veracrypt/VeraCrypt VeraCrypt_1.24

VeraCrypt version 1.24

on GitHub

Binaries for Windows, Linux and MacOSX are available at Launchpad, Sourceforge and Bitbucket

Changes between 1.23-Hotfix-2 and 1.24 (6 October 2019) :

• All OSs:
  • Increase password maximum length to 128 bytes in UTF-8 encoding for non-system volumes.
  • Add option to use legacy maximum password length (64) instead of new one for compatibility reasons.
  • Use Hardware RNG based on CPU timing jitter "Jitterentropy" by Stephan Mueller as a good alternative to CPU RDRAND (http://www.chronox.de/jent.html)
  • Speed optimization of XTS mode on 64-bit machine using SSE2 (up to 10% faster).
  • Fix detection of CPU features AVX2/BMI2. Add detection of RDRAND/RDSEED CPU features. Detect Hygon CPU as AMD one.
• Windows:
  • Implement RAM encryption for keys and passwords using ChaCha12 cipher, t1ha non-cryptographic fast hash and ChaCha20 based CSPRNG.
    • Available only on 64-bit machines.
    • Disabled by default. Can be enabled using option in UI.
    • Less than 10% overhead on modern CPUs.
    • Side effect: Windows Hibernate is not possible if VeraCrypt System Encryption is also being used.
  • Mitigate some memory attacks by making VeraCrypt applications memory inaccessible to non-admin users (based on KeePassXC implementation)
  • New security features:
    • Erase system encryption keys from memory during shutdown/reboot to help mitigate some cold boot attacks
    • Add option when system encryption is used to erase all encryption keys from memory when a new device is connected to the system.
    • Add new driver entry point that can be called by applications to erase encryption keys from memory in case of emergency.
  • MBR Bootloader: dynamically determine boot loader memory segment instead of hardcoded values (proposed by neos6464)
  • MBR Bootloader: workaround for issue affecting creation of hidden OS on some SSD drives.
  • Fix issue related to Windows Update breaking VeraCrypt UEFI bootloader.
  • Several enhancements and fixes for EFI bootloader:
    • Implement timeout mechanism for password input. Set default timeout value to 3 minutes and default timeout action to "shutdown".
    • Implement new actions "shutdown" and "reboot" for EFI DcsProp config file.
    • Enhance Rescue Disk implementation of restoring VeraCrypt loader.
    • Fix ESC on password prompt during Pre-Test not starting Windows.
    • Add menu entry in Rescue Disk that enables starting original Windows loader.
    • Fix issue that was preventing Streebog hash from being selected manually during Pre-Boot authentication.
    • If "VeraCrypt" folder is missing from Rescue Disk, it will boot PC directly from bootloader stored on hard drive
      • This makes it easy to create a bootable disk for VeraCrypt from Rescue Disk just by removing/renaming its "VeraCrypt" folder.
  • Add option (disabled by default) to use CPU RDRAND or RDSEED as an additional entropy source for our random generator when available.
  • Add mount option (both UI and command line) that allows mounting a volume without attaching it to the specified drive letter.
  • Update libzip to version 1.5.2
  • Do not create uninstall shortcut in startmenu when installing VeraCrypt. (by Sven Strickroth)
  • Enable selection of Quick Format for file containers creation. Separate Quick Format and Dynamic Volume options in the wizard UI.
  • Fix editor of EFI system encryption configuration file not accepting ENTER key to add new lines.
  • Avoid simultaneous calls of favorites mounting, for example if corresponding hotkey is pressed multiple times.
  • Ensure that only one thread at a time can create a secure desktop.
  • Resize some dialogs in Format and Mount Options to fix some text truncation issues with non-English languages.
  • Fix high CPU usage when using favorites and add switch to disable periodic check on devices to reduce CPU load.
  • Minor UI changes.
  • Updates and corrections to translations and documentation.
• MacOSX:
  • Add check on size of file container during creation to ensure it's smaller than available free disk space. Add CLI switch --no-size-check to disable this check.
• Linux:
  • Make CLI switch --import-token-keyfiles compatible with Non-Interactive mode.
  • Add check on size of file container during creation to ensure it's smaller than available free disk space. Add CLI switch --no-size-check to disable this check.