup and LUKS related questions, please use the cryptsetup mailing list cryptsetup@lists.linux.dev, hosted at kernel.org subspace. To subscribe send an empty email message to cryptsetup+subscribe@lists.linux.dev.

You can also browse and/or search the mailing list archive. USEnet News (NNTP), Atom feed and git access to the public inbox is available through lore.kernel.org service.

The former dm-crypt list archive is also available.