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Cryptable Apps TrueCrypt/PortableApps Solution adds Encryption and AutoRun to PortableApps

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maggotb0y
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Cryptable Apps TrueCrypt/PortableApps Solution adds Encryption and AutoRun to PortableApps

CryptableApps is an attempt to overcome some of the shortcomings of the PortableApps platform.  While PortableApps generally kicks ass, there are two issues that people are always asking about on the forum:

  • password protection of the drive
  • automatically launching applications from the PortableApps menu on insertion

It is my hope that this application will address these concerns and allow people holding onto U3 for these purposes to ditch U3 and embrace the far superior PortableApps system.CryptableApps accomplishes this by use of TrueCrypt in traveler mode to mount an encrypted file,
from which PortableApps is then run.  You just have administrator privileges to do this.  This is a limitation of the CryptableApps solution that may prevent you from using it in certain locations such as libraries or internet kiosks.  However, you can certainly keep as many
applications as you like on the primary drive and run them from there if you do not have admin privileges on a given machine.  There have been some criticisms of TrueCrypt on the PortableApps forums, but in my opinion, TrueCrypt provides far better security than U3 and any truly encrypted partition will require admin privileges to run.  The traces TrueCrypt leaves in the registry are not significant- they will merely let someone know that TrueCrypt was run.
product superceeded If you're interested in this, you'll probably like geek.menu even better. I was looking through my logs today and realized that this page is still generating some hits for cryptableApps.

Espreon
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Very Interesting

I'll try it out

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As all of ya should know Microsoft is the Evil Empire, and Windows (a.k.a. Winblows or Windoze) is their greatest general, so please make a difference and install Linux or Free BSD on yer Windows comp.

BuddhaChu
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I'll wait

The first requirement listed above (drive security) will be solved by this product when it hits the market (for me at least).

http://www.apricorn.com/product_detail.php?type=family&id=38

No software is required on the host to access your data, and the Aegis Bio is cross platform compatible, enabling you to take your data securely from work, home or on the road regardless of your operating system.

The encryption/decryption engine/software and fingerprint reader is built into the drive itself.

Cancer Survivors -- Remember the fight, celebrate the victory!
Help control the rugrat population -- have yourself spayed or neutered!

King Tut
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How is this any different

How is this any different from downloading TrueCrypt for our selves?

Hayden Dekok

Patrick Patience
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Well.

I personally don't see a difference either.

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I felt so different without a signature.

Espreon
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He claimed

that PAM could be no-cliked autoran on the mounting of the Truecrypt. Also this does not work 4 me!
I am using admin privs, Windows XP Service Pack 2

--
As all of ya should know Microsoft is the Evil Empire, and Windows (a.k.a. Winblows or Windoze) is their greatest general, so please make a difference and install Linux or Free BSD on yer Windows comp.

King Tut
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With admin privileges. This

With admin privileges. This is exactly the same with downloading TrueCrypt yourself...

Can the thread started please tell us what the difference is?

--------------------

Hayden Dekok

maggotb0y
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Details?

Espreon-

Can you let me know what does or does not happen when you try to run the app? I'll be happy to try to troubleshoot the issue.

Thanks.

Espreon
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Actually it partly works

What does not work is that when I start crytpableapps.exe with the ini file or directly TrueCrypt gives me an error and does not automount the TrueCrypt partion, the error says that Dismount failed.

What does work is when I mount the TrueCrypt container manually, PAM autoruns automatically.

--
As all of ya should know Microsoft is the Evil Empire, and Windows (a.k.a. Winblows or Windoze) is their greatest general, so please make a difference and install Linux or Free BSD on yer Windows comp.

maggotb0y
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Give it a shot now

The version now online (with legal corrections) may correct this as there have been a few code changes as well.

maggotb0y
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Differences from TrueCrypt

The difference is simple.

A mounted TrueCrypt volume doesn't support AutoRun (as Espreon pointed out). So PortableApps won't startup on insertion with the TrueCrypt volume.

Also, this adds the support for Automatically running applications from the PortableApps menu without turning to another solution such as PAM.

So basically, this lets you do everything with just the insertion of the USB stick and selecting the autorun option. Instead of 1) insert disk and automount TrueCrypt 2) Start Portable Apps 3) Start whatever applications you want to start.

Additionally, it adds a drop down menu to the USB drive that allows you to exit all apps running from the encrypted drive and dismount it in one step.

King Tut
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Fair enough... If this

Fair enough... If this didn't require Admin rights I'd give this a try. But unfortunately the computer's I use rarely have admin rights so this doesn't really work for me.

PS: "Also, this adds the support for Automatically running applications from the PortableApps menu without turning to another solution such as PAM." PAM = PortableApps Menu... Blum

--------------------

Hayden Dekok

MarkoMLM
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Interessting but illegal

Your software is illegal for the following reasons:

* it uses the PortableApps Logo in CryptableApps.exe (cryptableApps_multi.ico) and there is no hint that the permission to use it is granted to You. See here

* it breaks the license terms of Truecrypt III 1. c. first section :
(it shows not the needed hint "Based on TrueCrypt..." wich way ever)

*it breaks in readme.html the license terms of Truecrypt III 1. c. second section
(link to truecrypt.org/docs/)

Please fix this issues.
Meanwhile we have to remove the link to Your Software.

Marko

Paid for Software more or less?
What You need is OSS!

maggotb0y
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My apologies

Marko-

I apologize for the icon. I understood it to be under the Creative Commons license (which I accidentally violated as well by not including the license) and did not realize that the icon was a trademark (this appears to be the case after re-reading the license although it is not obvious to me). I have corrected replaced the icon (and recompiled with the new icon) and replaced both files in the distribution.

