Version Information

Plausible Deniability and Data Leak Protection 
 
For security reasons, when a hidden operating system is running, TrueCrypt ensures that all local 
unencrypted filesystems and non-hidden TrueCrypt volumes are read-only (i.e. no files can be 
written to such filesystems or TrueCrypt volumes).
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 Data is allowed to be written to any filesystem 
that resides within a hidden TrueCrypt volume (provided that the hidden volume is not located in a 
container stored on an unencrypted filesystem or on any other read-only filesystem). 
There are three main reasons why such countermeasures have been implemented: 
1. It enables the creation of a secure platform for mounting of hidden TrueCrypt volumes. 
Note that we officially recommend that hidden volumes are mounted only when a hidden 
operating system is running. For more information, see the subsection 
Security 
Requirements and Precautions Pertaining to Hidden Volumes
. 
2. In some cases, it is possible to determine that, at a certain time, a particular filesystem was 
not mounted under (or that a particular file on the filesystem was not saved or accessed 
from within) a particular instance of an operating system (e.g. by analyzing and comparing 
filesystem journals, file timestamps, application logs, error logs, etc). This might indicate 
that a hidden operating system is installed on the computer. The countermeasures prevent 
these issues.
3. It prevents data corruption and allows safe hibernation. When Windows resumes from 
hibernation, it assumes that all mounted filesystems are in the same state as when the 
system entered hibernation. TrueCrypt ensures this by write-protecting any filesystem 
accessible both from within the decoy and hidden systems. Without such protection, the 
filesystem could become corrupted when mounted by one system while the other system is 
hibernated. 
If you need to securely transfer files from the decoy system to the hidden system, follow these 
steps:
1. Start the decoy system.
2. Save the files to an unencrypted volume or to an outer/normal TrueCrypt volume.
3. Start the hidden system
4. If you saved the files to a TrueCrypt volume, mount it (it will be automatically mounted as 
read-only).
5. Copy the files to the hidden system partition or to another hidden volume.