encrypted files showing up un-encrypted in C:\users

[John Little]

No, not using any replacement for Windows Explorer. The machine is from 2010 but I did a wipe and clean install of Windows in I think it was January of 2015, just to freshen it up a little bit. (Actually, the machine has almost all been replaced: new CPU, new graphics card, new PSU, 2 new HDs, new DVD; there’s not much left of the original. :) ) I’m not aware of any chronic problems, no BSODs or anything else that comes to mind. I do a lot of photo editing with multiple applications open at once, I generally have 6-8 tabs open on my browser at the same time, and of course my email client stays open all the time, and everything runs pretty smoothly with all this stuff running at once. So I don’t know what it could be if there’s a problem.

[Thiago (tmzani)]

Svante,

I am also facing a similar problem — I’ve opened a separate thread to discuss it.

It looks like AxCrypt v2 is failing to keep track of opened files. There are two consequences from what I’ve observed so far:

1) Files are been kept in clear text under AxCrypt’s temporary directory (and they remain there until you manually delete them);

2) Original files are not been updated – the updated version is kept in clear text under Axcrypt’s temp dir.

It looks like some file sharing exception is not been correctly handled within AxCrypt’s internal file console…

Let me know if you need anything from my side.

Best,

tmzani

[SvanteSpectator]

Thanks Thiago, I’ve responden in your own thread.

[Anonymous]

Hello, I have a follow up question to this issue.  I understand now that the broom will remove these temporary unencrypted files.  When the broom removes these files, are they simply deleted in unencrypted format which could then be recovered using file recovery software?

[Wilberforce]

are they simply deleted in unencrypted format which could then be recovered using file recovery software

Yes.

Using AxCrypt is no substitute for full-disk encryption such as BitLocker as this would thwart the attack you talk about.

If an attacker can get access to your unencrypted hard drive then Secure Delete does very little.

[SvanteSpectator]

Hello,

No, when temporary files are deleted by AxCrypt, they are first overwritten with random data. This does stop typical undelete utilities from recovering any information. With SSD drives, there may be other ways to get at the data, since they usually implement wear leveling – causing a write not to be a write just where you think the write is.

But, BitLocker or similar full disk encryption is a good complement to AxCrypt.

[Author]

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