As to the Truecrypt license, I'm not a lawyer, but I believe that section III in it's entirety does not apply to this application as it is not a modification or derivation of TrueCrypt. Section III is titled (III. Terms and Conditions for Modification and Derivation of New Products)

Rather, it is distributed under Section II 1. Furthermore, in the "Credits" section of my readme.html, it says "This product includes TrueCrypt, freely available at http://www.truecrypt.org/" which is the appropriate credit to provide in this circumstance, I believe. If this is wrong, or if I need to make further modifications to the license to make this comply with your site policies, please let me know.

Thanks.
mgb

maggotb0y
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Recreated Link

Marko-

Since you haven't responded to my earlier post, I've added the link back to my original post. If the application is still not in keeping with this site's policies, please let me know.

Thank you,
mgb

MarkoMLM
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Thank You

... for Your quick changes.

In Your link was a little typo. I have fixed it and it works now.

Reading the truecrypt licence terms again I agree with You, that paragraph III is only for modified versions (and You deliver the whole stuff).

I see no problems with the new version (but keep in mind I'm not a lawyer ;-)).

Regards

Marko

Paid for Software more or less?
What You need is OSS!

zikarus
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Well, besides MLM's complaints this...

software might be even more useful if it could be combined with the TCExplorer in some way or the other in order to make TC truely portable (since one can access a TC volume via TCE even without admin-rights).

maggotb0y
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That's an interesting thought

I was not familiar with TCExplorer, but after a quick look, it doesn't seem like it would accomplish much as it doesn't seem to allow for executing files within a TrueCrypt container. It would allow you to get to files, but not to use them seamlessly in the context of PortableApps.

If anyone has experience with TCExplorer and knows otherwise, please let me know.

As to MLM's complaints, see my response above.

RMB Fixed
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No..

but it does allow you to decrypt them to a temp-location
and execute them from there, all without admin-rights ..
the newest version of TCexplorer (1.4) also has a shredder
to wipe the temp-dir btw ..

copyrighted icons ? what a joke !
are you loosing your home because somebody uses a bloody icon ?
a copyrighted circle(c)(tm)(r), curved arrow (c)(tm)(r) and the colour grey(c)(tm)(r) ?
I can't imagine the astronomical costs that went into "inventing" that ..
or the losses you suffer because somebody "stole" your "invention" .

I find that wearing shoes that aren't to small makes life a lot more fun .

zikarus
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Yes

that is the way this little tool helps out a lot. And since the developer thinks about making it possible to use TCE in conjunction with Eraser (in order to securely delete temporary files and folders created during the use of TCE) the app will become even more valuable...

consul
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a brand logo must be defended

Identity theft, in all it's various guises, dilutes the concept and meaning of the entity.
"... respect, all good works are not done by only good folk. For here, at the end of all things, we shall do what needs to be done."

Don't be an uberPr∅. They are stinky.

sgp
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I like it!

Thank you for this package, it's on my thumb drive now. I would like to use it also with my USB HDD, but for that I need to be able to specify the encrypted volume path relative to the cryptableApps folder and not to the root of the drive. Is it possible? i.e.,

e:\v\b\cryptableApps\cryptableApps.exe
e:\v\b\cryptableApps\TrueCrypt
e:\v\m\encrypted_volume.tc

BigFNDeal
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ERROR!

I get an error after going thru the cryptableApps.exe config of...

The system cannot find the file specified

I know the path to my truecrypt volume is correct. What am I doing wrong?

sgp
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Try restarting Windows

It's a known Truecrypt issue, they documented it somewhere.

BigFNDeal
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Thanx!

OK, got that to work, ow I need to get things to autorun. How do I do that? The readme seems incomplete about this topic. I created the autostart.lst file, but I can't get the files to autorun.

Ed_P
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.lst?

And what happens when you rename your autorun.lst to autorun.inf?

Ed

Ed

sgp
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No I think he's right - .lst

I believe that there are two distinct files, autorun.inf which Windows uses to autorun cryptableApps.exe when the usb drive is inserted. Then there's autorun.lst which cryptableApps.exe uses to start a set of applications when the TrueCrypt drive is first mounted. The TrueCrypt drive is auto-mounted only when you configure CryptableApps.exe to do so. So the linkake is:

Windows -> autorun.inf -> CryptableApps.exe -> Truecrypt.exe -> mount crypted drive -> run apps in autorun.lst

BigFNDeal
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Eject Script?

Alright. I am able to autostart all apps I want now, using the .lst file. All seems to be working great. I am very happy with this solution for keeping my drive secure. Next, I would like to determine if there is some way to author an eject script that closes all open portable applications, closes the PAM, dismounts the crypt and ejects the drive. I tried Eject Script 0.3, but it seemed to have some issue with Cryptable apps and didn't have any way to dismount the crypt.

Any ideas?

rab040ma
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dismount

I think there's a way to tell Truecrypt (in a batch file, for example) to forcibly dismount your encrypted volume. The issue would be how to tell the apps using that volume to exit first, and waiting until they did so gracefully. Some programs can be told through interprocess communication of one sort or another, but unless you have a fair amount of control over the programs, it might be pretty hard.

Forcibly dismounting without checking would be okay if the Bad Guys were charging in the door and you didn't have time to close things gracefully, but ordinarily you would want to avoid it.

MC

schottbert
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Without Admin Rights you are screwed.

Most of the computers are Window$ systems. If they are restricted, Truecrypt is not going to be installd, in the real world.

Without admin rights Truecrypt is worthless.

The rest of my USB apps work just fine, without admin rights, as long as I can mount the USB drive. If not then gMail and 7-zip is the next step.

Please stop this discussion.

Truecrypt is NOT truly portable.

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