Allow normal file-hosted containers to use quick format in the Unix volume creation path by sizing the host file with ftruncate before backup headers are written.
Enable the GUI checkbox for normal file containers and honor --quick in text mode. Update the Unix HTML documentation for the weaker deniability properties of sparse or unwritten host regions.
Argon2id includes the requested output length in its computation, so deriving 192 bytes and using a prefix is not equivalent to deriving only the selected cipher's key material length. This differs from PBKDF2, where the prefix property made this detail invisible.
VeraCrypt derives the maximum header key material currently needed by the supported cipher/cascade set, which is 192 bytes, and then uses the required prefix for the selected encryption algorithm. For AES-XTS this means the first 64 bytes of the 192-byte Argon2id output are used.
Make this design rule explicit in code and documentation by introducing ARGON2_HEADER_KEYDATA_SIZE instead of relying implicitly on GetMaxPkcs5OutSize. If a future cipher or cascade requires more than 192 bytes, that must be handled as an explicit format/design change.
Document the 192-byte Argon2id header KDF output requirement so third-party implementations derive the same header key material.
References: https://github.com/veracrypt/VeraCrypt/issues/1614
Embed both Microsoft UEFI CA 2011 and 2023 signed DCS EFI sets and select the 2023 set only when the firmware db trusts the required 2023 third-party CAs.
Fall back to the 2011 EFI set when firmware db state cannot be determined, preserving pre-existing compatibility behavior and recording the reason in HKLM diagnostics.
Refresh installed ESP modules during PostOOBE repair, keep backups before replacing existing DCS modules, and use the selected EFI set when creating rescue media.
Record the selected EFI bootloader resource set and selection reason in HKLM, allow larger firmware db variables on systems with many Secure Boot certificates, and remove diagnostic registry keys on uninstall.
Fix MSI SetupDLL COM typelib version constants so unregister targets the current Main and Format COM typelib versions.
References: https://github.com/veracrypt/VeraCrypt/issues/1655
Keep the NTFS kernel-driver option as a generic in-kernel NTFS path rather than an ntfs3-specific path. Add --filesystem=kernel-ntfs and -m kernelntfs routes that select a registered or loadable kernel NTFS driver and mount with -i so mount.ntfs/ntfs-3g helpers are not invoked.
Preserve --filesystem=ntfs3 as a literal pin to the ntfs3 driver. Treat both ntfs3 and kernel-ntfs as mount-only selectors; volume creation continues to use filesystem type NTFS.
The preference and -m kernelntfs path only select an in-kernel NTFS driver when no explicit filesystem type was supplied and blkid detects NTFS.
Treat ntfs as the preferred in-kernel driver on Linux 7.1 and later, where the upstream read/write driver is expected. On earlier kernels, select ntfs only when module metadata identifies the standalone read/write driver and /sys/module confirms it loaded, avoiding ntfs3 read-only ntfs compatibility registrations. Fall back to ntfs3 otherwise, and report a generic kernel-driver error if neither supported driver is available or loadable.
Rename the internal preference/config field to MountNtfsWithKernelDriver, migrate the old MountNtfsWithNtfs3 preference key, and update UI strings, CLI help, documentation, release notes, and translation placeholders accordingly.
Reference: https://github.com/veracrypt/VeraCrypt/issues/1735
Replace the Linux ntfs3 help icon paint lambda with a small wxWindow
subclass and regular paint event handler.
GCC 4.4, used on CentOS 6, builds with -std=c++0x but does not support
the lambda syntax used in PreferencesDialog.cpp, causing compilation to
fail at the ntfs3 help icon handler.
The drawing behavior is unchanged.
Keep the executable requirement at CMake 2.8.12 for legacy CentOS 6 package builders while using the version-range syntax to declare policy compatibility up to 3.10. Newer CMake versions use the policy maximum to avoid CMake 4 failures, and older CMake versions ignore the suffix and continue to configure as before.
Enable use_ino for Linux FUSE mounts so stable inode numbers returned by getattr and readdir are reported to userspace. For FUSE3, set fuse_config.use_ino from init; for FUSE2, pass -o use_ino because there is no fuse_config init hook.
Also map otherwise unhandled FUSE exceptions to EIO instead of EINTR, since these failures are not signal interruptions and should not encourage retry loops.
APFS volume creation can still fail with Permission denied after preparing the raw and block device aliases because newfs_apfs performs privileged APFS container and volume operations beyond opening the device nodes.
Route APFS formatting through the elevated CoreService path for non-root macOS runs. Keep the elevated interface narrow by sending only the target device and invoking user UID/GID, validate the device path on the privileged side, rebuild the formatter arguments there, and execute /sbin/newfs_apfs by absolute path to avoid PATH shadowing.
