bdemount mounts bitlocker drive - readonly ?

**mvaar** · 10-Jul-2019, 10:15

Mounting a USB flash drive, encrypted with bitlocker in windows 10 64bit on tumbleweed. I can only mount it read. The intermediate (large) file is read only. This is as root.

Can I mount it read/write ?

**tsu2** · 10-Jul-2019, 10:43

I think your situation is described in the bdemount project page, although it describes not being fully accessible as root instead of the other way around...

https://github.com/libyal/libbde/wiki/Mounting

From the above,
It's clear that you're mounting as a FUSE file system...
And many (most? all?) projects nowadays mount FUSE systems as fully accessible requiring root for security reasons... You have to mount using the fairly standard "user_allow_other" option to enable access by others.
In the above reference, it describes making the necessary setting in a configuration file,
In my SDB: VMware Tools, I describe how to pass this setting as a command line argument (and also note that the VMware Tools are likely renamed standard FUSE tools) and can likely be found in the standard FUSE help and MAN pages.

HTH,
TSU

**mvaar** · 10-Jul-2019, 10:53

Originally Posted by tsu2

I think your situation is described in the bdemount project page, although it describes not being fully accessible as root instead of the other way around...

https://github.com/libyal/libbde/wiki/Mounting

From the above,
It's clear that you're mounting as a FUSE file system...

And many (most? all?) projects nowadays mount FUSE systems as fully accessible requiring root for security reasons... You have to mount using the fairly standard "user_allow_other" option to enable access by others.
In the above reference, it describes making the necessary setting in a configuration file,
In my SDB: VMware Tools, I describe how to pass this setting as a command line argument (and also note that the VMware Tools are likely renamed standard FUSE tools) and can likely be found in the standard FUSE help and MAN pages.

HTH,
TSU

The issue is NOT that I cannot access the volume- I can see the files and the directory structure. But it mounts read only. I read the github documentation for libbde and found no clue to my
problem. It does not categorically say that its read only which is why I am still searching for an answer.

**tsu2** · 10-Jul-2019, 11:27

Originally Posted by mvaar

The issue is NOT that I cannot access the volume- I can see the files and the directory structure. But it mounts read only. I read the github documentation for libbde and found no clue to my
problem. It does not categorically say that its read only which is why I am still searching for an answer.

Try the option anyway, it relaxes permission in general and might address your specific scenario the easiest way. The idea is if all normal Users have read/write permissions, then it's pretty hard to imagine root not having those permissions as well although I suppose technically possible.
Else, you can try setting group and file permissions as part of your mount command,

For example,
You should be able to use the same settings for mounting a normal NTFS volume for your Bitlocker mount...
In the following link, skip down to "Linux compatible permissions"

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NTFS-3G

TSU

**mvaar** · 10-Jul-2019, 12:36

Originally Posted by tsu2

Try the option anyway, it relaxes permission in general and might address your specific scenario the easiest way. The idea is if all normal Users have read/write permissions, then it's pretty hard to imagine root not having those permissions as well although I suppose technically possible.
Else, you can try setting group and file permissions as part of your mount command,

For example,
You should be able to use the same settings for mounting a normal NTFS volume for your Bitlocker mount...
In the following link, skip down to "Linux compatible permissions"

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NTFS-3G

TSU

Have you tried using the tool bdemount ? You have to mount it as a loopback device using mount. bdemount only creates the loopback device as a file referenced on your file system. That file itself is read only. So there's nothing you can do with mount command.

**tsu2** · 12-Jul-2019, 07:52

Originally Posted by mvaar

Have you tried using the tool bdemount ? You have to mount it as a loopback device using mount. bdemount only creates the loopback device as a file referenced on your file system. That file itself is read only. So there's nothing you can do with mount command.

No that's not true although I see the MAN pages seem to have only one example that might mount a loop device.

Take a look at the bdemount main project page... It includes examples including standard file mount locations (eg the standard location /mnt/)

https://github.com/libyal/libbde/wiki/Mounting

TSU

**tsu2** · 12-Jul-2019, 08:03

BTW -

The folllowing might be relevant, the posted issue and solution describes a more generic analysis and a solution for no write permissions using fusermount, although at the end as noted for specifically mounting a Google drive (which is not the case here) the approach is deprecated.

https://github.com/keybase/client/issues/4355

TSU