Vista - EFS & built-in Search engine

Hi everybody,

it really looks like as if encrypted files and folders (using the Windows
built-in Encrypting File System - EFS) are not participating to the items
that are searched using the built-in indexing engine. Can anyone please
confirm this? Should this be confirmed, then I will use other crypting
engine...

Best regards,
Marc Ochsenmeier
www.propagating.net

Disclaimer: I have not investigated this issue myself.

What makes you say that it appears that the contents of encrypted files /
folders are not being included in searches conducted in Vista. (Excuse me for
reformulating your question, but I do so to be sure that I am understanding
and properly representing your claim.)

EFS is SUPPOSED to be transparent. That is to say that, if I happen to be
the authorized user (for the EFS-encrypted files) then any operation I
perform on those files should simply happen without any issue. However, if I
log in as a DIFFERENT user than the one who encrypted the files, then their
contents should, indeed, be off limits to me and to my search activities.

"marc ochsenmeier" wrote:

> Hi everybody,
>
> it really looks like as if encrypted files and folders (using the Windows
> built-in Encrypting File System - EFS) are not participating to the items
> that are searched using the built-in indexing engine. Can anyone please
> confirm this? Should this be confirmed, then I will use other crypting
> engine...
>
> Best regards,
> Marc Ochsenmeier
> www.propagating.net
>
>

"jimmuh" wrote:

> Disclaimer: I have not investigated this issue myself.
>
> What makes you say that it appears that the contents of encrypted files /
> folders are not being included in searches conducted in Vista. (Excuse me for
> reformulating your question, but I do so to be sure that I am understanding
> and properly representing your claim.)
>
> EFS is SUPPOSED to be transparent. That is to say that, if I happen to be
> the authorized user (for the EFS-encrypted files) then any operation I
> perform on those files should simply happen without any issue. However, if I
> log in as a DIFFERENT user than the one who encrypted the files, then their
> contents should, indeed, be off limits to me and to my search activities.
>
> "marc ochsenmeier" wrote:
>
> > Hi everybody,
> >
> > it really looks like as if encrypted files and folders (using the Windows
> > built-in Encrypting File System - EFS) are not participating to the items
> > that are searched using the built-in indexing engine. Can anyone please
> > confirm this? Should this be confirmed, then I will use other crypting
> > engine...
> >
> > Best regards,
> > Marc Ochsenmeier
> > www.propagating.net
> >
> > I got the same issue with RC1: encrypted files using EFS are not indexed at all, although I checked the box "index encrypted files" in the indexing tool menu. The only way to search for a file that is encrypted is to use the advances search feature amd check the box for non indexed, hidden and system files. Another issue that I have now is that after I encrypted the index location, the indexing service does not run anymore. I decrypted that but it wouldn't start again. The problem also is that unlike XP, you cannot enable or disable indexing manually using a windows service; you can only do it when prompted to do so in a search window. So what happens is that now I am prompted to turn indexing back on, but it has no effect.

Darn! I just wiped a test machine that was running Vista! I would really like
to test it to see if I can duplicate what you're reporting, apache255. But I
don't want to fiddle around with my main system, you know? It has always been
hard for me to reconcile the idea of combining encryption with indexing --
for, I think, obvious reasons. It would seem that the index would be a
security risk. On the other hand not being able to index large quantities of
encrypted material would seem to be a headache for the user, too.

My particular uses and applications and preferences have led me to use third
party encryption and to just forget about indexing what has to be encrypted.
I'm going to watching this thread and doing some research on the side.

I just wish I hadn't been so quick to stick BSD on that test box. But that's
a project for work that has waited too long as it is.

"apache255" wrote:

>
>
> "jimmuh" wrote:
>
> > Disclaimer: I have not investigated this issue myself.
> >
> > What makes you say that it appears that the contents of encrypted files /
> > folders are not being included in searches conducted in Vista. (Excuse me for
> > reformulating your question, but I do so to be sure that I am understanding
> > and properly representing your claim.)
> >
> > EFS is SUPPOSED to be transparent. That is to say that, if I happen to be
> > the authorized user (for the EFS-encrypted files) then any operation I
> > perform on those files should simply happen without any issue. However, if I
> > log in as a DIFFERENT user than the one who encrypted the files, then their
> > contents should, indeed, be off limits to me and to my search activities.
> >
> > "marc ochsenmeier" wrote:
> >
> > > Hi everybody,
> > >
> > > it really looks like as if encrypted files and folders (using the Windows
> > > built-in Encrypting File System - EFS) are not participating to the items
> > > that are searched using the built-in indexing engine. Can anyone please
> > > confirm this? Should this be confirmed, then I will use other crypting
> > > engine...
> > >
> > > Best regards,
> > > Marc Ochsenmeier
> > > www.propagating.net
> > >
> > > I got the same issue with RC1: encrypted files using EFS are not indexed at all, although I checked the box "index encrypted files" in the indexing tool menu. The only way to search for a file that is encrypted is to use the advances search feature amd check the box for non indexed, hidden and system files. Another issue that I have now is that after I encrypted the index location, the indexing service does not run anymore. I decrypted that but it wouldn't start again. The problem also is that unlike XP, you cannot enable or disable indexing manually using a windows service; you can only do it when prompted to do so in a search window. So what happens is that now I am prompted to turn indexing back on, but it has no effect.