Alternatives to host live mode

Patrick · August 15, 2024, 5:10pm

This is up to Qubes. Not Whonix or Kicksecure.

No code by Whonix or Kicksecure can help users to achive live mode with Qubes.

It needs development on Qubes side. Here are the Qubes tickets.

github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues

implement live boot by porting grub-live to Qubes - amnesia / non-persistent boot / anti-forensics

opened 11:17AM - 18 Apr 19 UTC

adrelanos

T: enhancement help wanted C: other privacy P: default

https://github.com/Kicksecure/grub-live [0] is a tiny, simple package with a few… dependencies (available from packages.debian.org) that can be installed on Debian [1] hosts which adds a live boot menu entry, which means, the operating system gets booted non-persistently. All changes go to RAM instead of disk. It might not be perfectly amnesic as per [1], [2] but it might be a huge step towards amnesic Qubes? Not tested for anti-forensics yet but should be doable to test. [4] Could grub-live be ported to Qubes? Am I overlooking something? //cc @Algernon-01 (original author of grub-live) * [0] https://forums.whonix.org/t/whonix-live-mode/3894/121 * [1] And likely Debian based and other grub based distributions. * [2] https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/1562 * [3] https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/1563 * [4] https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Dev/Technical_Introduction#Forensics

So no, I don’t think this is possible with Qubes for users at time of writing.