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I've just come across hidden volumes in Veracrypt, where a user is able to keep a second password in the event that they are forced to open up their encrypted volume, and the second password unencrypts only specific files that the user has made sure can be seen in such a situation, with the other important stuff still hidden.

I use Linux Mint and encrypt my drive, but this made me wonder if a similar option is available when logging into Linux Mint or any other Linux versions? So when under duress one can enter the second password in order to unencrypt the drive for the OS. Just to be clear, I am not asking if Veracrypt is available for Linux Mint.

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  • A research on hidden volume and deniable encryption would convince you that the state of the art current way are VeraCrypt and CypherSched, the 2 forks of the discontinued TrueCrypt, and that CypherSched seems far less active than VeraCrypt. Said differently, if you want hidden volumes on your Linux box, install and use VeraCrypt. Commented Jul 20, 2017 at 9:38
  • It's worth noting that hidden volumes don't provide much real-world security. If an attacker has reason to believe that a hidden volume might exist, they won't ease up with the $5 wrench until they've gotten two passwords out of you. Commented Jul 21, 2017 at 1:44

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It might not be as convenient as Veracrypt's hidden volumes. But you can encrypt your drive and remove the header from it (If you are using LUKS) as detailed in: https://superuser.com/questions/823922/dm-cryptluks-can-i-have-a-separate-header-without-storing-it-on-the-luks-encry

As it says there, the drive will then look like random data and will not be able to be identified as your system.

The way you could use this, is having two drives one password protected. The other with the header moved onto a USB. Under duress you'd be able to claim that was a drive you were working on to recover, and be able to show your password protected system as your working platform.

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