bionic (8) amcrypt.8.gz

Provided by: amanda-common_3.5.1-1ubuntu0.3_amd64 bug

NAME

       amcrypt - reference crypt program for Amanda symmetric data encryption

SYNOPSIS

       amcrypt

DESCRIPTION

       amcrypt requires aespipe, uuencode and gpg to work. Aespipe is available from : http://loop-
       aes.sourceforge.net

       amcrypt will search for the aespipe program in the following directories:
       /usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin.

       amcrypt calls amaespipe and pass the passphrase through file descriptor 3. The passphrase should be
       stored in ~amanda/.am_passphrase.

HOW TO CREATE ENCRYPTION KEYS FOR AMCRYPT

       1. Create 65 random encryption keys and encrypt those keys using gpg. Reading from /dev/random may take
       indefinitely long if kernel's random entropy pool is empty. If that happens, do some other work on some
       other console (use keyboard, mouse and disks).

       head -c 2925 /dev/random | uuencode -m - | head -n 66 | tail -n 65 \ | gpg --symmetric -a >
       ~amanda/.gnupg/am_key.gpg

       This will ask for a passphrase. Remember this passphrase as you will need it in the next step.

       2. Store the passphrase inside the home-directory of the AMANDA-user and protect it with proper
       permissions:
       echo my_secret_passphrase > ~amanda/.am_passphrase
       chown amanda:disk ~amanda/.am_passphrase
       chmod 700 ~amanda/.am_passphrase

KEY AND PASSPHRASE

       amcrypt uses the same key to encrypt and decrypt data.

       It is very important to store and protect the key and the passphrase properly. Encrypted backup data can
       only be recovered with the correct key and passphrase.

SEE ALSO

       amanda(8), amanda.conf(5), aespipe(1), amaespipe(8), gpg(1)

       The Amanda Wiki: : http://wiki.zmanda.com/

AUTHOR

       Kevin Till <kevin.till@zmanda.com>
           Zmanda, Inc. (http://www.zmanda.com)