Pass -U/-G so the created filesystem preserves the invoking user ownership. Apply the same path to GUI and text-mode creation.
When creating an APFS filesystem inside a newly created device-hosted volume, VeraCrypt prepared only the raw hdiutil device path before invoking newfs_apfs. On macOS, newfs_apfs may resolve or reopen the corresponding block device path, which can fail with Permission denied for non-root GUI runs.
Prepare both raw and block aliases for the temporary formatter device, restore changed owners afterward, and share the helper between GUI and text-mode volume creation. Restore each changed alias independently so one restore failure does not skip the rest.
Remove the duplicate Shell_NotifyIconW(NIM_MODIFY) call from the tray balloon helper. On Windows 11, the shell can queue the repeated NIF_INFO request and show the same unmount notification twice.
Fixes#1630
Reject empty or truncated TLV buffers, unsupported indefinite lengths, and declared value lengths that exceed the remaining input or uint16 node storage. Parse BER long-form lengths in big-endian order before copying value bytes.
Report explicit progress stages while writing volume data, writing backup headers, and flushing data to disk so the wizard does not appear stuck at 100%.
Keep the wizard in progress during Unix post-creation formatting and show status for temporary mount/device setup, mkfs invocation, and dismount.
When normal filesystem unmount fails, the Linux path could stop before cleaning VeraCrypt mapper, loop and FUSE objects. Add an explicit emergency dismount request that is only reached after interactive confirmation.
The recovery path lazy-detaches mounted filesystems, uses deferred dmsetup removal for VeraCrypt mapper devices, detaches loop devices, and keeps normal force/ignoreOpenFiles behavior unchanged.
Validate SecRegion password cache offsets before use.
Wipe decrypted SecRegion password-cache data even when cache validation fails.
Clamp encrypted I/O work item counts and check allocation sizing.
Reject invalid boot drive sector writes and initialize decoy wipe data unit.
Validate hidden-system boot offsets and remap arithmetic before use.
Verify restored EFI Microsoft and fallback boot loader paths after system decryption.
Show clearer recovery guidance when EFI file restoration or NVRAM cleanup remains incomplete.
Add a GPT-only EFI boot loader repair menu action for already decrypted systems.
Add statfs metadata for the auxiliary FUSE mount, keep /control read-only by sending hdiutil device data through /aux-device-info and tolerate delayed SMB rediscovery during mount completion. Log final control-file retry failures for diagnostics.
Use the same SystemFavorites service flag mapping for /PostOOBE bootloader repair as the non-forced service update path. This prevents Windows upgrade repair from adding VeraCrypt to BootOrder or forcing it first when those actions are disabled, while forced updates keep their previous behavior and still repair the loader.
Copy selected favorite volumes into mount thread parameters so background mounting does not depend on mutable global vector storage. Also avoid unnecessary FavoriteVolume copies in auto-mount paths and fix mount-on-arrival state updates.
Refs #1661
wxWidgets does not propagate mouse motion events from child controls to parent windows. The Linux/macOS GUI was binding the random-pool mouse handlers only to the dialog/page and its direct children, which left nested controls such as static-box contents and the wizard image as dead zones.
Add a reusable recursive child-window event binder and use it in the keyfile generator, random pool enrichment dialog, and volume creation wizard. The root windows keep their existing generated bindings, while descendants are bound explicitly, avoiding duplicate handling on the root while covering all nested controls.
This makes the entropy gauge and the random pool update consistently no matter where the pointer moves inside the affected windows.
Fixes#1656.
Local macOS builds disable universal binaries. On Apple Silicon, that means
the regular objects are built for arm64 only, but Volume.make still selected
the macOS assembly bundle. Several of those assembly outputs are x86_64 only,
which makes ranlib reject Volume.a because it contains mixed cputypes.
Make local arm64 macOS builds use the existing arm64 crypto object path and
have the macOS build wrapper export CPU_ARCH/COMPILE_ASM consistently for
local builds.
wxWidgets 3.3 removed the configure switches for explicitly enabling
Unicode and std_string support. Passing these options now makes configure
fail with "unrecognized options" when option checking is enabled.
Keep the legacy switches for older wxWidgets releases, but only add them
from the wxbuild recipe when the target configure script still supports the
corresponding Autoconf option variables.
Make MSI-installed VeraCrypt use the IDRIX-signed COMReg package as the
source for traveler files, matching the EXE installer flow. COMReg now
packages the x64 traveler payload, so traveler creation no longer has to
copy the installed x64 driver from appDir\veracrypt.sys and verify it
against a Microsoft WHQL certificate fingerprint.
Keep Microsoft WHQL certificate verification only for the loose portable
driver fallback, where driver files cannot be signed with the IDRIX code
signing certificate. The normal VerifyModuleSignature path now remains
IDRIX-only.
