NAME

       amcryptsimple - reference simple crypt program for Amanda symmetric data encryption

SYNOPSIS

       amcryptsimple  to be called by Amanda only

DESCRIPTION

       amcryptsimple calls gpg to perform symmetric data encryption on Amanda backup.
       amcryptsimple will search for the gpg program in the following directories:
       /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin

       amcryptsimple uses one passphrase to encrypt the Amanda data and uses the same passphrase
       to decrypt the Amanda backup data.  amcryptsimple uses AES256 as the symmetric cipher.

HOW TO CREATE PASSPHRASE

       Store the passphrase inside the home-directory of the Amanda user ($amanda_user) and
       protect it with proper permissions:

       echo my_secret_passphrase > ~$amanda_user/.am_passphrase
       chown $amanda_user:disk ~$amanda_user/.am_passphrase
       chmod 700 ~$amanda_user/.am_passphrase

NOTES

       Choose a good passphrase and protect it properly. Backup data can only be restored with
       the passphrase. There is no backdoor.

       If storing and securing passphrase in your environment presents challenges, Amanda provide
       public-key data encryption through amgpgcrypt. Public-key encryption uses the public key
       to encrypt and uses the private key to decrypt.

SEE ALSO

       amanda(8), amanda.conf(5), amcrypt(8), amgpgcrypt(8), amrestore(8), gpg(1)

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

AUTHOR

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