19.3.4. Setting up emergency passphrases

In some circumstances (such as traveling for business) it is impractical for system administrators to work directly with the affected systems, but users still need access to their data. In this case, volume_key can work with passphrases as well as encryption keys.

During the system installation, run:

volume_key --save /path/to/volume -c /path/to/ert --create-random-passphrase passphrase-packet

This generates a random passphrase, adds it to the specified volume, and stores it to passphrase-packet. It is also possible to combine the --create-random-passphrase and -o options to generate both packets at the same time.

If a user forgets the password, the designated user runs:

volume_key --secrets -d /your/nss/directory passphrase-packet

This shows the random passphrase. Give this passphrase to the end user.