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Encrypt Your Home Directory on Ubuntu using fscrypt

It’s a good idea to use fscrypt to encrypt the home directory on Ubuntu to increase the security of the personal data. Recent Ubuntu editions, including Ubuntu 20.04 and beyond, provide a feature called Fscrypt that makes it easier to encrypt specific user home folders. Here is a detailed explanation on how to accomplish it:

Steps to Encrypt Your Home Directory on Ubuntu using fscrypt

1. Check the state of the system’s encryption support to first make sure that Ubuntu supports fscrypt:

We need to enable fscrypt or upgrade to a supported version of Ubuntu if it isn’t already.

2. The following command can be used to install fscrypt if it hasn’t already been done:

3. Use the following command to encrypt the home directory (Make sure we are logged in as the user whose home directory we wish to encrypt before continuing):

We will now be guided through the setup procedure, which will also provide a fresh encryption passphrase. We’ll need a strong and memorable passphrase to access the data, so be sure to choose one.

4. It’s a good idea to reboot the computer after configuring fscrypt to make sure the encryption is complete and the mounting of the home directory is safe.

5. We can use the following code to verify that the process is complete:

This will show the encryption level of the home directory.

6. After enabling fscrypt, any new files in the home directory will encrypt automatically. Existing files, however, won’t encrypt automatically. Using the following command, we can encrypt the current files:

The exact path to the folder we want to encrypt should be substituted for /path/to/existing/folder.

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Conclusion

With these steps, we can successfully encrypt the home directory in Ubuntu using the tool, fscrypt. Maintaining a safe and secure record of the encryption passphrase is essential. We risk losing access to the data if we forget it.