[Cryptography] LUKS on ATA versus on SSD

[Christian Huitema]

On 1/1/2026 4:36 PM, Jon Callas wrote:
> Modern rotating media does not actually write "bits" onto the media. They write an analog (audio) waveform that derives from a pseudorandom function (and what's everyone's favorite function? That's right, AES!) and the internal software of the disk uses dead-reckoning to find the right position -- there aren't even geometric sectors any more! All one's intuition about how it works are just abstractions of a mystery religion and none of us here have been inducted into its arcane ways.

Does that mean that if one knows the AES key used to randomize that 
data, one could create block with interesting patterns, "decrypt" them 
with that key, "write" them to disk, and in the process create a problem 
for disk management?

-- Christian Huitema