TrueCrypt is now included (Feature #5512) in Tails, but with its license and development practices, we would like to provide a migration path from TrueCrypt.

We now need to research, implement and possibly document replacement solutions.

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Next steps

1. decide TrueCrypt alternative (Feature #5703)
2. write the migration documentation
3. ship TrueCrypt for releases N and N+1, announcing it will be removed in release N+2, and pointing to the migration doc: wrap TrueCrypt to announce removal (Feature #5415)
4. don’t ship TrueCrypt in release N+2

Use cases

Encrypted USB stick

GNOME Disk Utility provides an easy way to encrypt storage media. (Sure, but what about people who don’t use GNOME? - see notes on interoperability below)

Plausible deniability

Supported with TrueCrypt hidden containers - is there a Free alternative for this?

File containers

This is a filesystem-in-a-file, which makes portability a breeze. It’s easy to take your secrets with you on a USB stick, without having to prepare/sacrifice the entire USB stick. Ditto for any storage medium. Combine TrueCrypt file containers with an untrustworthy service like Dropbox and you have your secrets synced across computers with very little effort.

Cross-platform support

A TrueCrypt file container can be used from any OS and any distro we happen to be using at the time.

Consistent GUI

First of all, TrueCrypt has a GUI which exposes all functions a non-admin user needs. Secondly, the GUI is consistent across operating systems. Master TrueCrypt on Windows, and you know how to use it on Linux, MacOSX etc. Thirdly, the GUI has not significantly changed in years

More?

TrueCrypt lovers should tell us why they would miss it. Then we can decide if and how we want to support the described usecases.

Resources

• RealCrypt: one Fedora maintainer forked TrueCrypt and ships 3rd-party RPMs outside of Fedora.
  • Mandriva page about it