[Gluster-users] Secure Setup / Separate GlusterFS / Encryption

[Lance Reed]

I was wondering if anyone has any working examples of the below reference
of setting up ecryptfs with Gluster?  My attempts so far have failed to
work correctly and I am looking to ee if it is actually an option with the
most recent versions of glusterfs?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

> Finally also on the topic of security how would people suggest handling
> encryption of client data and working with a storage server hosting
> different encrypted data

Server-side encryption is possible now, using mechanisms outside of *GlusterFS*
(e.g. LUKS or *ecryptfs*).  The weakness of such approaches is that the same
entity - the server operator - will have access to both the encrypted data and
keys.  In far too many cases, this means both will be equally available to an
attacker (or even more likely insider).  You might as well not bother
encrypting at all IMO.

A more robust solution was developed for HekaFS (my now-dormant flavor
of*GlusterFS*).  In that solution, encryption is done *on the client*
using keys
that never exist on servers.  This provides both security and deniability,
either of which can be critical in current environments.  A medium-strength
version of this encryption has existed for about two years in HekaFS, though
enough has changed that it would probably require a refresh before it could
even build.  A stronger version - developed in concert with security experts at
Red Hat and on par with anything else that's out there - has been in review for
a while and might appear in the next *GlusterFS* release or two.  Bear in mind
that even the "medium-strength" version is far more secure in practice than any
server-side encryption method.
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