this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2024
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39
Can windows see files in the Linux partition? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
16 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I cleared up a space on the C drive and installed Linux on that partition. Can Windows see files in my Linux partition?

When i installed Linux, i didn't encrypt it but it is password protected. Thanks

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

  • Theoretically Yes, if your Linux partition is not encrypted, any OS can read it. Password protecting it doesn't do anything to conceal your data, just keeps people from logging into your system while Linux is booted. If this is a security / privacy related question, there is nothing to stop a program running under Windows from reading the data on your Linux partition except

  • Practically No, depending on the filesystem you chose (if you went with the default, it's likely ext4 but could be something more exotic). Out of the box Windows lacks the software / drivers to read most Linux filesystems. If this is a "can I access my files" question, you probably need to install something like this to read your data from Windows. Note that the reverse is not true. Most distros other than light weight distros like Alpine are perfectly able to read the NTFS file system out of the box. Sometimes they can't write to it unless you install additional tools (like OOTB Debian probably can't, but I'm pretty sure OOTB Linux Mint can if you change a setting and IDK about OOTB Ubuntu / Fedora / Arch).

The easiest way to share data between Windows and Linux is with a 3rd partition formatted to FAT32, as both Linux and Windows have no problem reading from / writing to it without additional software.

EDIT: The other poster is absolutely correct. The modern way to do this is with exFAT. What can I say? I'm a crusty old engineer.

It's very likely that adware / spyware / malware targeting Windows users will NOT be able to read Ext4 or other Linux filesystems, unless it's specifically targeted to do so, so you do have that added "security through obscurity" protection.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

a 3rd partition formatted to FAT32

exFAT is also pretty solid for this purpose and doesn't have the file size limitations that FAT32 has.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

I Lost tons of data thanks to windows fast boot flushing back the old fat after rebooting to windows. Never anymore. Linux can write to NTFS , it's much more reliable. Plus the default block size for exfat (when formatted from Windows) is huge

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

If this is a security / privacy related question, there is nothing to stop a program running under Windows from reading the data

There is also nothing to prevent anyone to just run some live Linux from USB, so consider data on that Linux partition neither secure, nor private

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I remember being really surprised when I learned this lol. My SO had an old Windows work laptop that they'd forgotten the password for, and just out of curiosity I tried running a live Linux USB to see if we could access anything, and discovered that we could see everything from every user on there, and that login passwords really didn't do anything at all. It was a real "we should encrypt all our drives" moment.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

It was a real "we should encrypt all our drives" moment.

I would say think twice whether you really need it. Encryption is another technological layer that can fail, so it is double edged sword and encrypting something "just to be on the safe side" might not be the best thing to do.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

True but then you actually have to remember the password. Or you can use an USB key to store keyfile or a hardware security key like Nitrokey or Yubikey to decrypt it.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

We don't know.

While Windows doesn't present the ability to read Linux filesystems to the user, that doesn't mean that it can't do it at all for some covert security state purpose.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Unless you've installed a linux filesystem driver, your Windows can't do shit with that apparently unformatted partition.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Answer is correct, I just want to clarify a bit more:

"Password protected" in your case probably just means that you have a bootloader password or a user account password. Both would not matter in this case. If you put your drive or partition anywhere else, and it's not an encrypted partition, it can be read. Independently of user access rights. Any other OS accessing the same drive/partition can literally read everything if it's not encrypted. Provided, of course, that there's a file system driver available for the OS.

Windows by default doesn't have any Linux filesystem driver installed. I'm not sure if that's still the case when you install WSL. And there are 3rd party Linux filesystem drivers available as well.

But to protect yourself against robbery or a Windows which might in the future include a Linux filesystem driver, you should always encrypt all of your partitions. And when encrypting, use Bitlocker only for your Windows system partition, not for any data partitions, and certainly not for Linux partitions. For Linux partitons, use the integrated LUKS2. Bitlocker on Windows isn't private encryption by the way, since a recovery key is being uploaded to MS' servers automatically. That means MS has theoretical access, the US government has, and law enforcement has. As well as any hackers who manage to exfiltrate that key from somewhere. That's why I'd use Bitlocker only for the C: partition, a 3rd party encryption tool like VeraCrypt for any other Windows partition, and LUKS2 for any Linux partiton.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Yeah Windows out of the box is really dumb/myopic. If it's not Fat32 or NTFS, it doesn't exist lol.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

It can't by default, but you can mount Linux partitions on Windows using WSL

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/wsl2-mount-disk

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Out of the box I don't think windows can read common linux filesystems, but there is 3rd party software I've seen to give it that functionality.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

It can read every bit of that partition.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Why? It can read it technically

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's technically possible, but windows doesn't give you as the user tools to do so. If you donÄt want windos to have the ability to do so you could use full system encryption like: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dm-crypt/Encrypting_an_entire_system