Changeset 56609 in vbox for trunk/doc/manual

Timestamp:

Jun 23, 2015 5:35:00 PM (9 years ago)

Author:

vboxsync

Message:

doc/manual: document clearly that disk encryption can lead to data loss when the VM config is lost, and minor wording changes elsewhere

File:

• trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_AdvancedTopics.xml (modified) (5 diffs)

trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_AdvancedTopics.xml

@@ -3761 +3761 @@
       hard disk images transparently for the guest. It does not depend on a specific
       image format to be used. Images which have the data encrypted are not portable
-      between VirtualBox and other virtualization software though.
+      between VirtualBox and other virtualization software.
     </para>
 
@@ -3771 +3771 @@
     </para>
 
+    <para>
+      Since the DEK is stored as part of the VM configuration file, it is
+      important that it is kept safe. Losing the DEK means that the data stored
+      in the disk images is lost irrecoverably. Having complete and up to
+      date backups of all data related to the VM is the responsibility of the
+      user.
+    </para>
+
     <sect2 id="diskencryption-limitations">
       <title>Limitations</title>
@@ -3782 +3790 @@
 
         <listitem>
-          <para>This feature is currently closed source and requires the VirtualBox extension
-            pack to be installed to work.</para>
+          <para>This feature is part of the Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension
+            Pack, which needs to be installed. Otherwise disk encryption
+            is unavailable.</para>
         </listitem>
 
@@ -3789 +3798 @@
           <para>Since encryption works only on the stored user data,
             it is currently not possible to check for metadata integrity of the disk image.
-            Attackers might take advantage of this to remove or insert blocks of data
-            into the image or change certain metadata items such as the disk size.</para>
+            Attackers might destroy data by removing or changing blocks of data
+            in the image or change metadata items such as the disk size.
+          </para>
         </listitem>
 
@@ -3803 +3813 @@
             decrypt data read and encrypt data written by the guest. While this should
             be obvious the user needs to be aware of this because an attacker might be able
-            to extract the key on a compromised host and get access to the data later.</para>
+            to extract the key on a compromised host and decrypt the data.</para>
         </listitem>
 
         <listitem>
-          <para>When encrypting or decrypting the images, the password is passed unencrypted
-            via the Main API from the frontend to VBoxSVC. This needs to be kept in mind,
-            especially when using third party frontends which make use of the webservice
-            where the password might be transmitted unencrypted over the network.</para>
+          <para>When encrypting or decrypting the images, the password is
+            passed in clear text via the VirtualBox API. This needs to be kept
+            in mind, especially when using third party API clients which make
+            use of the webservice where the password might be transmitted
+            over the network. The use of HTTPS is mandatory in such a case.
+          </para>
         </listitem>
 
         <listitem>
-          <para>Encrypting images with differencing images is only possible if there
-            are no branches. This limitation may be addressed in a future
-            VirtualBox version.</para>
+          <para>Encrypting images with differencing images is only possible if
+            there are no snapshots or a linear chain of snapshots. This
+            limitation may be addressed in a future VirtualBox version.</para>
         </listitem>