Wonder if they backed up the LUKS header? Well anyway here is how to do it thought I would just throw this out there in case anyone needs the info
Making the long story short, if your LUKS header gets damaged/corrupted, all data is gone. To prevent this from happening, you need to create a header backup. This can be done by issuing the following command:
Code:
sudo cryptsetup luksHeaderBackup <device> --header-backup-file <file>
Where <device> is a LUKS volume disk and <file> is a name of a header backup file to be created. In this case the LUKS is on an external HD - mine as a matter of fact this is how I back it up
Code:
sudo cryptsetup luksHeaderBackup /dev/sdb1 --header-backup-file /root/sdb1-header-backup
The file is now in the /root folder which is hidden and you need root access to get to it from there you can move it to anywhere else like to a thumb drive if you choose
Note: It is often recommended to backup the headers securely, i.e. on a encrypted drive. However, “I put mine on /boot, as this is an unencrypted partition, and the file is small (2MiB).
There’s no great security loss in this – anyone with physical access (or root access) to your device can simply dump the header anyway so it don't matter by using the above command. If you’re really worried though, save it somewhere safe.
In case of disaster where our LUKS header gets broken, you can restore it by issuing the following command:
Code:
sudo cryptsetup luksHeaderRestore <device> --header-backup-file <file>
So in my case that would be since I moved it to /boot
Code:
sudo cryptsetup luksHeaderRestore /dev/sdb1--header-backup-file /boot/sdb1-header-backup
this will restore the dameged/corrputed LUKS header
NOTE: LUKS header restoration procedure will replace all key-slots, therefore only the passphrases from the backup will work afterwards!