Unencrypted RAM can be easily read with physical access to the machine, just like the SSD.
See this 2008 paper (https://citp.princeton.edu/research/memory/) or watch the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDaicPIgn9U) demonstrating a technique to pull unencrypted passphrases/keys out of RAM from a suspended machine to unlock dm-crypt, TrueCrypt, FileVault, etc.
Power management, mobile and firmware developer on Linux. Security developer at Aurora. Ex-biologist. mjg59 on Twitter. Content here should not be interpreted as the opinion of my employer. Also on Mastodon.
Re: Threat to dm-crypt
Date: 2013-07-08 03:03 am (UTC)See this 2008 paper (https://citp.princeton.edu/research/memory/) or watch the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDaicPIgn9U) demonstrating a technique to pull unencrypted passphrases/keys out of RAM from a suspended machine to unlock dm-crypt, TrueCrypt, FileVault, etc.