Cloud Files Encryption App Cryptomator 1.4.12 Adds Password Saving On Linux, Custom Mount Flags

Cryptomator, a free and open source client-side encryption tool for cloud files, got an update today and with it, some new features like password saving on Linux, and custom mount flags.

Cryptomator is a Java tool to encrypt cloud storage files for services that don't support client-side encryption, which runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android. It works with cloud storage services that synchronize with a local directory, like Dropbox or Google Drive (including using it with Insync).

For encryption, Cryptomator uses AES with 256-bit key length, while the passphrase is protected against brute force attacks using Scrypt, a password-based key derivation function.

It uses WebDAV, FUSE (Mac and Linux only) or Dokany (Windows only) to provide the virtual, unencrypted drive, and it can be used to either encrypt a few important files, or the whole cloud storage data. What's more, the tool supports creating multiple vaults, even for the same cloud storage provider.

It's worth noting that while it was created with cloud storage client-side encryption in mind, Cryptomator may also be used to encrypt a folder from your system or from an external drive.

The new Cryptomator 1.4.12, released today, brings support for password saving on Linux using Gnome Keyring and KSecretService (KDE). It's now also possible to auto-unlock a Cryptomator-encrypted volume on start for users running Linux, but do note that his feature is tagged as experimental.

To enable these options, click the More Options button before unlocking the Cryptomator Vault:

Cryptomator save password and custom mount flags

This Cryptomator release also adds support for custom mount flags for FUSE and Dokany. This was requested because it was needed to allow FUSE mounting with allow_root so e.g. Carbon Copy Cloner on Mac (which runs as root) is able to access the Cryptomator vault, which by default is mounted only for the current user. Of course, this is useful for various other use cases as well.

Like the save password feature, this custom mount flags option is available under More Options (which is available before mounting a vault).

Other changes in Cryptomator 1.4.12

Added Spotlight indexing on Mac. This can be enabled using custom mount flags (use -oallow_root and -olocal and Spotlight starts indexing the volume)
Fixed drive letter assignment on Windows
Added launcher scripts to buildkit for using Cryptomator via JAR

Download Cryptomator

The downloads page offers an AppImage binary for Linux, and there's also an Ubuntu / Linux Mint PPA (not yet updated but it will probably get the new version for Ubuntu 18.04 only), as well as an Aur package.

To run the Cryptomator AppImage binary you'll need to make it executable: right click -> Properties -> Permissions -> Allow executing file as program (or similar; this depends on your file manager). Now if your desktop environment / file manager allows it, double click the Cryptomator AppImage file to run it. On desktop environments which don't allow double clicking AppImage files to run them, open a terminal and drag'n'drop the Cryptomator AppImage file onto the terminal window, then press Enter. You may also type ./cryptomator-1.4.12-x86_64.AppImage from the folder where the AppImage is located in to run it.

For easily running and integrating AppImage files with your Linux system (including automatically adding an applications menu entry), you may want to check out AppImageLauncher.

Want a quick start guide for using Cryptomator to encrypt your cloud storage data? See this article (scroll down to the "How to use Cryptomator" section).

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