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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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LUKS decrypt at boot over SSH? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 days ago by clif@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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I've done a little research but curious about first hand experience.

I've got a little home server that is full disk encrypted with LUKS (+LVM, of course). It's headless (no display, no keyboard, etc) and just lives attached to the back of my desk, out of the way.

If it gets rebooted due to a power outage, I can plug in a keyboard, wait long enough for it to get to the LUKS password prompt, enter password, hit enter, and assume it worked if I see the disk activity light blinking. Worst case scenario, I can move it to a monitor and plug it in to get display too.

Because lazy, I'd prefer to be able to enter the decrypt password remotely. "Dropbear" seems to be a common suggestion but I haven't tried it yet.

So, asking for your experience or recommendations.

I'll start. Recommendation #1 - get a UPS : D ... But besides that.

Addendum: either way, I currently need to be home to do this because I access it remotely via tailscale along with my desktop. Since both are full disk encrypted, neither will boot to the point of starting tailscale without intervention. But, I might repurpose a nonencrypted RPi with SSHd to act as a "auto restarts with tailscale so I can SSH to it, then SSH to server to enter the LUKS password" jump point.

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[–] SphericalCow@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

If you run a system that uses dracut to manage its initramfs, then https://github.com/gsauthof/dracut-sshd might be of use to you.

I have it setup on a server running Fedora and can’t complain. When the system reboots and plymouth shows the LUKS password prompt a ssh server is started in the background as well - so I can unlock the server either using keyboard or connect via SSH. When rebuilding the initramfs (eg. for a new kernel version) the ssh server is installed and setup automatically so I don’t really have to worry about anything after the initial setup.

[–] modeh@piefed.social 3 points 2 days ago

This is my setup as well, having a headless Fedora server, being able to unlock over SSH makes things a breeze.