Security Basics mailing list archives
RE: Hard Drive data security
From: Atom 'Smasher' <atom () suspicious org>
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2004 00:04:49 -0400 (EDT)
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256 On Tue, 5 Oct 2004, Paris E. Stone wrote:
I was informed that /dev/null just wrote zeros to the drive and that a better way was multiple passes using random:dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/had or maybe /dev/random Not positive, so many *nixes with their own ways of doing things. But basically /dev/urandom writes ones and zeros in random fashion.
==========================typically, on systems that have them, /dev/random is "true" random and /dev/urandom is a CSPRNG.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSPRNGwhat makes /dev/urandom better than /dev/random for wiping a disk is that it can generate output a *lot* faster.
if a few passes over a disk from /dev/urandom isn't good enough, use a sledgehammer (and safety glasses).
...atom _________________________________________ PGP key - http://atom.smasher.org/pgp.txt 762A 3B98 A3C3 96C9 C6B7 582A B88D 52E4 D9F5 7808 ------------------------------------------------- "According to Business Week, the average CEO [Chief Executive Officer] made 42 times the average blue-collar worker's pay in 1980, 85 times in 1990 and a staggering 531 times in 2000." -- AFL-CIO 'Executive Paywatch' -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.3.6 (FreeBSD) Comment: What is this gibberish? Comment: http://atom.smasher.org/links/#digital_signatures iQEcBAEBCAAGBQJBZMBnAAoJEAx/d+cTpVci7lUH/i///plDVNUEbCxbhlTkPeaj CdLm8g+530Ro9FR0I67co60UBLywCfHkQPFGMG/32SQXkoZJPWD89Jz/VcqfzmwV x/P9HnSXWxKp9CoNVJKuOFmhKy3aiqtpjct1aF3POR7lBg7xfoJxo0m86ArGDIjX +fo5Fe7tEwkVeb1YHmekin8vc66hYXtvImLI7/LKqc7KHQ/+vbE4uJ3Tsfllo40E fa60jB07D56x6voTgXrj4Sha/BDMcN6iI/D4h2HKZrL6coOqbdRQemp+DN0xXETq VOwR8JcITKzVzjv23fEtWCAw6vEigBa7VJTvmMAPJ9LyOpcw5htpqpxyWsYsawY= =7ZEx -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Current thread:
- Re: Hard Drive data security, (continued)
- Re: Hard Drive data security creative (Oct 04)
- Re: Hard Drive data security xyberpix (Oct 04)
- RE: Hard Drive data security Kristján Hreinn Bergsson (Oct 05)
- RE: Hard Drive data security xyberpix (Oct 05)
- Re: Hard Drive data security Ansgar -59cobalt- Wiechers (Oct 06)
- Re: Hard Drive data security Atom 'Smasher' (Oct 07)
- RE: Hard Drive data security xyberpix (Oct 05)
- Auditing a Win2K box xyberpix (Oct 07)
- Re: Auditing a Win2K box Marco Bellini (Oct 07)
- Re: Auditing a Win2K box Josh Mills (Oct 07)
- RE: Hard Drive data security Paris E. Stone (Oct 06)
- RE: Hard Drive data security Atom 'Smasher' (Oct 07)
- Re: Hard Drive data security Ansgar -59cobalt- Wiechers (Oct 07)
- Re: Hard Drive data security tony tony (Oct 12)
- RE: Hard Drive data security David Gillett (Oct 13)
- RE: Hard Drive data security D. Weiss (Oct 14)
- Re: Hard Drive data security Kirk Schafer (Oct 15)
- Re: Hard Drive data security Ghaith Nasrawi (Oct 15)
- RE: Hard Drive data security ssaehrig (Oct 15)
- Re: Hard Drive data security GuidoZ (Oct 15)
- Re: Hard Drive data security GuidoZ (Oct 15)
- RE: Hard Drive data security Chris Carter (Oct 18)