ESSIVE

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Encrypted Salt-Sector IV (ESSIV) is a module for generating the initialization vector of block encryption algorithms for hard disk encryption .

With conventional methods of IV generation, the initialization vector is often predictable (for example by using a time stamp or the sector number) and thus leaves open possibilities for attack (such as a watermark attack ).

ESSIV, on the other hand, generates the IV from a combination of the encrypted sector number with the hash value of the key K. Only the integration of the key (for example in the form of its hash value) makes the IV unpredictable.

ESSIV is an integral part of the Linux kernel from version 2.6.10 . The author is Clemens Fruhwirth, who is also responsible for LUKS .

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