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Disk Vs. Application Level Encryption

Phoenix Black Ops Blog

Disk Vs. Application Level Encryption

Disk Encryption

Disk encryption protects the data stored on the physical disk. It ensures that if an attacker gains physical access to your disk, they cannot read the data without the encryption key. However, once the system is booted and the disk is decrypted (e.g., when an authorized user logs in), the data is accessible to anyone with the necessary permissions on that system.

  • Scenario: An attacker hacks into your disk-encrypted system.
    • If the system is running and the disk is already decrypted, the attacker would need to elevate their privileges to access the data.
    • If the system is not running, the attacker would need the disk encryption key to decrypt and access the data.

 

Application Level Encryption

Application-level encryption protects data within the application, ensuring that sensitive data is encrypted before it is written to disk and only decrypted by authorized parts of the application. This means that even if an attacker gains access to the disk (with or without disk encryption), they still need to bypass the application’s encryption mechanisms to access the sensitive data.

  • Scenario: An attacker gains access to the system where the application and database are running.
    • They would first need to gain authenticated access to the application or database to view the data.
    • If the data within the database is encrypted at the application level, the attacker would also need to compromise the application to decrypt the data, as it is encrypted before being written to the database and only decrypted by the application when needed.

Combined Protection

Using both disk encryption and application-level encryption provides layered security. Here’s how it works together:

  1. Disk Encryption: Protects the data at rest on the physical storage medium. It requires the attacker to obtain the encryption key to decrypt the disk.
  2. Application-Level Encryption: Ensures that data is encrypted before being written to disk and is decrypted only within the application context. This adds an additional layer of protection because:
    • Even if an attacker gains access to the decrypted disk, the sensitive data remains encrypted and inaccessible without the application’s encryption keys or mechanisms.
    • The attacker would need to gain authenticated access to the application and database to attempt to decrypt the data.

In summary, an attacker would have to:

  1. Bypass Disk Encryption: Gain access to the system and possibly decrypt the disk if it was not already decrypted.
  2. Elevate Privileges: Obtain the necessary permissions to access the data on the system.
  3. Bypass Application Encryption: Gain authenticated access to the application or database and then bypass the application-level encryption to read the sensitive data.

This layered approach significantly increases the security of your data against unauthorized access.

This post has been created entirely using AI and although it has been reviewed by the editor, it may not be entirely factual or all encompassing. Always be sure to complete your own research. This post is in the public domain or otherwise listed under the CC0 License.

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