Software Update: VeraCrypt 1.21

Recently version 1.20 of VeraCrypt was released and now a successor has appeared that should fix some minor bugs and allow use on FreeBSD for the first time. 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.

VeraCrypt 1.21

All OSs:

• Fix 1.20 regression crash when running on CPU not supporting extended features.

Windows:

• Fix 1.20 regression that caused PIM value stored in favorites to be ignored during mount.
• Fix 1.20 regression that causes system favorites not to mount in some cases.
• Fix some cases of “Parameter Incorrect” error during EFI system encryption wizard.
• Install PDF documents related to EFI system encryption configuration for advanced users:
  • disk_encryption_v1_2.pdf related to EFI hidden OS and full fisk encryption
  • dcs_tpm_owner_02.pdf related to TPM configuration for EFI system encryption.

FreeBSD:

• Add support for building on FreeBSD.

VeraCrypt 1.20

All OSs:

• Use 64-bit optimized assembly implementation of Twofish and Camellia by Jussi Kivilinna.
  • Camellia 2.5 faster when AES-NI supported by CPU. 30% faster without it.
• Use optimized implementation for SHA-512/SHA256.
  • 33% speedup on 64-bit systems.
• Deploy local HTML documentation instead of User Guide PDF.
• Change links in UI from ones on Codeplex to ones hosted at veracrypt.fr
• Security: build binaries with support for Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR).

Windows:

• Several fixes and modifications for EFI System Encryption:
  • Fix bug in EFI system decryption using EFI Rescue Disk
    • Add support for TPM 1.2 and TPM 2.0 (experimental) through DCS low level configuration.
    • Add Support for EFI full disk encryption and hidden OS using manual procedure (not exposed in UI).
• Enable using Secure Desktop for password entry. Add preferences option and command line switch (/secureDesktop) to activate it.
• Use default mount parameters when mounting multiple favorites with password caching.
• Enable specifying PRF and TrueCryptMode for favorites.
• Preliminary driver changes to support EFI hidden OS functionality.
• Fix Streebog not recognized by /hash command line.
• Add support for ReFS filesystem on Windows 10 when creating normal volumes
• Fix high CPU usage when favorite configured to mount with VolumeID on arrival.
• Use CHM file for User Guide instead of PDF.
• Fix false warning in case of EFI system encryption about Windows not installed on boot drive.
• Enhancements to driver handling of various disk IOCTL.
• Enhancements to EFI boot loader. Add possibility to manually edit EFI configuration file.
• Driver Security: Use enhanced protection of NX pool under Windows 8 and later.
• Reduce performance impact of internal check for disconnected network drives.
• Minor fixes.

Mac OS X:

• OSX 10.7 or newer is required to run VeraCrypt.
• Make VeraCrypt default handler of .hc & .tc files.
• Add custom VeraCrypt icon to .hc and .tc files in Finder.
• Check TrueCryptMode in password dialog when opening container file with .tc extension.

Linux:

• Check TrueCryptMode in password dialog when opening container file with .tc extension.
• Fix executable stack in resulting binary which was caused by crypto assembly files missing the GNU-stack note.