Ask HN: Hidden Operating System

[NKosmatos]

Hi fellow HNers,

Are there any better/newer ways to create a hidden operating system (Windows 10) than the one proposed by Veracrypt [0]?

I'm playing around with Plausible Deniability and the idea of having a hidden OS, where depending on the boot password a different OS (decoy or hidden) is booted. Usually these kinds of stuff are connected with illegal activities, but from a privacy point of view they offer a good technological challenge, especially nowadays :-)

I would assume that with the ongoing advances in encryption and/or whistleblowing, there would be easier ways to create a "secure" PC in case you wanted to be out of reach of different agencies.

I've seen that there are a few problems [1] with Windows updates corrupting the Veracrypt hidden/encrypted partitions.

[0] https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/VeraCrypt%20Hidden%20Operating%20System.html

[1] https://sourceforge.net/p/veracrypt/discussion/general/thread/5f23f3e52d/

[sandreas]

I would not encrypt the whole operating system but use steganography[1] for the most important / delicate files instead.

There is a pretty simple to use software called "DeepSound", where you can hide files within audio tracks and even burn them onto CDs, that also really work in a audio CD player.

If that is not an option, Veracrypt or headerless LUKS[2] are probably your best bets. If you combine headerless LUKS with steganography, you might achieve full plausible deniability

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography

[2]: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/253493/is-plain-dm-...

[tdeck]

You might find this series of videos interesting:

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLec1d3OBbZ8IBeFODHXLy0m...

A lot of hacky techniques in here. Some are hardware based 8e.g. a SoC for the quick start OS), some are software, and some are EFI firmware.

[ThePowerOfFuet → anbardoi]

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