ext4 encrypted dir becomes sickish after 4-5 days

From: Toralf FÃrster
Date: Wed Sep 14 2016 - 05:44:11 EST


I do run a hardened stable Gentoo Linux server w/ kernel 4.7.3-ahrdened-r1 where I use an ext4fs directory /var/lib/tor in the following way :

scp ~/.cryptoSalt user@host:/tmp
cat /tmp/.cryptoPass | ssh user@host 'sudo -u tor e4crypt add_key -S $(cat /tmp/.cryptoSalt) /var/lib/tor && sudo /etc/init.d/tor start; rm /tmp/.cryptoSalt'

Works fine after reboot.

But after 4 days or so a restart of the service "tor" fails with messages like :

Sep 14 11:27:10.000 [warn] Could not open "/var/lib/tor/data/keys/secret_id_key": Required key not available
Sep 14 11:27:10.000 [warn] Error reading private key from "/var/lib/tor/data/keys/secret_id_key"
Sep 14 11:27:10.000 [err] Error loading private key.
Sep 14 11:27:10.000 [err] Error initializing keys; exiting
Sep 14 11:27:10.000 [warn] Couldn't open "/var/lib/tor/data/state.tmp" (/var/lib/tor/data/state) for writing: Required key not available
Sep 14 11:27:10.000 [warn] Unable to write state to file "/var/lib/tor/data/state"; will try again later

No way to get it repaired other than rebooting the machine.

Any hints ?

--
Toralf
PGP: C4EACDDE 0076E94E, OTR: 420E74C8 30246EE7