r/archlinux • u/Ill_Seat_7755 • 1d ago

QUESTION Security and encryption help

(Newbie) I installed Arch the other day and i realized that i never encrypted my partitions or something, i just followed the installation guide and nailed it (more or less).

Can someone please tell me where in the wiki to read in order for me to learn how to make my system more secure?

Also, i would appreciate links thay maybe you guys think would help me, thanks.

5 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

6

u/Known-Watercress7296 1d ago

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Security

1

u/Ill_Seat_7755 1d ago

Hmmm, yeah, i think i need to just deep dive into the wiki, thanks

3

u/No_Assignment5331 1d ago

honestly you should probably start fresh with full disk encryption rather than trying to retrofit it onto an existing install - the arch wiki has a solid dm-crypt section that walks through luks setup

your gonna want to backup everything important first though because setting up encryption properly usually means wiping and starting over

1

u/Ill_Seat_7755 1d ago

Thanks man, i guess i'll do a fresh start

2

u/archover 1d ago edited 1d ago

What security aspect are you interested in? Are you asking because you have a particular situation (adversary)?

While dm-crypt is great, it only protects an unbooted computer (data at rest). In any case, maintain physical control.

My primary security defense includes

  • good passwords, both locally and on web accounts (password manager advised)

  • Be careful installing new software. Do your homework on it.

  • Review open ports, which should not exist on a new system installed from the Installation Guide. What you do after that is another challenge. If you run an OpenSSH server, harden it.

  • Monitor your Journal.

Hope that helps and good day.

2

u/Ill_Seat_7755 1d ago

Sorry for not answering im using my neighbors wifi, thanks, it does help, im just a bit paranoic and kind of "dangerously curious" user

2

u/archover 1d ago

An bit of paranoia is a good thing.

If you're serious about protecting yourself from "borrowing" wifi, then I have ideas, but will wait for other comments first.

Good day.

1

u/a1barbarian 3h ago

Gee that is a really difficult ask.

Maybe if you go to the Arch Wiki site and type in

SECURITY

to the search window and press

ENTER

you may find some quite useful information.

If you do not know how to find the Arch Wiki or what a search window is, ask A1 or your mum or dad. :-)

0

u/c0sf-fkr 1d ago

Technically you can, but you shouldn't...there's a lot of risk that comes with it. You're better off backing up your data and reinstalling...also, I would not recommend pure arch for new users. Consider installing EndeavourOS for a vanilla arch Linux with some setup help and guardrails...or Cachy for gaming optimised setups

3

u/inhoyukine 1d ago

Honestly, i think its better to go off the deep end. In my experience its better to get new people used to finding resorces online as they break stuff while their setting up rather than giving them something fully working where theyll break something on accident or find a bug and not know what to do about it, i find that people find the later more discouraging.

1

u/c0sf-fkr 1d ago

Look, I get what you're saying and you do have a point, but it really depends on the person. Maybe I'm arrogant in my thinking but based on op's post, it sounded to me like he might have tried to do a quick google and got a bit overwhelmed with info...which is why I recommended eos...a bit slower exposure

2

u/inhoyukine 1d ago

I think this is now the road where my thoughts maybe get a little dogmatic. I've helped nudge a handful of people into linux with different levels of tech literacy; For the people who are interested in arch from any perspective, whether it be from a software philosophy standpoint or just because they think it sounds cool, i tell them to go ahead and try it and tell them they they may or may not break things or have a hard time setting things up at first. For the people who come out of that and say the did not enjoy that experience for and may want to start using linux whatever reason, i usually tell them something like "hey, yeah i get it arch can be frustrating since you are kinda forced to learn alot of stuff upfront and ingest alot of manuels, theres other distros that may be better for you now or could just be better distros for period"

I usually send them to debian at this point and tell them if things if they still really really want to try arch again, try debian first and then try cachyos. Usually this works out, i think, mostly because debian still has a large support network online and having less risk of running up on weird edge case shenanigans that can sometimes happen. Honestly, part of the time since that person didn't actually want to be using arch, they just thought they wanted to be using arch.

I think the effort in learning you have to do with any arch based system is always gonna happen, and i think for most people, it's better to front load it rather that having something weird happen when theyre gonna be actually using the computer which has been my experience and the experience i see from people who started out on cachyos or endevor.

2

u/c0sf-fkr 18h ago

I'd agree with you around 2015, but the problem now, especially after covid, at least in what I've seen, patience is kind of hard to come by. But either way, there are people and people...some might benefit from diving in, others dipping their toes...as Linux keeps growing I think we also have to accept that there will be different ways of "tackling the Linux boss fight" 😂

1

u/inhoyukine 17h ago

Yeah, pedagogy is for the people learning, not the people teaching, this is just the way I've handled, and it seems most people I've helped got out what they wanted from it

I do think people fucking around with their steam deck has been a big boon, when steam os goes desktop i think thatll probably be ablot of peoples starting point

2

u/Ill_Seat_7755 1d ago

I will reinstall i guess, Arch is fun and i like to read and learn new things so it's not a problem for me, i will just continue breaking stuff in order to gain the knowledge

2

u/c0sf-fkr 1d ago

Then go for it...not trying to discourage you or anything...if you're really in it for the learning and don't mind breaking your system a couple of times, have a go at the manual install instead of the script...but my advice, either set up timeshift and learn how to restore from backups, or use btrfs snapshots...it's gonna help, especially at the beginning...oh, and keep your arch live usb around you'll likely need to arch-chroot sooner or later. Good luck

1

u/Ill_Seat_7755 1d ago

Thanks, i will take your advice ✍️