VeraCrypt 1.19

veracrypt

VeraCrypt is a free disk encryption software based on TrueCrypt. It adds enhanced security to the algorithms used for system and partitions encryption making it immune to new developments in brute-force attacks.

For example, when the system partition is encrypted, TrueCrypt uses PBKDF2-RIPEMD160 with 1000 iterations whereas VeraCrypt uses 327661 iterations. And for standard containers and other partitions, TrueCrypt uses at most 2000 iterations but VeraCrypt uses 655331 for RIPEMD160 and 500000 iterations for SHA-2 and Whirlpool.

This enhanced security adds some delay only to the opening of encrypted partitions without any performance impact to the application use phase. This is acceptable to the legitimate owner but it makes it much more harder for an attacker to gain access to the encrypted data.

VeraCrypt storage format is INCOMPATIBLE with TrueCrypt storage format.

Changes between 1.18 and 1.19:

All OSs

Fix issues raised by Quarkslab audit.
Remove GOST89 encryption algorithm.
Make PBKDF2 and HMAC code clearer and easier to analyze.
Add test vectors for Kuznyechik.
Update documentation to warn about risks of using command line switch ”tokenpin”.
Use SSE2 optimized Serpent algorithm implementation from Botan project (2.5 times faster on 64-bit platforms).

Windows

Fix keyboard issues in EFI Boot Loader.
Fix crash on 32-bit machines when creating a volume that uses Streebog as PRF.
Fix false positive detection of Evil-Maid attacks in some cases (e.g. hidden OS creation)
Fix failure to access EFS data on VeraCrypt volumes under Windows 10.
Fix wrong password error in the process of copying hidden OS.
Fix issues raised by Quarkslab audit:
Fix leak of password length in MBR bootloader inherited from TrueCrypt.
EFI bootloader: Fix various leaks and erase keyboard buffer after password is typed.
Use libzip library for handling zip Rescue Disk file instead of vulnerable XUnzip library.
Support EFI system encryption for 32-bit Windows.
Perform shutdown instead of reboot during Pre-Test of EFI system encryption to detect incompatible motherboards.
Minor GUI and translations fixes.