Tomb is an open-source Linux CLI tool that creates and manages encrypted volumes using dm-crypt and LUKS. It wraps the standard kernel encryption stack in a simple shell script, with optional steganographic key hiding and FIDO2 support.
Official website dyne.org/software/tomb
Our take
Tomb’s key strength is simplicity of implementation: the main program is a readable shell script built on top of dm-crypt and LUKS, which are the same primitives that underpin most Linux disk encryption. The optional steganographic key storage (hiding the key file inside a JPEG) is a genuinely useful operational security feature for adversarial scenarios. It is Linux-only and requires root access to mount volumes, so it does not fit casual desktop use. Reach for Tomb if you want auditable, composable encryption containers on Linux without adding new cryptographic dependencies.
GitHub at a glance
dyne/Tomb
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License
GPL-3.0
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Tomb license, in plain English
GPL-3.0 Strong copyleft
Free to use and modify, but anything you distribute that is built on it must also be open under the same license.
Permits
- Commercial use
- Modification
- Distribution
- Patent use
- Private use
Requires
- Disclose source
- Same license
- State changes
- License and copyright notice
Does not provide
- Liability cover
- Warranty
Why it matters: Strong copyleft keeps every distributed version open. A vendor cannot fold this into a closed product and ship it without releasing their changes.
Plain-language summary of the project's license, not legal advice. Read the full text for the exact terms.