Encrypting USB with luks
Date: 17-02-2025
What you will need 📋
- A USB drive
- A computer with Linux 🐧🖥
- The ability to read instructions and to follow them 🧠
1) Install cryptsetup
sudo pacman -S cryptsetup
2) Backup any information on the USB stick because this process involves formatting the USB drive.
3) Formatting USB.
sudo fdisk /dev/sdX
The X being your USB drive.
Press the following keys:
o
n
Press enter for the rest
w
4) Encryption time!
sudo cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/sdX1
Make your password secure please!
5) Decrypt USB
sudo cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sdX1 USB
Note: The first password is your root user password, not the encryption password. I have sadly made this mistake in the past.
6) Format the Encrypted Partition
sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/USB
Depending on the size of the USB, this may take some time. For me, it took 3 minutes.
Step 7: Mount the Encrypted Partition
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/USB
sudo mount /dev/mapper/USB /mnt/USB
sudo mount /dev/mapper/USB /mnt/USB
Finished ✅
Your password better be good dude. Make sure to memorize it!
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