LUKS

File Format
Name	LUKS
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Encryption LUKS
Extension(s)	.luks, .img, .luksVolumeHeaderBackUp
MIME Type(s)	application/x-raw-disk-image
Released	≤2005

LUKS (Linux Unified Key Setup) is a general-purpose encrypted disk format. It supports, for example, multiple keys, and the possibility of changing keys without re-encrypting the entire volume. Some Linux distributions support LUKS by default, using cryptsetup and related utilities, as if it were an advanced form of dm-crypt.

A LUKS volume begins with a header containing a variety of (unencrypted) information about the encrypted data.

Identification

A LUKS (v1, at least) volume begins with signature bytes 'L' 'U' 'K' 'S' 0xBA 0xBE. For version 1 this is followed by byte sequence 00 01 and for version 2 this is followed by byte sequence 00 02.

Specifications

• LUKS On-Disk Format Specification

Software

• cryptsetup
• FreeOTFE
• zuluCrypt
• zuluMount

Links

• Wikipedia article
• Cryptsetup 2.0.0 Release Notes - Introduces LUKS2 format