Disk Encryption with clevis and tang

stile23 · 06-28-2018, 10:31 AM

So I've been tasked with enabling whole disk encryption at my site (which I've never done) but I really hate the idea of having to enter a password at every boot. I was reading about using "network found disk encryption" and how it works. There are actually some decent notes on in the RHEL Security Guide on setting up clevis and tang but I was wondering if anyone had a write up of configuring and using it? Any pointers would be appreciated.

I'm running RHEL 7.5 on Dell workstations.

scasey · 06-28-2018, 11:06 AM

A thought: whole disk encryption without a pass phrase at boot seems kinda useless. It’s not that onerous...a once a day thing, right? Just sayin’.

stile23 · 06-28-2018, 01:25 PM

So with clevis and tang instead of a passphrase at boot it goes out to a server and checks out a key. At least that's the way I read it. And if it were only one or two computers it wouldn't be a big deal but when there are 150+ it becomes bothersome.

I suspect that there would still be a local key included on an encrypted partition for the case where the NIC died or your key server died but that would be secondary to the found network disk option.

scasey · 06-28-2018, 04:17 PM

Shop I was in got to where everyone was issued a laptop with full-disk encryption. There were more than 20,000 laptops...each requiring pass-phrase at boot which only the person issued the laptop knew.

But I don't mean to hijack your thread. Hopefully someone will share there experiences with clevis and tang. You have searched the web, yes?