How to hide a Truecrypt volume within an image – Ubuntu

This video shows how to add a Truecrypt volume to an image (join the two files) so that it still looks like an image to the untrained eye. I then post it on the internet, download it and run a script (included below) to access the Truecrypt volume.

The work has been completed for you, the password is included below as well as the mounttc script I wrote and the address to access the file. This should be everything you need to access the file within the Truecrypt container attached to the image. Once you have access to the file follow the instructions and let me know you have completed the challenge.

Password for the Truecrypt container:
Jk7&d-3#s.1rEx*s2@wWzY

Location where you can download the image that contains the truecrypt container:
http://netcladsecurity.webs.com/photo…

This is MY sample mounttc file (just to make it easy), it will need to be adjusted to fit your system and file directories specific to your setup. You can consider this a working example that you can modify to create your own instance.

—————————————-­—————————————-­—————-
split -b393487 image.jpg
sudo truecrypt -t -k xaa –protect-hidden=no xab /media/truecrypt1
wipe -f xaa
wipe -f xab
—————————————-­—————————————-­—————-

I DO NOT ADVOCATE PUTTING SENSITIVE FILES ON THE INTERNET IN THIS FASHION. If you do store your password in a plain text file on something like dropbox.com, google drive, etc for backing it up then this method is MUCH better and safer. There are NEVER any guarantees that encryption cannot be broken and sensitive data accessed. This is for learning purposes and if you choose to use this method you do so at your own risk.

YOUTUBE VIDEO LINK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlviTmnsQpk

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Truecrypt Tutorial – Ubuntu 11.04

This is a tutorial on how to install and use truecrypt on an Ubuntu 64 bit 11.04 system. The method should work for most distributions of Linux. I will show the simple installation process, how to create a truecrypt container and protect is using a password and keyfile. I also demonstrate how changing the keyfile will make the truecrypt container inaccessible.

I hope you find this tutorial useful.
YOUTUBE VIDEO LINK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rr6djyohwk

Why Clear Text is Still a Bad Idea

What is clear text?  Basically it is sending information between machines (many times over the internet) with out using encryption.  Why is this still a bad idea?

Here is a sample packet capture from a test site I used that does not require encryption for a login for demonstration purposes.  Here is the URL as shown in Chrome.  It does not have the padlock and is running unsecured over port 80.

Here is the actual test login form.  This form alone does not mean the login is unsecured, however in this case it is.

I did attempt to login with a bogus username and password.  I recorded a packet capture when I did.  As you can see below unencrypted logins are not secure.  Pay special attention to:

userlogin=username
password=NotMyPassword%3F

As you can see my username and password is viewable by a simple packet capture.  The one thing to note is that NotMyPassWord%3F is actually NotMyPassWord?

You might wonder why ‘%3F’ is translated to ‘?’.  This is because characters like ‘?’ need to be translated to HEX before transmitting to the server.

To see a full ASCII to HEX table; http://www.asciitable.com/ 

Great!  So now you can see how easy it is to capture a packet and see usernames and passwords sent in clear text.  So now you might wonder, how hard is this to do?  I’ll tell you, it is very simple.  While the chances of someone intercepting might be low because someone actually has to be looking, if they are looking they have captured your password easily.  The most common way to do this is through a man in the middle attack where a ‘hacker’ tricks you into sending the data to them, then they route it to the intended machine, capture your password and never know the difference.  The less common way but still highly effective is to just be in the path of the communication.  Given you don’t know who owns the routers and communication channels between yourself and the server you are trying to login to the communication cannot be considered safe.

If that seems to far fetched to you consider this, your ISP can see the contents of ALL Clear Text transmissions if they wanted to.