For standard containers and other partitions, VeraCrypt uses 655,331 iterations of RIPEMD160 and 500,000 iterations of SHA-2 and Whirlpool by default (which is customizable by user to be as low as 16,000). While TrueCrypt uses 1,000 iterations of the PBKDF2- RIPEMD160 algorithm for system partitions, VeraCrypt uses either 200,000 or 327,661 iterations by default (which is customizable by user to be as low as 2,048), depending on the algorithm used.This was fixed in VeraCrypt in January 2016. An independent security audit of TrueCrypt released 29 September 2015 found TrueCrypt includes two vulnerabilities in the Windows installation driver allowing an attacker arbitrary code execution and privilege escalation via DLL hijacking.VeraCrypt is still capable of opening and converting volumes in the TrueCrypt format. The VeraCrypt development team considered the TrueCrypt storage format too vulnerable to a National Security Agency (NSA) attack, so it created a new format incompatible with that of TrueCrypt.The user can customize it to start as low as 2,048. By default they go through 200,000 to 655,331 iterations, depending on the underlying hash function used. It generates the header key and the secondary header key (XTS mode) using PBKDF2 with a 512- bit salt. VeraCrypt's block cipher mode of operation is XTS. The cryptographic hash functions available for use in VeraCrypt are RIPEMD-160, SHA-256, SHA-512, Streebog and Whirlpool.

For additional security, ten different combinations of cascaded algorithms are available: Version 1.19 stopped using the Magma cipher in response to a security audit. VeraCrypt employs AES, Serpent, Twofish, Camellia, and Kuznyechik as ciphers. VeraCrypt includes optimizations to the original cryptographic hash functions and ciphers, which boost performance on modern CPUs. Many security improvements have been implemented and concerns within the TrueCrypt code audits have been addressed. It was initially released on 22 June 2013.

VeraCrypt is a fork of the discontinued TrueCrypt project. It can also encrypt a partition or (in Windows) the entire storage device with pre-boot authentication. The software can create a virtual encrypted disk that works just like a regular disk but within a file. VeraCrypt is a free and open-source utility for on-the-fly encryption (OTFE).

Multi-licensed as Apache License 2.0 and TrueCrypt License 3.0

Download veracrypt 1.24