Better to use Portable Software for better Security?

Hi I was just thinking is it not better to use portable software like firefox, utorrent and others and install them in an encrypted partition or encrypted pendrive for better Privacy ?

This way no windows logs or less chance of logging or discovery by a powerful adversary ?

 

Do note that not all of them are truly portable.

Sounds like you want a better privacy instead.

 

Yeah, sounds more like privacy issue.

There is no reason to hide Firefox imo in regards to logs. When it's decrypted and opened it would be logged along with usage of the decryption software. Now if you wanted to protect the bookmarks and profile--encryption is exactly want you want.

uTorrent? Why hide it. Not having it or having it does not prove nor discount piracy.

One reason to hide apps would be say to hide an obscurity software eg stenography where having the apps in the open would leak the fact you use steno. In that case use generic encryption/hide headers etc.

Now, for encrypted data on USBs for example, I would suggest using a non-networked live-cd. This way, no access logs or USB key logs are kept and deniability is preserved as far as logs/usage of the encrypted container goes. Usage of the OS isn't even logged.

 

meh cant change the title now, but meant better privacy indeed.

So some of these portable apps are not so portable, I take it they do then create and write changes to logs and windows and o/s....

Hmm now I can see why many just encrypt the entire hard drive...perhaps the easiest route.

 

I'm probably wrong, and I can't find the posts which said this, but some people here said that encrypting the whole HDD (which includes the OS partition) is overkill. I'm not into encryption though so I really have no idea if it's true or not.

 

Yeah it was mainly an idea been throwing around similar to the way live cds work, I was just spinning with an idea of a hdd less pc with 16gig of ram running ubuntu live cd to ram, no more concerns of logs or anything once its switched off of course

Could run whonix also for greater privacy....

 

Yeah I hear it many times around the net... some seem to op for the entire disk rather then just the a hidden o/s system.... Perhaps it makes it harder for data forensics? but not sure myself either still learning

 

I use as many portable apps as there are - in TC containers. Why not, if they operate the same and are as fast? I believe it does cut down on "tracks" for computers that don't use full disk encryption. But I don't for one second think they are entirely self contained - Thunderbird Portable for example, if using Enigmail (though this is probably the plug-in's fault, and not TB) copies your keys, both pub and priv to the C:\Users\X\AppData\Local or Roaming directory (forget which at the moment). If you want to keep your priv key secure, you need to remember to cut and paste it in and out of there. Stuff like that.

But I think it helps to use portable...why not take every advantage, and make it as hard as possible for any adversary?

Just don't think you can ever prevent or clean everything...if it means jail in your country (speaking out against the government, etc...), use FDE.

PD

 

Windows logs everything that's been run on it, installed or portable. A lot of this is covered in the Privazer and LastActivityView threads. Also look up ShellBags and MUI cache.

 

Pauly:

Glad to see am not the only one thinking of this, every little bit helps as you suggest, am still tad disappointed to hear logs are generated.

noone_particular

Thanks was not aware of so much logs windows contained, just goes to show how logged windows really is and just how dangerous it could be to any adversary. Think ill try privacy and few other apps to clear shellbags/mui cache even, does Privacy not take care of those ?

 

Would it not make better sense for privacy to install Virtual box under say windows 7 and then use another Windows os virtually ? that way all the logs are stored in the virtual windows and when that closes all is gone also.....

Or is this called nesting ?

 

Windows has been storing usage tracks since the 9X systems. In this regard, each new version is worse than the one before. As far as I know, Privazer does clean shellbags. I think it cleans the MUI cache too. You could also look into changing registry permissions (after making a full registry backup) for those keys and take away the operating systems ability to write to them at all. I'm not sure if that can be done on Win 7 or not. It appears to work on XP. Keep in mind that those are only part of the problem. There's many more places Windows stores user tracks, including the NTFS file system itself. Look up alternate data streams. I doubt that anyone knows all of the places and methods user data is stored.

 

thanks good to hear Privazer handles them or as best it can!

Its good reading that thread since Privazer seems to be much more accurate at cleaning even more so then ccleaner does.

 

Is everything of the virtual OS always stay only in RAM? Because if it is not, when the Virtualbox is close, tracks of the virtual OS activity could still be recoverable.

 

Yeah just an idea I had, running virtual box>linux or windows on a Ram drive, this way no chance or recovery once off that is.

From what I can see of the virtual box and logs they do not contain too much info mainly just info on what type of images were saved/loaded.

Privazer would again delete these logs once run also.