From 1d424bd197e4798832d89c0b0913e84612d30d96 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Djeex <jxdemiceli@consulteex.com>
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2025 16:35:14 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] Script backup luks header

---
 content/5.nonsense/1.bash.md | 81 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 80 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/content/5.nonsense/1.bash.md b/content/5.nonsense/1.bash.md
index f704422..3118abc 100644
--- a/content/5.nonsense/1.bash.md
+++ b/content/5.nonsense/1.bash.md
@@ -144,4 +144,83 @@ So, in conclusion, I:
 - Learned that Qwen on a RTX 5090 is more coherent than ChatGPT-4o on server farms (not even mentioning “normal” ChatGPT)
 - Learned that even with 100TB of storage, monitoring it would’ve alerted me much earlier to the 12TB of duplicates lying around
 
-Catch you next time for more exciting adventures.
+## Backup of LUKS Headers for Encrypted Disks/Volumes
+---
+
+I recently realized that having just the password is not enough to unlock a LUKS volume after a failure or corruption. I learned how to dump the LUKS headers from disks/volumes and to use the serial numbers along with partition names to accurately identify which header corresponds to which disk/partition (I have 10 of them!).
+
+After struggling to do this manually, I asked Qwen3 (an LLM running on my RTX 5090) to create a script that automates the listing and identification of disks, dumps the headers, and stores them in an encrypted archive ready to be backed up on my backup server.
+
+This script:
+* Lists and identifies disks with their serial numbers
+* Lists partitions
+* Dumps headers into a secured folder under `/root`
+* Creates a temporary archive
+* Prompts for a password
+* Encrypts the archive with that password
+* Deletes the unencrypted archive
+
+```bash
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# Directory where LUKS headers will be backed up
+DEST="/root/luks-headers-backup"
+mkdir -p "$DEST"
+
+echo "🔍 Searching for LUKS containers on all partitions..."
+
+# Loop through all possible disk partitions (including NVMe and SATA)
+for part in /dev/sd? /dev/sd?? /dev/nvme?n?p?; do
+    # Skip if the device doesn't exist
+    if [ ! -b "$part" ]; then
+        continue
+    fi
+
+    # Check if the partition is a LUKS encrypted volume
+    if cryptsetup isLuks "$part"; then
+        # Find the parent disk device (e.g. nvme0n1p4 → nvme0n1)
+        disk=$(lsblk -no pkname "$part" | head -n 1)
+        full_disk="/dev/$disk"
+
+        # Get the serial number of the parent disk
+        SERIAL=$(udevadm info --query=all --name="$full_disk" | grep ID_SERIAL= | cut -d= -f2)
+        if [ -z "$SERIAL" ]; then
+            SERIAL="unknown"
+        fi
+
+        # Extract the partition name (e.g. nvme0n1p4)
+        PART_NAME=$(basename "$part")
+
+        # Build the output filename with partition name and disk serial
+        OUTPUT="$DEST/luks-header-${PART_NAME}__${SERIAL}.img"
+
+        echo "🔐 Backing up LUKS header of $part (Serial: $SERIAL)..."
+
+        # Backup the LUKS header to the output file
+        cryptsetup luksHeaderBackup "$part" --header-backup-file "$OUTPUT"
+        if [[ $? -eq 0 ]]; then
+            echo "✅ Backup successful → $OUTPUT"
+        else
+            echo "❌ Backup failed for $part"
+        fi
+    fi
+done
+
+# Create a timestamped compressed tar archive of all header backups
+ARCHIVE_NAME="/root/luks-headers-$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S).tar.gz"
+echo "📦 Creating archive $ARCHIVE_NAME..."
+tar -czf "$ARCHIVE_NAME" -C "$DEST" .
+
+# Encrypt the archive symmetrically using GPG with AES256 cipher
+echo "🔐 Encrypting the archive with GPG..."
+gpg --symmetric --cipher-algo AES256 "$ARCHIVE_NAME"
+if [[ $? -eq 0 ]]; then
+    echo "✅ Encrypted archive created: ${ARCHIVE_NAME}.gpg"
+    # Remove the unencrypted archive for security
+    rm -f "$ARCHIVE_NAME"
+else
+    echo "❌ Encryption failed"
+fi
+```
+
+**Don’t forget to back up `/etc/fstab` and `/etc/crypttab` as well!**