Also validate that an MSI COMReg package actually contains the required
x64 traveler files before reporting success, avoiding partial traveler
directories when the package payload is incomplete.
Now it is possible to enable IME during Secure Desktop using a setting in Preferences or using /enableIME switch.
This helps solve issues with some IME that causes VeraCrypt to freeze when selecting keyfile while VeraCrypt secure desktop is active.
See: https://sourceforge.net/p/veracrypt/discussion/general/thread/1e8b9aeacd
Introduce MapIrpDataBuffer to handle Direct/Buffered/Neither I/O, probing & locking pages and allocating a temp MDL when needed.
Replace blind MmGetSystemAddressForMdlSafe usage. clean up TempUserMdl in OnItemCompleted to avoid crashes when MdlAddress is NULL.
Issue reported at https://sourceforge.net/p/veracrypt/discussion/technical/thread/e43bde8d86/
- Replace dynamic GetProcAddress usage with direct SetThreadGroupAffinity call since we run under Windows 10 minimum
- Compute affinity mask based on actual active processor count
- Fix off-by-one when assigning threads to processor groups (use > instead of >=), preventing premature group advance
- Improves correctness on multi-group (>=64 CPU) systems
Replace timer-based TCSleep (which allocated a KTIMER and waited on it) with an
implementation that calls KeDelayExecutionThread. This removes dynamic allocation
and kernel timer usage to simplify the code and reduce resource overhead.
Adds an IRQL <= APC_LEVEL assertion and documents the requirement.
This is safe because TCSleep is always called from code that runs at PASSIVE_LEVEL
Added InterlockedDecrement in the error path when GetPoolBuffer fails for EncryptedIoRequest to ensure accurate tracking of pending IO requests and prevent potential resource leaks.
Major changes:
- Added pooled + elastic work item model with retry/backoff (MAX_WI_RETRIES). removed semaphore usage.
- Introduced two completion threads to reduce contention and latency under heavy IO.
- Added BytesCompleted (per IRP) and ActualBytes (per fragment) for correct short read/write accounting. total read/write stats now reflect real transferred bytes instead of requested length.
- Moved decryption of read fragments into IO thread. completion threads now only finalize IRPs (reduces race window and simplifies flow).
- Deferred final IRP completion via FinalizeOriginalIrp to avoid inline IoCompleteRequest re-entrancy. added safe OOM inline fallback.
- Implemented work item pool drain & orderly shutdown (ActiveWorkItems + NoActiveWorkItemsEvent) with robust stop protocol.
- Replaced semaphore-based work item acquisition with spin lock + free list + event (WorkItemAvailableEvent). added exponential backoff for transient exhaustion.
- Added elastic (on-demand) work item allocation with pool vs dynamic origin tracking (FromPool).
- Added FreeCompletionWorkItemPool() for symmetric cleanup; ensured all threads are explicitly awakened during stop.
- Added second completion thread replacing single CompletionThread.
- Hardened UpdateBuffer: fixed parameter name typo, added bounds/overflow checks using IntSafe (ULongLongAdd), validated Count, guarded sector end computation.
- Fixed GPT/system region write protection logic to pass correct length instead of end offset.
- Ensured ASSERTs use fragment‑relative bounds (cast + length) and avoided mixed 64/32 comparisons.
- Added MAX_WI_RETRIES constant. added WiRetryCount field in EncryptedIoRequest.
- Ensured RemoveLock is released only after all queue/accounting updates (OnItemCompleted).
- Reset/read-ahead logic preserved. read-ahead trigger now based on actual completion & zero pending fragment count.
- General refactoring, clearer separation of concerns (TryAcquireCompletionWorkItem / FinalizeOriginalIrp / HandleCompleteOriginalIrp).
Safety / correctness improvements:
- Accurate short read handling (STATUS_END_OF_FILE with true byte count).
- Eliminated risk of double free or premature RemoveLock release on completion paths.
- Prevented potential overflow in sector end arithmetic.
- Reduced contention and potential deadlock scenarios present with previous semaphore wait path.
- Document HIGH_LEVEL constraints and rationale for pre-building a nonpaged scratch MDL.
- Allocate contiguous scratch buffer with conservative PFN cap (0x7FFFFFFFFFF) and fall back to unlimited cap if needed.
- Replace ASSERT with TC_BUG_CHECK for validation of write MDL mapping at HIGH_LEVEL.
- Safely copy PFNs from prebuilt MDL into caller MDL: compute dst/src page counts, check capacity, copy exact PFNs and retarget MDL header fields (preserve MdlFlags).
- Make DumpData cleanup defensive in unload path.
- comments improvements for clarity and maintainability.
Mounir IDRASSI