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A minimalistic commandline tool to manage encrypted volumes

Latest version: 1.5.3

Updates on website: http://dyne.org/software/tomb

What is Tomb, the crypto undertaker

Tomb aims to be a free and open source system for easy encryption and backup of personal files, written in code that is easy to review and links shared GNU/Linux components.

At present time, Tomb consists of a simple shell script (Zsh) using standard filesystem tools (GNU) and the cryptographic API of the Linux kernel (cryptsetup and LUKS). Tomb can also produce machine parsable output to facilitate its use inside graphical applications.

Use stable releases in production

Anyone planning to use Tomb to store and access secrets should not use the latest development version in Git, but use instead the .tar.gz release on https://files.dyne.org/tomb . The stable version will always insure backward compatibility with older tombs: we make sure it creates sane tombs and keys by running various tests before releasing it. The development version in Git might introduce sudden bugs and is not granted to produce backward or forward compatible tombs and keys. Only developers and testers should use the Git version to report bugs, test new features and develop patches.

So be warned: do not use the latest Git version in production environments, but use a stable release versioned and packed as tarball on https://files.dyne.org/tomb

How does it works

For the instructions on how to get started using Tomb, see INSTALL.

This tool can be used to dig .tomb files (Luks volumes), forge keys protected by a password (GnuPG symmetric encryption) and use the keys to lock the tombs. Tombs are like single files whose contents are unaccessible in absence of the key they were locked with and its password.

Once open the tombs are just like normal folders and can contain different files, plus they offer advanced functionalities like bind and execution hooks and fast search, or they can be slammed close even if busy. Keys can be stored on separate media like USB sticks, NFC or bluetooth devices to make the transport of data safer: one always needs both the tomb and the key, plus its password, to access it.

The tomb script takes care of several details to improve the security of tombs in every day usage: adopting pinentry for passwords, facilitating the storage of backup keys using image steganography, listing open tombs and selectively closing them, warning the user about their size and last time they were used, etc.

How secure is this?

Death is the only sure thing in life. Said that, Tomb is a pretty secure tool especially because it keeps minimal, its source is always open and its code is easy to review with a bit of shell script knowledge.

All encryption tools being used in Tomb are included as default in many GNU/Linux operating systems and therefore are regularly peer reviewed: we don't add anything else to them really, just a layer of usability.

The code of Tomb can be read in a literate programming style on http://tomb.dyne.org/literate

Stage of development

Tomb is an evolution of the 'mknest' tool developed for the dyne:bolic GNU/Linux distribution, which is used by its 'nesting' mechanism to encrypt the Home directory of users, a system implemented already in 2001. Since then, the same shell routines kept being maintained and in 2007 they were adapted to work on various other GNU/Linux distributions.

As of today, Tomb is a well stable tool also used in mission critical situations by a number of activists in endangered zones. It has been reviewed by forensics analysts and it can be considered to be safe for military grade use, where the integrity of informations stored depend from the user's behaviour and the strenght of a standard AES-256 (XTS plain) encryption algorithm.

How can you help

Donations are always welcome, see https://dyne.org/donate

Translations are also needed: they can be contributed via this website https://poeditor.com/join/project?hash=33bdefea2e46b26f512a0caae55fbbb5 or simply sending the .po file. Start from extras/po/tomb.pot.

Code is pretty short and readable: start looking around it and the materials found in doc/ which are good pointers at security measures to be further implemented.

For the bleeding edge visit https://github.com/dyne/Tomb

Tomb's developers can be contacted via the "crypto" mailinglist on http://lists.dyne.org or via IRC on https://irc.dyne.org channel #dyne

Some enthusiastic ideas are in the TODO file.

Information on developers involved is found in the AUTHORS file.