Encrypt Partitions

Description

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 natively supports partition encryption through the Linux Unified Key Setup-on-disk-format (LUKS) technology. The easiest way to encrypt a partition is during installation time.

For manual installations, select the Encrypt checkbox during partition creation to encrypt the partition. When this option is selected the system will prompt for a passphrase to use in decrypting the partition. The passphrase will subsequently need to be entered manually every time the system boots.

For automated/unattended installations, it is possible to use Kickstart by adding the --encrypted and --passphrase= options to the definition of each partition to be encrypted. For example, the following line would encrypt the root partition:

part / --fstype=ext4 --size=100 --onpart=hda1 --encrypted --passphrase=PASSPHRASE

Any PASSPHRASE is stored in the Kickstart in plaintext, and the Kickstart must then be protected accordingly. Omitting the --passphrase= option from the partition definition will cause the installer to pause and interactively ask for the passphrase during installation.

By default, the Anaconda installer uses aes-xts-plain64 cipher with a minimum 512 bit key size which should be compatible with FIPS enabled.

Detailed information on encrypting partitions using LUKS or LUKS ciphers can be found on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Documentation web site:
https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/8/html/security_hardening/encrypting-block-devices-using-luks_security-hardening .

Rationale

The risk of a system's physical compromise, particularly mobile systems such as laptops, places its data at risk of compromise. Encrypting this data mitigates the risk of its loss if the system is lost.