Tools

• SHRED from the GNU coreutils (Fileutils) see http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/ or http://www.gnu.org/software/fileutils/doc/manual/html/fileutils.html#shredYou can use shred to securely delete simple files but also entire partitions or harddisks. Shred uses by default 25 overwriting passes, you can increase and decrease the number of overwriting passes. Therefore shred is faster than wipe (see above).

  For example securely deleting all data on the first IDE harddrive:

  	# shred -v  /dev/hda.
  

• WIPE from Sourceforge see http://wipe.sourceforge.net Similar to shred you can use wipe to securely delete simple files but also entire partitions or harddisks. Wipe uses by default 35 overwriting passes according to the Paper by Peter Gutmann http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/ pgut001/pubs/secure_del.html. Wipe is slower than shred, because it uses by default more overwriting passes and therefore it is more secure.

  For example securely deleting the Windows 98 Swap File from a mounted (FAT) windows partition using 35 overwriting passes:

  	# wipe -D  /mnt/windows/win386.swp
  

• SRM from the THC-Secure Deletion Tools see http://www.thc.org/releases.php?q=delete

  srm does secure deletion of files

• SFILL from the THC-Secure Deletion Tools see http://www.thc.org/releases.php?q=delete

  sfill does a secure overwriting of the unused disk space on the harddisk. sfill is the only UNIX tool I know which is able to clean the unused (free) disk space of a partition/harddisk.

  You can also use the "dd" command to overwrite the unused disk space with zero or random bytes.

• SSWAP from the THC-Secure Deletion Tools see http://www.thc.org/releases.php?q=delete

  sswap does a secure overwriting and cleaning of the swap filesystem.

• SMEM from the THC-Secure Deletion Tools see http://www.thc.org/releases.php?q=delete

  smem does a secure overwriting of unused memory (RAM)

The THC-Secure Deletion Tools use by default 38 overwriting passes based on the Paper by Peter Gutmann http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/ pgut001/pubs/secure_del.html, you can decrease the number of passes.