Software Update: VeraCrypt 1.18a

Version 1.18a of VeraCrypt has been released. VeraCrypt is a fork of TrueCrypt, which was discontinued a while ago. This open source encryption program can encrypt entire hard drives or partitions and virtual volumes, such as a file accessed as a partition. VeraCrypt uses the original source code of TrueCrypt, but includes several security improvements. Volumes created with TrueCrypt can be opened and converted from this version. The Frenchman Mounir Idrassi has been working on this project since the summer of 2013. The changelog for this release looks like this:

All OSs:

• Support Japanese encryption standard Camellia, including for Windows system encryption (MBR & EFI).
• Support Russian encryption and hash standards Kuznyechik, Magma and Streebog, including for Windows EFI system encryption.

Windows:

• Support EFI Windows system encryption (limitations: no hidden os, no boot custom message)
• Fix TrueCrypt vulnerability allowing detection of hidden volumes presence(reported by Ivanov Aleksey Mikhailovich, alekc96 [at] mail dot ru)
• Enhanced protection against dll hijacking attacks.
• Fix boot issues on some machines by increasing required memory by 1 KiB
• Add benchmarking of hash algorithms and PRF with PIM (including for pre-boot).
• Move build system to Visual C++ 2010 for better stability.
• Workaround for AES-NI support under Hyper-V on Windows Server 2008 R2.
• Correctly remove driver file veracrypt.sys during uninstall on Windows 64-bit.
• Implement passing smart card PIN as command line argument (/tokenpin) when explicitly mounting a volume.
• When no drive letter specified, choose A: or B: only when no other free drive letter is available.
• Reduce CPU usage caused by the option to disable use of disconnected network drives.
• Add new volume ID mechanism to be used to identify disks/partitions instead of their device name.
• Add option to avoid PIM prompt in pre-boot authentication by storing PIM value unencrypted in MBR.
• Add option and command line switch to hide waiting dialog when performing operations.
• Add checkbox in “VeraCrypt Format” wizard GUI to skip Rescue Disk verification during system encryption procedure.
• Allow files drag-n-drop when VeraCrypt is running as elevated process.
• Minor GUI and translation fixes.

Linux:

• Fix mount issue on Fedora 23.
• Fix mount failure when compiling source code using gcc 5.x.
• Addhere to XDG Desktop Specification by using XDG_CONFIG_HOME to determine location of configuration files.

Mac OS X:

• Solve compatibility issue with newer versions of OSXFuse.