[TriLUG] OT: Linux Friendly Laptop Forsale

Aaron S. Joyner aaron at joyner.ws
Wed Jun 9 18:51:19 EDT 2004


When in doubt...

count=0
while [ $count < 10 ]; do
    dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/hda
     count=`expr $count + 1`
done;
# Take that, NSA!

Aaron J.


Brian Daniels wrote:

>On Wed, Jun 09, 2004 at 01:40:35PM -0400, Ben Pitzer wrote:
>  
>
>>Not exactly.  Bits can still be picked up from various inodes,
>>unfortunately, often enough to piece together an entire file.  Basically,
>>the process you describe would have to be done about 6 or 7 times to have
>>serious efficacy.
>>    
>>
>
>By what?  You have written zeros to the whole disc surface (omitting 
>bad/spare block regions, head/track alignment issues, etc).  If you read 
>from that sector the drive is going to give you a zero.  We're not talking 
>about writing within the context of a filesystem, we're just scribbling 
>across the whole user-accessible surface.  There won't be an inode 
>structure left to recover bits from.
>
>Again, this is assuming the normal drive electronics.  If someone attaches 
>a spectrum analyzer to the drive heads then they can look for data 
>directly.  But this is not likely to be a problem unless your drives are 
>known to contain very interesting/valuable data that would make them worth 
>the effort.
>
>
>--Brian
>
>
>
>
> -- 
>Question with boldness even the existence of a god;
>because if there be one he must approve of the
>homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear.
>
>--Thomas Jefferson, Aug. 10, 1787
>
>
>Brian Daniels                  bitmage at bellsouth.net
>      http://www.eviloverlord.net
>
>  
>




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