Re: Wanted: Secure-delete utility for Linux

Charles Cazabon (charlesc@hal.qcc.sk.ca)
Tue, 22 Dec 1998 10:52:22 -0600


On Tue, Dec 22, 1998 at 05:51:39PM +0100, Clifford Wolf wrote:
>
>>> Actually, it's all-bits-zero, all-bits-one, all-bits-zero.
>>
>> Hmmm I guess we need a /dev/one? (Actually not a bad thing to have)
>
> IMHO the name /dev/one would be a bad idea. Becouse this could mean an
> integer one which is 00000001 for 8-bit, 0000000000000001 for 16-bit, and
> so on.

Hmmm -- something like /dev/~zero would work, if you can stand non-
alphanumeric characters in your filenames.

> BTW: I think a good crypto filesystem is allways better than secure
> deletion, becouse with a crypto filesystem (i.e. crypto-loopback) you
> don't need to 'destroy' the data to make it useless for someone else.

Of course you're correct -- however, the U.S. DoD standards specify a secure
wipe as I described above, whether it was an encrypted filesystem or not.
Many U.S. government agencies require this before they will dispose of old
equipment. Besides, data which isn't there at all is inherently more secure
than data which is there, but encrypted.

Charles Cazabon

-- 
----------------------------------------------------
Charles Cazabon           <charlesc-linux@qcc.sk.ca>
Any opinions expressed are just that -- my opinions.
----------------------------------------------------

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