My USB Drive Has a Hidden Encrypted Vault

	My USB Drive Has a Hidden Encrypted Vault(rootkitlabs.com)
	247 points by machinehum 2 days ago \| 141 comments
	tl;dr: Phantomdrive is an open-source USB drive that presents as an 8GB volume but unlocks a hidden AES-256 encrypted partition when a plaintext file containing `password:YOURPASS` is written to it. Built around a CH569 chip with an SD card for storage, it uses a device-specific salt plus 100k rounds of SHA-256 for key derivation, and defaults to AES-CTR (with AES-XTS optional) for ~9MB/s writes. The author acknowledges earlier security issues raised via GitHub (some AI-generated) and notes tradeoffs around counter reuse, epoxy-sealed hardware, and the accidental-match risk of the password-snooping approach.
	HN Discussion: ↓Off-the-shelf hidden volumes won't fool state-level adversaries and increase suspicion when found ↑Not all threat models involve nation-states; tool is still useful against everyday adversaries like abusers or employers ~Hiding the encrypted volume inside an innocuous device (cable, keyboard, camera) would be less suspicious than an obvious drive ↓Cryptographic choices are flawed — AES-CTR enables bit-flipping attacks and homebrew crypto should be replaced by LUKS ↓Plausible deniability is fundamentally broken once the product is publicly known and identifiable