zfsify

Temporary boot key validation — 2026-10-04

Disposable ARM64 QEMU/HVF guest: Ubuntu 24.04.5, UEFI, 1 GiB RAM, 25 GiB disk. No production machines were changed.

• Full 50/50 conversion with a plaintext ZFSBootMenu load-key hook completed. The guest booted into encrypted ZFS automatically, without console input.
• General root, preservation and encryption verifiers passed. File hashes, accounts, SSH keys, ACLs, xattrs, hard links and sparse files were retained. The pool scrub reported no errors.
• Executed the passphrase-change procedure in docs/encryption.md, rebuilt the Ubuntu initramfs and removed the plaintext hook from the mounted ESP. On reboot, ZFSBootMenu waited for input. Entering the new passphrase booted Ubuntu successfully; the encryption and preservation verifiers passed and a new recovery snapshot was created. The rotation used zfs change-key, without copying data.
• Recorded the final encryption TUI inside the guest. Its temporary key contains 16 alphanumeric characters and requires saving/retyping. The generated key in this UI recording is disposable and was never used on a production server.
• 17 encryption tests cover explicit CLI/environment consent, secret redaction, TUI mismatch/cancellation, saved-key confirmation, resume reuse and literal shell metacharacters in hook keys. Existing 15 strategy and 9 progress tests, shell syntax, focused ShellCheck and whitespace checks pass.

The full conversion was started before the final key-entry interface revisions; its boot-hook installation and encrypted boot path match the final implementation. The final supplied-key/generate-and-retype interface was tested separately in the same guest and in controlling-terminal tests. The recordings contain real guest terminal output, with long idle gaps shortened in the boot recordings.

This round did not repeat BIOS/DigitalOcean or test the proposed phone web UI. Earlier DigitalOcean final-console validation remains outstanding. The phone workflow is research documentation, not a shipped service. Test VM disks and keys are removed after verification; only nonsecret test evidence is retained.

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