I am a big proponent of the open source community. As such I am always excited when a good product comes out with something better. This month TrueCrypt has released version 5.0.
TrueCrypt is a software application used for on-the-fly encryption (OTFE). It can create a “file-hosted container” or write a partition which consists of an encrypted volume with its own file system, contained within a regular file, which can then be mounted as if it were a real disk. TrueCrypt also supports device-hosted volumes, which can be created on either an individual partition or an entire disk. With version 5.0 it can now encrypt the Windows boot partition. TrueCrypt is available for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
Improvements:
The memory requirements for the TrueCrypt Boot Loader have been reduced by 18 KB (eighteen kilobytes). As a result of this improvement, the following problem will no longer occur on most of the affected computers:
The memory requirements of the TrueCrypt Boot Loader 5.0 prevented users of some computers from encrypting system partitions/drives (when performing the system encryption pretest, the TrueCrypt Boot Loader displayed the following error message: Insufficient memory for encryption).
Bug fixes:
On computers equipped with certain brands of audio cards, when performing the system encryption pretest or when the system partition/drive is encrypted, the sound card drivers failed to load. This will no longer occur. (Windows Vista/XP/2003)
It is possible to access mounted TrueCrypt volumes over a network. (Windows)
TrueCrypt Rescue Disks created by the previous version could not be booted on some computers. This will no longer occur. (Windows Vista/XP/2003)
Note: If your TrueCrypt Rescue Disk created by TrueCrypt 5.0 cannot be booted on your computer, please upgrade to this version of TrueCrypt and then create a new TrueCrypt Rescue Disk (select ‘System’ > ‘Create Rescue Disk’).
New features:
Ability to encrypt a system partition/drive (i.e. a partition/drive where Windows is installed) with pre-boot authentication (anyone who wants to gain access and use the system, read and write files, etc., needs to enter the correct password each time before the system starts). For more information, see the chapter System Encryption in the documentation. (Windows Vista/XP/2003)
Pipelined operations increasing read/write speed by up to 100% (Windows)
Mac OS X version
Graphical user interface for the Linux version of TrueCrypt
The TrueCrypt Volume Creation Wizard now allows creation of hidden volumes within NTFS volumes. (Windows)
XTS mode of operation, which was designed by Phillip Rogaway in 2003 and which was recently approved as the IEEE 1619 standard for cryptographic protection of data on block-oriented storage devices. XTS is faster and more secure than LRW mode (for more information on XTS mode, see the section Modes of Operation in the documentation).
Note: New volumes created by this version of TrueCrypt can be encrypted only in XTS mode. However, volumes created by previous versions of TrueCrypt can still be mounted using this version of TrueCrypt.
SHA-512 hash algorithm (replacing SHA-1, which is no longer available when creating new volumes).
Note: To re-encrypt the header of an existing volume with a header key derived using HMAC-SHA-512 (PRF), select ‘Volumes’ > ‘Set Header Key Derivation Algorithm’.
