What is the best software to lock directory ?

Hi,

Can you tell me what is the best software that i can use to lock directory ?
My goal is to protect some private directory (my private documents ...) from malware or others ...
I want to block access to this directory to all programs (trust or not) except all that are present in a withelist.

example : my private document
authorize : word, excell

my private mail folder
authorize : thunderbird.

...

 

I'm also looking for an independent software, to lock my data partition and/or data folders. The locking feature of DefenseWall/Sandboxie is very good, but limited to certain applications, I need something more general.
My experience so far with such softwares was a disaster, malware could still infect my data partition.

 

iphone,

I use Drivesentry (see sig for URL) to protect my data from ransomware viruses. There's a tutorial here (5th movie).

~interact

 

DW and sanboxie can lock folders for programs that run sandboxed.

Other solution could be encripting the folders, this way it's no problem if someone steals them.

 

Comodo Firewall 3 can protect against file/folder modification on a per-program basis, but cannot protect against reading on a per-program basis.

 

set ur files to read only

 

Does that prevent stealing of data files also ?

 

No it does not

 

I thought so too, that's not what I'm looking for. I still don't see the right answers in this thread.

 

@Erik

What's wrong with locking folders with SBIE/DW?

 

I use Universal Shield .

 

Nothing is wrong, but I would like to have a locking software that locks my data partition, when it's not locked by a sandboxed (SB) or untrusted application (DW).
Something more general, that locks my data partition when I need it without any other function or purpose.

 

Yes, I know this one, a bit unpractical in usage. Thanks anyway.

 

Erik
I found some programs here:
http://www.programurl.com/software/partition-lock3.htm

I havent tried them and don't know if it's exactly what you want, but could be...

I also found this:

http://pc-magic.com/des.htm#mf

 

Thanks alot Hurst, I will try them.

 

Erik, tried R-Guard?
I briefly tried a bunch of them, and i had this, Universal Shield and Folder Guard (?) bookmarked as interesting.
They have their quirks, but i liked R-Guard.

Didn't use any long enough to be able to recommend them though.

 

Thanks. I will try that one too, seems to do alot more than just locking partitions or locking data folders and data files, most probably TOO MUCH.

 

Magic Folders
http://pc-magic.com/des.htm#mf
Doesn't really lock the data partition, it scans and locks the choosen folders in the data partition and that makes it slower than locking the data partition alone.
It has at least a password to "lock" and "unlock".

 

R-Guard looking intresting. Have to test it soon. Do you know it's price because I can't find it anywhere?

 

I.m trialing this one too. Need something impenetratable for sure.

 

ProSecurity will lock/protect files & directories. I do not know whether or not PS will lock partitions. However, based on the topic of this thread, "locking partition" is NOT what the poster asked for. Why hi-jack the fellow's post? Start your own thread, maybe?

 

Hi,

Thank's for your answers.

I am interesting to lock directory only, not partition.

My goal is only to pretect access to private folder (read access or write acess).
Only a list of programs will be grant.

I am looking at Prosecurity.
It is interesting because it can lock access on read, write ... and can lock acess via network too (SMB).

 

You could add another layer of protection on that using the tool subinacl . The following batch files will lock and unlock the folder c:\downloads (lock is first) :

subinacl /subdirectories C:\Downloads /setowner=system /deny=system=f /deny=administrators=f /deny=everyone=f

subinacl /subdirectories C:\Downloads /setowner=administrators /grant=system=f /grant=administrators=f /grant=everyone=f

To make this work all you have to do is download a copy of subinacl.exe and drop it into system32 (or your sysdir) . If the path you want lock has spaces in any of the folder names you will have to surround the full path with "" .

The good about this is that there is no system hooking or guard application that could be disabled for easy access to the locked folder(s) and even if you slave the drive to another windows system the folders wont be easy to access without some work first . This batch is also very fast because we are only locking the folder so the files under are not changed but the folder lock prevents access . You can add full file lock by adding \*.* to the path . Oh yeah , and its free .

The bad is that if the attacker/attacking application understands permissions its not that hard to undo this lock .

The long and short is that this is a great backup for whatever you choose but only OK as a main lock .

One more thing . If you use an application to lock the folder and these batch files together the batch file to lock has to be used first and you will have to test for compatability with the application . You will also have to unlock with the application before you run the unlock batch .

 

The operating system itself can enforce file access control. Here is the basic idea:

a) For the files that you wish to restrict access to, allow them to be accessed only by a certain user account.
b) Run those and only those programs that you wish to grant access to the restricted files as the same user account mentioned in part a.

You can use fast user switching to have two different user accounts open at the same time. Alternatively, you could use RunAs to run a program as a different user. Perhaps SuRun or SuDown could be used to always run a given program as different user, but I am not sure because I haven't used either of these programs.

 

So what ? If a software can lock a partition, it usually can lock folders also.
A new thread is not needed. The subject is locking. Period.
In case you forgot : "D:\" = root directory.

It's not only about locking. Each suggested software needs to be tested if it really locks the partition or folders.
I also had a locking software in the past and malware bypassed the locked partition. You can't even trust security softwares with a simple job nowadays.
Put your personal feelings aside when you talk about softwares.