Question Recommendations for encryption software without these security issues ?

[califauna]

Hi all,

I have found the following major security issues with all the encryption software I have tried thus far:

1.
The original encrypted file is decrypted when using the software by entering the encryption password, and when shutting down the app the file is re-encrypted. However, in the event of an unexpected termination of the software (power loss, battery failure, app crash, etc.) the app does not re-encrypt the decrypted file (and cannot re-encrypt it, as it has terminated unexpectedly), and it thus sits there on your hard drive in unencrypted form until you hopefully notice that it didn't get re-encrypted.

2.
Upon entering the decryption password, the software creates a temporary file copy of the decrypted file and stores it in AppData or Temp or some other place, leaving the original file safely encrypted. However, in the event of an unexpected termination of the software (power loss, battery failure, app crash, etc.) the app does not delete this temporary file (and cannot delete it, since it has terminated unexpectedly), and it thus the temp file sits there on your hard drive in unencrypted form until you hopefully notice that it didn't get deleted.

Additionally, almost all apps seem to require an online sign-in, which I don't want either.

In summary, I'm looking for encryption software which meets the following requirements:

1. Can encrypt selected files//folders, and does not require entire partitions/drives to be encrypted.
2. Does not suffer the above problems from unexpected shutdowns. Veracrypt for example gets around this by only opening files in RAM (in unencrypted form). No temp files etc. The problem with Veracypt, as I understand it, is that you can't encrypt selected files and folders around your hard drive. You have to encrypt a whole drive.
3. Encrypts and decrypts locally. No internet connection or sign-in to company servers required.
4. Open source.
5. Available on Windows.

Preferably the following if possible:

6. Automatically re-encrypts open files if lockscreen is shown, or is PC goes to sleep or hibernates.
7. Re-encrypts automatically after optional time period eg. 5 hours.
8. Portable version available.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[rgd1101]

doesn't sound like possible for 1 and 2 without partitions/drive encryption
unless you want to work on(decrypt) to a ram drive.

 

[hotaru.hino]

VeraCrypt has the option to create containers, which essentially creates a virtual hard drive that's encrypted. Otherwise you can also just create a VHD file, mount it, and have VeraCrypt take over that.

The problem with the data living in RAM only creates the issue that if you want a program to open the file, that program needs a file handle, which must have a path somewhere in the OS. I don't know what Veracrypt does to get around this outside of maybe making a dynamic RAM disk. Though this leaves the limitation that this is only really useful for smaller files unless you somehow have enough RAM to rival data centers.

 

[califauna]

doesn't sound like possible for 1 and 2 without partitions/drive encryption
unless you want to work on(decrypt) to a ram drive.

Why can't files be opened in RAM?

 

[hotaru.hino]

Why can't files be opened in RAM?

Alluded in my post, all programs expect a file handler which tells them where the data lives on some storage device. It may not be prudent to load all of the file's data at once. Especially in games where files could be multi-gigabytes in size, but you only really need several hundred megabytes from it. You can't give a program a RAM location because programs are not allowed to access each other's memory by default and there are hoops to jump through if you want it to do that.