My USB Drive Has a Hidden Encrypted Vault
a day ago
- Phantomdrive is an open-source USB drive that appears as an 8 GB drive but hides a second encrypted partition activated by editing a plaintext file with 'password:YOURPASSWORD'.
- It uses the CH569 chip, an SD card for storage, and AES-256 encryption, with firmware and hardware designs fully open source.
- The key derivation function (KDF) uses 100,000 rounds of SHA-256 with a device-specific salt from the serial number, taking about 3 seconds to unlock.
- Two AES modes are available: AES-CTR (faster, ~9 MB/s write, 20 MB/s read) and AES-XTS (more secure, ~6 MB/s write, 10 MB/s read).
- The firmware snoops writes to detect the password string and prevents it from being written to disk, avoiding accidental exposure.
- The device is designed to help bypass authorities who may force decryption, but does not protect against being compelled to reveal the password.