Home Encryption / Decryption How to Encrypt Folders or Directories in Ubuntu / Debian

How to Encrypt Folders or Directories in Ubuntu / Debian

By sk
Published: Last Updated on 3.4K views

EncFS is an encrypted filesystem that will help you to create encrypted directories or folders in Linux. So that an unauthorized user can't access the folder except the owner of the file.

Cryptkeeper

Cryptkeeper is an encrypted folders manager, it allows to mount and umount, to create new folders, to change the password of each mount. it integrates with your preferred file manager. It will be shown in your system tray.

This tutorial will shows you how to install EncFS, Cryptkeeper and how to encrypt the folders using EncFS.

Install EncFS and Cryptkeeper

Press CTR+ALT+T to open the Terminal and type the following command:

sudo apt-get install encfs cryptkeeper

After installing cryptkeeper, launch it from Menu and the cryptkeeper is shown in the system tray near the Date/Time icon:

Creating Encrypted folders

Click on the cryptkeeper icon from the system tray. You will be asked to create a new encrypted folder or import the existing one:

Click on New encrypted folder. Enter the name of the folder and click Forward:

Enter the password to the encrypted folder and click Forward:

The encrypted folder is created now. Click ok to exit.

The encrypted folder is mounted in the Nautilus or file manager:

Now you can put your personal or important data's in this encrypted folder:

After saving your important data's in the encrypted folder, unmount the folder using the command:

fusermount -u /home/sk/Personal

Now the encrypted folder is unmounted from the Nautilus i.e file manager. You can remount the folder by clicking on encrypted folder from the Cryptkeeper system tray icon.

It will ask the password; enter the password and click Ok; Now the encrypted folder is mounted back in the file manger.

Autostart Cryptkeeper

You should manually start Cryptkeeper everytime at every logon. Here is a trick to autostart the cryptkeeper at logon
Go to Menu or Dashboard, click Startup applications.
Click Add and add the path of the Cryptkeeper as shown below.
Cryptkeeper will start automatically when you logon to your system.

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