Looking for simple wrapper for symmetric key file encryption

[Johan Wevers]

On 19-1-2014 7:50, Mr. Clif wrote:

> Does anyone use symmetric file encryption?

Yes, but only for encrypting files for personal use. Not in
communication with others.

> What is the best practice here?

As always, that depends on your use case and threat model.

> I heard of another solution which was to mount an encrypted
> directory with fuser to drop files into.

Possible, I use TrueCryot containers for that but that's similar
(although more portable and usable on "that other  OS").

> I think I would wounder how
> safe the passphrase was for mounted filesystems,

Are you asking how long it would take to brute-force the pasword, how
difficult it is to snoop it or if there are known vulnarabilities in the
symmetric encryption used by gnupg, fuser or others?

> though I know of some techniques for protecting them.

Remember the weakest link in all encryption: https://xkcd.com/538/

-- 
ir. J.C.A. Wevers
PGP/GPG public keys at http://www.xs4all.nl/~johanw/pgpkeys.html