ghimire

Transparently Encrypt And Synchronize Data To Cloud

August 5, 2018

This is a guide on setting up secure data synchronization on multiple OS distributed over multiple cloud vendors such as Dropbox, Google Drive, SugarSync, Ubuntu One, etc.

Install Dropbox

On x86

$ cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86" | tar xzf -

On x86_64

$ cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86_64" | tar xzf -

To start immediately: $ ~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd

and leave the terminal window open.

Optionally, you can download dropbox script: $ wget -O ~/dropbox.py https://www.dropbox.com/download?dl=packages/dropbox.py
$ chmod u+x ~/dropbox.py

To Auto launch Dropbox on startup,

On Gnome:

Goto Application -> System Tools -> Preferences -> Startup Applications
Add/Modify Name: Dropbox
Run Command: ~/.dropbox-dist/dropbox start -i

On KDE:

$ echo -e '#!/bin/bash\n~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd &' > ~/.kde/Autostart/dropbox.sh  
$ chmod u+x ~/.kde/Autostart/dropbox.sh   ## Install encfs
$ apt-get install encfs  
$ mkdir -p ~/Dropbox/.encrypted ~/Private  
$ encfs ~/Dropbox/.encrypted ~/Private

Press 'p' for preconfigured paranoid mode
Enter encryption password

You can now add files to ~/Private folder which will automatically be encrypted and synced to dropbox’s .encrypted folder

In order to auto-mount and decrypt the folder during startup, $ apt-get install cryptkeeper
$ cryptkeeper

nautilus will be used as a default file browser. But if you’re on KDE, right click the tray, select Preferences and change File browser to: dolphin

Click on the Cryptkeeper icon on the tray, and select Import EncFS Folder.

Type: ~/Dropbox/.encrypted as the encrypted folder
Type: ~/Private as a mount folder
Click Forward to finish the setup.
Click on the Cryptkeeper icon again to list the encrypted folders, select the item and enter password to mount it.

To Auto launch Cryptkeeper on startup,

On Gnome:

Goto Application -> System Tools -> Preferences -> Startup Applications
Add Name: Cryptkeeper
Command: /usr/bin/cryptkeeper
Note, This method launches the cryptkeeper application but doesn’t automount the encrypted folder. See the alternate solution below.

On KDE:

$ echo -e '#!/bin/bash\n/usr/bin/cryptkeeper &' > ~/.kde/Autostart/cryptkeeper.sh  
$ chmod u+x ~/.kde/Autostart/cryptkeeper.sh

Alternately if you’re using gnome, you can install gnome-encfs to auto-mount encrypted folder on startup.
$ sudo apt-get install mercurial
$ hg clone http://bitbucket.org/obensonne/gnome-encfs
$ cd gnome-encfs
$ sudo install gnome-encfs /usr/local/bin
$ gnome-encfs -a ~/Dropbox/.encrypted ~/Private

Enter Password
Type 'y' to mount at start when asked.

If you need to access the encrypted data on Windows, install
1) Dokan Library
2) encfs4win

To mount the encrypted folder to virtual L: drive, run the command:
encfs4win.exe C:\Users\username\Dropbox\.encrypted L:

On Android:

You can install Cryptonite.
The app is able to decrypt the encrypted folder in Dropbox or local disk.

If you need offline copy of the encrypted data, install Dropsync or any other Dropbox synchronization apps and use Cryptonite to decrypt the local folder where dropsync is synchronizing the data to.

For better reliability, you can install other cloud synchronization applications like Google Drive/Ubuntu One/SugarSync for distributed synchronization. With SugarSync, you can download the client app and add ~/Dropbox to sync. With this setup, a copy of files are synchronized to both Dropbox and SugarSync. The same can be done with Ubuntu One.

With Google Drive client application, it’s a bit tricky. As of this writing, it doesn’t yet suport adding existing folders and a linux client is in the making. However, on Windows, after intalling Dropbox and Google Drive, sign in to your Google account and change the Folder location to C:/Users/username/Dropbox instead of default. Once this is done, Google Drive app will add a folder in Dropbox called ‘Google Drive’. With this setup, the .encrypted folder can be created ~/Dropbox/Google Drive/.encrypted in linux.
Change the path of the .encrypted folder to the new one in the steps above and the data gets synchronized to Google Drive as well as Dropbox.

My Current Setup Looks like This:

    Linux
 ------------
| Dropbox    |\
| Ubuntu One | \
 ------------   \
                 \
    Windows       \ ----EncFS------>{----------------}    /=====> Dropbox
 ---------------                    {                }  /
|   Dropbox     |-----EncFS4win---->{ Encrypted Data }/=========> Google Drive
| Google Drive  |                   {  (.encrypted)  }\
|  Sugar Sync   | /---Cryptonite--->{----------------} \ =======> Sugar Sync
---------------- /                                      \
                /                                        \======> Ubuntu One
   Android     /
 ------------ /
|   Dropbox  | 
|  Dropsync  |
|____________|

♡2018 by ghimire. Copying is an act of love. Please copy.

Discussion