Can I encrypt my boot partition with LUKS encryption?

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5, 6, 7, 8

Issue

  • Can I encrypt my boot partition using LUKS?
  • How to encrypt /boot?

Resolution

It is not suggested to encrypt the boot partition in Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Root Cause

Because the boot partition is required by the boot process before loading up systems and daemons needed for decryption, it is impossible to have the boot partition decrypted in time to resume the normal boot procedure.

In Red Hat Enterprise Linux, there is no sensitive information or user data stored in /boot. It should not be necessary to encrypt /boot for security reasons.

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