systemd systemd-cryptsetup@.service 8 systemd-cryptsetup@.service systemd-cryptsetup Full disk decryption logic systemd-cryptsetup@.service /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-cryptsetup systemd-cryptsetup@.service is a service responsible for setting up encrypted block devices. It is instantiated for each device that requires decryption for access. systemd-cryptsetup@.service will ask for hard disk passwords via the password agent logic, in order to query the user for the password using the right mechanism at boot and during runtime. At early boot and when the system manager configuration is reloaded, /etc/crypttab is translated into systemd-cryptsetup@.service units by systemd-cryptsetup-generator8. In order to unlock a volume a password or binary key is required. systemd-cryptsetup@.service tries to acquire a suitable password or binary key via the following mechanisms, tried in order: If a key file is explicitly configured (via the third column in /etc/crypttab), a key read from it is used. If a PKCS#11 token is configured (using the pkcs11-uri= option) the key is decrypted before use. If no key file is configured explicitly this way, a key file is automatically loaded from /etc/cryptsetup-keys.d/volume.key and /run/cryptsetup-keys.d/volume.key, if present. Here too, if a PKCS#11 token is configured, any key found this way is decrypted before use. If the try-empty-password option is specified it is then attempted to unlock the volume with an empty password. The kernel keyring is then checked for a suitable cached password from previous attempts. Finally, the user is queried for a password, possibly multiple times. If no suitable key may be acquired via any of the mechanisms describes above, volume activation fails. systemd1, systemd-cryptsetup-generator8, crypttab5, cryptsetup8