VeraCrypt includes optimizations to the original cryptographic hash functions and ciphers, which boost performance on modern CPUs.

[9] For additional security, ten different combinations of cascaded algorithms are available:[10] The cryptographic hash functions available for use in VeraCrypt are BLAKE2s-256, SHA-256, SHA-512, Streebog and Whirlpool.

[14] QuarksLab conducted an audit of version 1.18 on behalf of the Open Source Technology Improvement Fund (OSTIF), which took 32 man-days.

[15][25][26] On the same day, IDRIX released version 1.19, which resolved major vulnerabilities identified in the audit.

As with TrueCrypt, the VeraCrypt documentation instructs users to follow various security precautions to mitigate these attacks,[30][31] several of which are detailed below.

VeraCrypt stores its keys in RAM; on some personal computers DRAM will maintain its contents for several seconds after power is cut (or longer if the temperature is lowered).

[37] It is true that after achieving either unrestricted physical access or administrative privileges, it is only a matter of time before other security measures in place are bypassed.

[47] The Windows versions of VeraCrypt can create and run a hidden encrypted operating system whose existence may be denied.

On Microsoft Windows, pipelined read and write operations (a form of asynchronous processing)[49]: 63  to reduce the performance hit of encryption and decryption.

The mixed VeraCrypt license is widely but not universally considered to be free and open source.

In US v. Burns, the defendant had three hard drives, the first being a system partition which was later found to contain caches of deleted child pornography and manuals for how to use VeraCrypt, with the second being encrypted, and the third having miscellaneous music files.

Even though the defendant admitted to having child pornography on his second hard drive, he refused to give the password to the authorities.

It was later found that another suspect had educated the defendant into using encryption to hide his photos and videos of child pornography.