same PW for several PDs; hibernation

Hi,

Thanks for your great product, which I've been using for a few years now (the licensed version for almost two years). I have two questions:

- If I have several PD files with the same password, will that make it easier for someone else to "crack" the password?

- If I do not disconnect prior to hibernation, presumably it will be possible to someone to access the open PD(s) by accessing the file generated by hibernation?

TIA!

[Alex Railean]

Having the same password for two images will not make it easier for someone to find the actual encryption key. Even though the passwords are the same, the actual encryption keys are different (randomly generated, for each image).

You can find out more details about keys and passwords in order to get a complete picture of what happens.


Also, a personal recommendation is NOT to have two passwords for the same image. Either merge the data into a single image of a larger size, or use two distinct passwords. It is obvious that if one image is compromised - so is the other.



The second question is a bit tougher. The password you enter when you mount the image is cleared from the memory as soon as you enter it (it is then hashed, and afterwards the actual encryption key is obtained). The actual encryption key itself is stored in a memory that cannot be accessed easily. In other words, assuming that someone examines the hibernate file, there will be no big red arrow that says "psst! Private Disk's password is here!". You will see a huge chunk of binary data, but there will be no trivial way to find out which data belongs to which module, and where exactly in that data the encryption key is stored.

These addresses (places where a certain piece of information is stored) vary from system to system, from restart to restart, etc. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack, without knowing how to recognize the needle.

Thanks Alex! That was very helpful (and quick).

Have a great weekend!