Can you encrypt an encrypted harddrive?

[Tricky5Alex]

Was thinking about bitlockers. And my first thought was why not. But i´m not that sure....

[juretrn]

You want to encrypt an already encripted hard drive? What for?

[Tricky5Alex]

You want to encrypt an already encripted hard drive? What for?

I don´t want to. Just wondering if it´s possible.

[Guest]

Im guessing not

[jameshumphries47]

depends how it is encrypted

[DimasRMDO]

Wait, it's encrypted already. How would you encrypt an HDD that's already been encrypted?

[alpenwasser]

I haven't tried this, but with dm-crypt in Linux it might be possible to set up basically

an arbitrary number of layers of encryption. Not 100% sure though. Hm, I must try this,

will be back with results later!

Wait, it's encrypted already. How would you encrypt an HDD that's already been encrypted?

One somewhat legitimate reason I could imagine is that you'd use different encryption systems

for the different layers, so if there's a vulnerability/exploit/breach of one encryption

technology, you still have the other which can protect you.

[DimasRMDO]

One somewhat legitimate reason I could imagine is that you'd use different encryption systems

for the different layers, so if there's a vulnerability/exploit/breach of one encryption

technology, you still have the other which can protect you.

Hmm, you're probably right.... I think I get the point.

[alpenwasser]

Hmm, you're probably right.... I think I get the point.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it makes sense for anyone but the absolutely most

paranoid, but there are cases where it's useful.

EDIT: Well, maybe not so much useful, but at least there are cases when I wouldn't call

somebody insane for doing this.

/EDIT

Anyway, I've just tried it out, and it works in Linux with dmcrypt. So yes, at least

in Linux you can encrypt a device multiple times. Poking @MG2R, just FYI.

Edited September 2, 2015 by alpenwasser

[MG2R]

There's no reason why you couldn't encrypt encrypted data. There is also almost no reason why you should, if you choose a good encryption algorythm

[Tricky5Alex]

Just got this brainfart at school and thought that it would be interesting to find out.

[Mr_KoKa]

I would think about it like about compressing already compressed file, you can do this but it is not beneficial, but in encryption case it might be.

[ekv]

You can use VM in VM everything encrypted on some fast SSD.

Lot of hackers do that, it's realy reliably and ofc better then just one usless encryption.

ITS INCEPTION!

[patch]

I haven't tried this, but with dm-crypt in Linux it might be possible to set up basically

an arbitrary number of layers of encryption. Not 100% sure though. Hm, I must try this,

will be back with results later!

 

Yes, in Linux this is definitely possible.  (Not sure about windows).  With Linux's 'layered file system', you would just encrypt the device provided after mounting the encrypted drive.  You will be able to do this an arbitrarily large number of times, with each providing it's own overhead (encryption takes cpu resources), eventually constantly maxing out your cpu just to create a text file.