[dm-crypt] Help: problem with an encrypted USB drive

[dm-crypt] Help: problem with an encrypted USB drive

[Kasperi]

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Hi,

First of all, I thank you for the great tool that you provide.

Now, I encountered a problem with an 512 GB USB flash drive that I 
bought recently and I wonder if it is related with the device itself or 
with the LUKS encryption that I put on it. I therefore seek your help. I 
have read the FAQ and searched the web for similar problems and I really 
do not know what I could do more to find a software fix to the problem.

There has been *no physical damage* to the drive and since I have used 
it very scarcely so far, I would be really surprised, if it had worn 
down already. It is a few months old and I only did occasional backups 
on it.

First, the USB drive started to change its permissions to *write 
protected* when I was doing file transfers. Then, I run the system 
utility tool fsck to check and fix the filesystem as I suspected that 
errors therein might cause the behaviour. After running fsck 
unsuccessfully, the *USB drive stopped working altogether* and I cannot 
do anything with it. My systems (Linux Mint / Debian) do detect the USB 
drive itself (lsusb, lsblk), but the partition table seems to be gone 
now. I have tried to format the drive by different methods, but any 
intent gives errors and gets stuck. Disks, Gparted, mkusb, dd... but all 
to no avail.

Please note that I do not need to recover the data, as they were backups 
only. I want to format it and use the device again, in the case that 
there is not some inherent damage to it.

My question is: Can the LUKS encryption itself cause the described 
behaviour?

I can give you more details if there is still hope to find a software fix.

Kind regards,

Kasperi


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[dm-crypt] Re: Help: problem with an encrypted USB drive

[Peter Grandi]

> First, the USB drive started to change its permissions to
> *write protected* when I was doing file transfers. Then, I run
> the system utility tool fsck to check and fix the filesystem
> as I suspected that errors therein might cause the behaviour.

That is rather vague and not very useful.

> After running fsck unsuccessfully, the *USB drive stopped
> working altogether*

Most likely explanatuions: it is either defective or it has a
fake size. There are a lot of fake flash drives.

> My question is: Can the LUKS encryption itself cause the
> described behaviour?

No.
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[dm-crypt] Re: Help: problem with an encrypted USB drive

[Carlos E. R.]

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On 23/04/2021 18.35, Kasperi wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> First of all, I thank you for the great tool that you provide.
> 
> Now, I encountered a problem with an 512 GB USB flash drive that I 

Is this a real SSD disk, or an USB stick?

If it is a stick, what you describe would be typical of a device that 
has been written to more times than it supports and has switched to 
read-only mode, and thus there is nothing to do.

Otherwise, it could be a faked "big" usb stick. As it is in R/O mode, it 
is not possible to test it for actual size (it involves writing once to 
its full declared size, and comparing).

I know of faked usb sticks, but not faked SSD drives.

-- 
Cheers / Saludos,

		Carlos E. R.
		(from 15.2 x86_64 at Telcontar)


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[dm-crypt] Re: Help: problem with an encrypted USB drive

[Arno Wagner]

On Sat, Apr 24, 2021 at 20:40:09 CEST, Peter Grandi wrote:
> > First, the USB drive started to change its permissions to
> > *write protected* when I was doing file transfers. Then, I run
> > the system utility tool fsck to check and fix the filesystem
> > as I suspected that errors therein might cause the behaviour.
> 
> That is rather vague and not very useful.
> 
> > After running fsck unsuccessfully, the *USB drive stopped
> > working altogether*
> 
> Most likely explanatuions: it is either defective or it has a
> fake size. There are a lot of fake flash drives.
> 
> > My question is: Can the LUKS encryption itself cause the
> > described behaviour?
> 
> No.

I second that. LUKS has only a minor impact on the access pattern.
A disk that dies with LUKS will also die without LUKS.

Sounds very much like defective hardware and no connection to LUKS.

Regards,
Arno

-- 
Arno Wagner,     Dr. sc. techn., Dipl. Inform.,    Email: arno@wagner.name
GnuPG: ID: CB5D9718  FP: 12D6 C03B 1B30 33BB 13CF  B774 E35C 5FA1 CB5D 9718
----
A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers. -- Plato

If it's in the news, don't worry about it.  The very definition of 
"news" is "something that hardly ever happens." -- Bruce Schneier
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