Author Topic: Hide and protect the contents of folders  (Read 13794 times)

hardy

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Hide and protect the contents of folders
« on: February 12, 2019, 17:23:24 »
There is a problem on Windows platforms that has not been addressed satisfactorily in my opinon: to hide the contents of folders from un-authorized view and change and -- most importantly -- to protect folders from accidental or willful deletion. Of course you can hide folders or assign permissions within the Windows file system, but that will not protect files and folders from outside intrusion. As far as I know, folders enrypted with Windows own Bitlocker cannot be decrypted, once the operating system has to be re-installed due to system failure. Could it be that MC's Virtual File System (registry, FTP, etc.) could offer a long sought solution?

Unfortunately, the in-built ZIP packer does not offer password protection. That would be good for a start. Of course, one might create an encrypted Truecrypt container and define it as a Favorite Folder within MC. But such an encrypted container (folder) would not be protected against accidental or willful deletion. The only solution that I have found so far is packing (and possibly encrypting) the contents of a folder in an archive file that is placed at the end of an hierarchically nested tree of subfolders. As a consequence, the packed archive cannot be deleted from within or without the Windows operating system. You will need a password to start the unpacking routine.

Is there another solution I am not ware of? Would it be possible to integrate such a packing routine into the MC virtual file system? How can I access a Truecrypt container from within MC if I define it as a Favorite. Any ideas are welcome.

Mathias (Author)

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Re: Hide and protect the contents of folders
« Reply #1 on: February 15, 2019, 11:41:26 »
Well, the filesystem does not really allow files to be totally hidden. Everything is controlled by permissions.
If you really want to hide you have to use TrueCrypt(VeraCrypt) then you can have a encrypted volume or file with embedded filesystem

MC is not the correct place for doing something like that. This is something that need to be hook into the core of the OS. like FileSystem drivers and such like TC/VC do.
Or file with an Embeded filesystem with encryption like TC/VC also support is the easiest way. I use that my self and find that to be quite good.
You double click the image file to mount it.. enter password in VC and then it is mounted.



hardy

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Re: Hide and protect the contents of folders
« Reply #2 on: February 18, 2019, 08:01:05 »
That is to say, simply define a TC/VC container file as a Favorite within MC and then double-click that MC Favorite in order to mount the TC/VC container file as another drive?
But again, that TC/VC container file will not be protected against deletion ... Writing a long nestled hierarchy of folders into the existing Windows file system without additional file driver should do the job, something like:
Protected_Folder\Subfolder_1\Subfolder_2\Subfolder_3\Subfolder_4\etc\archive.rar
I guess that Kakasoft's Lockdir does such a job without instaling a FileSystem driver, simply by executing a script built into the exe.