FileVault and Home Directories

[TechieJustin]

Just a quick question about FileVault.
We all know about Firefox and Safari's caches. Are they stored in the users home directory?
If a laptop is stolen and the home directory is encrypted, I want to make sure somebody can't look in the cache and get whatever information is sitting there unencrypted.
When a user shuts down and FV is enabled, what (if anything) is not encrypted for that user?

Hopefully this makes sense.

 

[rowsdower]

I think Firefox keeps that sort of thing under

~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles

so it should be encrypted.

 

[TechieJustin]

I think Firefox keeps that sort of thing under

~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles

so it should be encrypted.

What about Office '08? Since Microsoft apps on Mac tens to bring MS traits (such as crashing, bugs) over, I'm thinking it might leave remnants all over the place. FTW!

 

[angelwatt]

We all know about Firefox and Safari's caches. Are they stored in the users home directory?
If a laptop is stolen and the home directory is encrypted, I want to make sure somebody can't look in the cache and get whatever information is sitting there unencrypted.
When a user shuts down and FV is enabled, what (if anything) is not encrypted for that user?

Yes, the caches will be encrypted as they are stored inside your home directory. Only the home directory is encrypted, but that should be enough for most people. Some apps may store some things outside your home directory, but it's rare and generally not something with personal information. It all depends on the app though.

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

System logs and system caches are stored outside your home folder.

Filevault is pretty mediocre. The header keys are actually encrypted with 3DES (equivalent 112 bits of security), not AES (128/256 bits of security), and if you have a master password, that's encrypted with RSA (which is equivalent to 56 bits of security.)

It's also far slower than full disk encryption (I use PGP.)

 

[angelwatt]

Filevault is pretty mediocre. The header keys are actually encrypted with 3DES (equivalent 112 bits of security), not AES (128/256 bits of security), and if you have a master password, that's encrypted with RSA (which is equivalent to 56 bits of security.)

I believe that was only true for 10.4 (Tiger). It got upgraded to 256-bit in Leopard.