Veracrypt file appears to expose password in Windows

175 views Asked by At

I just started using VeraCrypt and created a 'file' on my Windows 11 drive. I checked to see if it mounts correctly, and it did. Using Windows Explorer, I clicked on the file, properties, then the Hashes tab and my password was under "check against"! I did this a few times and always have my latest password in that field. This only happens when my password is hexadecimal, like "6d9eb325d85ad7ad95914732f1f38628d9cf9f53f75d246bb", and not letters like "thisismypassword". The password for my last created VeraCrypt file is displayed like this when I toggle on previously created VeraCrypt files. Comments are appreciated![password is circled in linked screen grab https://i.stack.imgur.com/cO0EZ.png] I must be doing something incredibly wrong, as I can't imagine the password should be exposed to anyone with access to my Windows account. I expected my encryption password to be hashed and never retrievable merely via the standard Windows Explorer tools (my problem passwords look like a hash output, but it's the actual password). The Windows Explorer Properties function is available for anyone with access to my account on Windows 11. I suspect that Windows senses whether a hexadecimal string is being entered and cached somewhere, but I'm guessing.

1

There are 1 answers

2
Edward On BEST ANSWER

That "Hashes" tab isn't a standard part of Windows Explorer's Properties dialog. The shell extension that you're using to give Windows Explorer hash-checking functionality is probably monitoring your clipboard, and if it looks like a hash, displays it as an option to check against. It sounds like you're concerned because you opened the Properties dialog for your Veracrypt file, but check some other file and I bet it will show the same.

If you don't like it, your main options are (1) disable the shell extension, (2) disable its clipboard-monitoring functionality, if they provide that option, (3) type the password into Veracrypt manually or use a password manager's "auto-type" function rather than copy-and-pasting it.