Journaling File Systems

When a file-hosted VeraCrypt container is stored in a journaling file system (such as NTFS or Ext3), a copy of the VeraCrypt container (or of its fragment) may remain in the free space on the host volume. This may have various security implications. For + example, if you change the volume password/keyfile(s) and an adversary finds the old copy or fragment (the old header) of the VeraCrypt volume, he might use it to mount the volume using an old compromised password (and/or using compromised keyfiles using an + old compromised password (and/or using compromised keyfiles that were necessary to mount the volume before the volume header was re- encrypted). Some journaling file systems also internally record file access times and other potentially sensitive information. + If you need plausible deniability (see section +Plausible Deniability), you must not store file-hosted VeraCrypt containers in journaling file systems. To prevent possible security issues related to journaling file systems, do one the following:

Use a partition/device-hosted VeraCrypt volume instead of file-hosted.
Store the container in a non-journaling file system (for example, FAT32).