Other Projects

There are several open-source file encryption solutions for Linux available. In contrast to disk-encryption software that operate on whole disks (TrueCrypt, dm-crypt etc), file encryption operates on individual files that can be backed up or synchronised easily.

This page compares:

  • gocryptfs (this project), aspiring successor of EncFS
  • EncFS, mature with known security issues
  • eCryptFS, integrated into the Linux kernel
  • Cryptomator, strong cross-platform support through Java, WebDAV and FUSE.
  • securefs, a cross-platform project implemented in C++. Older versions stored directories in user-space B-trees (filesystem format 1,2,3). The new default since v0.7.0 (filesystem format 4) uses normal directory entries.
  • CryFS, result of a master thesis at the KIT University that uses chunked storage to obfuscate file sizes.

If you spot an error or want to see a project added, please file a ticket! See also: comparison table in the Arch Linux wiki

Overview

gocryptfs
v1.7
encfs
v1.9.5
ecryptfs
v4.19.0
cryptomator
v1.4.6
securefs
v0.8.3
CryFS
v0.10.0
First release 2015 (ref) 2003 (ref) 2006 (ref) 2014 (ref) 2015 (ref) 2015 (ref)
Language Go C++ C Java C++ C++
License MIT (ref) LGPLv3 / GPLv3 (ref) GPLv2 GPLv3 (ref) MIT (ref) LGPLv3 (ref)
Development hotspot Austria USA USA (RedHat) Germany China Germany
Lifecycle Active Maintenance Active (ref) Active Active Active
File interface FUSE FUSE In-kernel filesystem FUSE/WebDAV FUSE FUSE
Platforms Linux, MacOS, 3rd-party Windows port cppcryptfs, 3rd-party Android port DroidFS Linux, MacOS, 3rd-party Windows port Linux Linux, MacOS, Windows Linux, MacOS, Windows Linux, MacOS, Windows (experimental)
User interface CLI, 3rd-party GUI (SiriKali) CLI, 3rd-party GUI Integrated in login process GUI, 3rd-party CLI (ref) CLI, 3rd-party GUI CLI, 3rd-party GUI (SiriKali)
Reverse Mode yes (since v1.1, read-only) yes (limited write support) no no no no

General Security

gocryptfs encfs default encfs paranoia ecryptfs cryptomator securefs CryFS
Documentation available Yes [1] Yes [2] Yes [2] No [4] Yes [3] Yes [5] Yes [6]
Password hashing scrypt PBKDF2 PBKDF2 (none, implemented in external tool) scrypt PBKDF2 scrypt

References: [1] [2] [3] [5] [6]
[4] actually, there is a lot of ecryptfs documentation, but none of it seems to describe the used crypto.

File Contents

gocryptfs encfs default encfs paranoia ecryptfs cryptomator securefs CryFS
Tested version v1.7 v1.9.5 v1.9.5 v4.19.0 v1.4.6 v0.8.3 0.10.0
Encryption GCM [1] CBC; last block CFB [2] CBC; last block CFB [2] CBC CTR with random IV [3] GCM GCM
Integrity GCM none HMAC none HMAC GCM GCM
File size obfuscation no no no yes (4 KB increments) no [4] no [5] yes (chunked storage)

References: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

File Names

gocryptfs encfs default encfs paranoia ecryptfs cryptomator securefs CryFS
Tested version v1.4.1 v1.9.2 v1.9.2 v4.12.5 v1.5.15 AppImage FUSE v0.7.3-30-g2596467 0.9.7-15-g3d52f6a8
Encryption EME [4] CBC CBC CBC AES-SIV AES-SIV GCM (dir DB)
Prefix leak no (EME) no (HMAC used as IV) no (HMAC used as IV) yes [2] no (AES-SIV) no (AES-SIV) no (GCM)
Identical names leak no (per-directory IV) no (path chaining) no (path chaining) yes [1] no [3] {3} yes [6] no (GCM)
Maximum name length [5] 255 (since v0.9) {2} 175 175 143 1024 143 1024
Maximum path length [5] 4095 4095
Directory flattening {1} no no no no yes yes yes

References: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Notes:
{1} Is the directory tree flattened in the encrypted storage? This obfuscates the directory structure but can cause problems when synchronising via Dropbox and similar.
{2} 255 since gocryptfs v0.9, 175 in v0.8 and earlier
{3} cryptomator dropped the use of a random padding in v1.2.0 due to performance concerns.

Performance on Linux

All tests are run on tmpfs rule out any influence of the hard disk. The exact command lines for running the tests are defined in canonical-benchmarks.bash. The box that was used to running the tests has been upgraded with a new CPU {2}, and unfortunately not all tests have been re-run. Which CPU was used is noted in the table header.

gocryptfs {2} encfs default {2} encfs paranoia {1} ecryptfs {2} cryptomator {2} securefs {1} CryFS {1}
Tested version v2.3.2-3-g1a866b7 v1.9.5 v1.9.2 v6.2.13 v1.5.15 AppImage FUSE v0.7.3-30-g2596467 v0.9.7-12-gd9634246
Streaming write 482 MiB/s 122 MiB/s 51 MiB/s 323 MiB/s 57 MiB/s 132 MiB/s 69 MiB/s
Streaming read 944 MiB/s 451 MiB/s 105 MiB/s 961 MiB/s 113 MiB/s 155 MiB/s 99 MiB/s
Extract linux-3.0.tar.gz 10.9 s 13 s 23 s 3.9 s 28 s 14 s 41 s
md5sum linux-3.0 5.1 s 5.7 s 10 s 1.2 s 15 s 7.7 s 42 s
ls -lR linux-3.0 2.0 s 2.5 s 2.9 s 0.5 s 4.3 s 1.2 s 17 s
Delete linux-3.0 2.4 s 3.4 s 4.4 s 0.7 s 10 s 2.2 s 21 s

