Creating A Safe Directory With PAM And EncFS

Introduction

This guide will walk you through the steps to create a safe directory using PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) and EncFS (Encrypted File System). This setup allows you to automatically mount an encrypted directory when a user logs in and unmount it when they log out, providing enhanced security for sensitive data.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, ensure you have:

1. A Linux system with EncFS installed
2. Root access to your system

Steps to Create a Safe Directory

1. Install EncFS: Install EncFS on your Linux system using your package manager. For example, on Debian-based systems, you can use:

sudo apt-get install encfs

1. Create Encrypted Directory: Create an encrypted directory using EncFS. For example, to create an encrypted directory named encrypted_dir in /path/to/mountpoint:

encfs /path/to/encrypted_dir /path/to/mountpoint

1. Set Permissions: Ensure that only the owner (usually the user) has read and write permissions to the encrypted directory:

chmod 700 /path/to/mountpoint

1. Configure PAM: Edit the PAM configuration file (/etc/pam.d/common-session or similar) to automatically mount the encrypted directory when a user logs in and unmount it when they log out. Add the following line at the end of the file:

session optional pam_encfs.so

1. Test: Log out and log back in to test if the encrypted directory is automatically mounted.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully created a safe directory using PAM and EncFS. This setup provides enhanced security for sensitive data by automatically mounting an encrypted directory when a user logs in and unmounting it when they log out.