Notes: {1} Tested on an Intel Pentium G630 with 2 x 2.7GHz that does NOT have AES instructions
{2} Tested in Intel Core i5-3470 CPU with 4 x 3.20GHz and AES-NI

Performance on Windows

All tests were run on a Toshiba-RD400 M.2/NVMe SSD rated 2.6 GB/s read and 1.6 GB/s write random-access speed. The operating system used was Windows 7 Professional SP1 running on an Intel Core i7-6700 CPU with 4 x 3.40GHz hyperthreaded and AES-NI. Tests were run using MSYS-CoreUtils 5.97-3-msys-1.0.13 installed using the MinGW installer. The exact command lines for running the tests are defined in canonical-benchmarks.bash with minor adjustments required to make the test run in this environment.

(NTFS) cppcryptfs EncFSMP default EncFS4Win default cryptomator securefs CryFS
Tested version v6.1.7601.24382 v1.4.0.25 v0.99.1 v1.10.1-rc14 v1.4.6 v0.8.3 v0.10.0.1201 {1}
Based on - gocryptfs 1.4 compatible EncFS 1.9.5 EncFS 1.9.1 - - -
Driver (Built-in) Dokany 1.2.2.1000 PFM 1.0.0.192 {2} Dokany 1.2.2.1000 Dokany 1.2.2.1000 WinFSP 2019.1 Dokany 1.2.2.1000
User Interface - GUI GUI
(fails to properly display state)
Tray
(very basic)
GUI No {3} No {3}
Streaming write 2100 MiB/s {4} 621 MiB/s 58 MiB/s 68 MiB/s 67 MiB/s 289 MiB/s 51 MiB/s
Streaming read 3400 MiB/s {4} 797 MiB/s 251 MiB/s 107 MiB/s 115 MiB/s 542 MiB/s 130 MiB/s
Extract linux-3.0.tar.gz 26 s 456 s 793 s 2121 s 2497 s 332 s 1124 s
md5sum linux-3.0 51 s 364 s 235 s 1877 s 1808 s 235 s 1254 s
ls -lR linux-3.0 18 s 328 s 166 s 1269 s 1722 s 183 s 1057 s
Delete linux-3.0 18 s 432 s (427 s) {5} 1666 s 2765 s 260 s 1007 s

To the extent this was observed at all during the tests, every one of these filesystem providers was fully CPU-bound during the small-file tests with observed disk access speeds never going beyond 15 MiB/s.

Notes:
{1} CryFS considered Windows support “highly experimental” in this version
{2} Closed source component by Pismo Technic Inc
{3} The SiriKali third-part GUI supports CryFS, EncFS4Win and securefs
{4} Yes, these numbers are actually above what the drive is theoretically capable of, so all of these results are likely somewhat skewed
{5} 320 files were not deleted due to Invalid argument errors; it is not clear what caused this error, but the logged “Invalid data size, not multiple of block size” messages may indicate corruption

Disk Space Efficiency

ext4 gocryptfs encfs default encfs paranoia ecryptfs cryptomator securefs CryFS
Tested version v4.12.5 v1.4.1 v1.9.2 v1.9.2 v4.12.5 v1.5.15 AppImage FUSE 0.7.3-30-g2596467 0.9.7-15-g3d52f6a8
Empty file {1} 0 0 0 0 8,192 88 16 32,768
1 byte file {1} 1 51 9 17 12,288 137 45 32,768
1,000,000 bytes file {1} 1,000,000 1,007,858 1,000,008 1,007,888 1,011,712 1,001,576 1,006,876 1,048,576 {4}
linux-3.0 source tree {5}
...disk usage {2} 494 MiB 512 MiB 495 MiB 498 MiB 784 MiB 520 MiB 498 MiB 1485 MiB
...sum of file sizes {3} 411 MiB 416 MiB 412 MiB 415 MiB 784 MiB 430 MiB 416 MiB 1485 MiB

Notes:
{1} ls -l on the encrypted file
{2} du -sm on the ciphertext dir, backing filesystem ext4.
{3} du -sm --apparent-size.
{4} Counting all 32 chunks (ref)
{5} Extracted linux-3.0.tar.gz

Filesystem Features

Note: To keep the work of maintaining this table under control, I have only tested selected projects with respect to filesystem features. Please file a pull request if you can test the other projects!

The backing filesystem is assumed to be ext4.

ext4 gocryptfs encfs default encfs paranoia ecryptfs CryFS
hard links yes yes yes no yes no
extended attributes yes yes {1} yes {2} yes {2} ? ?
fallocate yes yes no no no no
fallocate KEEP_SIZE yes yes no no no no
fallocate PUNCH_HOLE yes no no no no no

Notes:
{1} Names and values encrypted
{2} Not encrypted