{"id":495,"date":"2009-04-14T20:33:55","date_gmt":"2009-04-14T20:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anti-forensics.com\/blog\/?p=495"},"modified":"2024-04-14T22:43:10","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T22:43:10","slug":"disk-wiping-one-pass-is-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anti-forensics.com\/blog\/disk-wiping-one-pass-is-enough\/","title":{"rendered":"Disk Wiping: One Pass is Enough"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Hard Drive and File Wiping<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Update:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>As there seems to be a lot of people still do not understand what a full disk wipe with one pass is, I\u2019ve written a newer article on this. It demonstrates with screenshots, what happens to data after a single pass wipe.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Read that article: <em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/disk-wiping-one-pass-is-enough-part-2-this-time-with-screenshots\">anti-forensics<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many people are under the impression that hard drives need to be wiped with multiple passes to prevent recovery of data. This is simply untrue with modern hard drives. According to the National Institute for Standards and Technology, \u201cStudies have shown that most of today\u2019s media can be effectively cleared by one overwrite.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You may be confused between disk wiping and file wiping and deletion. Wiping a hard drive involves using software or a hardware device to completely write over every bit of a hard drive. This will prevent the recovery of nearly all data on that hard drive. There are methods to \u201crecover\u201d some things which I will explain in a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">File wiping involves using software to completely write over the contents of a file. The entry for that file in areas such as the file allocation table is usually removed as well. Wiping files is better than pressing the delete key on your keyboard but remnants of these now wiped files can still be found in other places on the hard drive. This is especially true if the file is copied back and forth between volumes, has been cached to the disk from RAM and numerous other operations done by the operating system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Regular file deletion does not really delete the contents of a file. On a Windows XP system this includes choosing a file and pressing the delete key to move it to the recycle bin. As well as the files emptied from the recycle bin and files deleted by holding down shift while pressing delete to bypass the recycle bin. Think of your hard drive as a book. The book has a table of contents with chapters which represent files. The only way to find chapters (data) is through the table of contents. When a file is deleted its entry in the table of contents is removed, leaving the data in that chapter in the book but no actual reference to where it is in the table of contents. In reality, something similar happens on the hard drive. Those leftover contents will eventually be written over as the space they take up is needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">So why are there so many recommendations for multiple passes during disk wiping?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some recommend physically destroying a hard drive or writing to it 3, 7 and even 25 times as the only reliable methods of getting rid of data. This really is not the case. Data is stored magnetically and are represented by 1\u2032s and 0\u2032s. In older hard drives it is possible to view previous states that these magnetic areas existed in. Such as a 1 used to be a 0. This is done with an electron microscope in the examples that I\u2019m aware of. Even though this is possible, it would still be nearly impossible to get enough correct readings to put together a document, picture or anything else. There is currently no public example of this method actually returning any useful results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Modern hard drives are even more efficient, making it harder to read what state bits were previously in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Data Destruction Methods<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The simplest form of data destruction is simple&nbsp;<strong>overwriting&nbsp;<\/strong>of the entire hard drive. As mentioned above, wiping a modern hard disk once is enough to prevent recovery of data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another simple method of data \u201cdestruction\u201d is&nbsp;<strong>encryption<\/strong>. Encrypting a hard disk with full disk encryption will effectively render that data unreadable as if it had been overwritten with random characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Degaussing&nbsp;<\/strong>is one of the best but most expensive methods. It involves using hardware which renders previous data on a hard disk unreadable by changing the magnetic alignment of areas of the hard disk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another sure-fire method is&nbsp;<strong>physical destruction&nbsp;<\/strong>to the platters inside of the hard drive. This can be done by smashing, grinding and shredding them. You can burn them and dip them in corrosive acid as well. Essentially, anything that can cause total destruction to the platters will destroy the data on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you\u2019re in the habit of hording copyrighted material that does not belong to you on opitical storage media such as CDs and DVDs then the quickest way to destroy this data is in the microwave. In today\u2019s world, there is really no need to horde pirated data on optical media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is much easier and safer to store it on encrypted hard disks. However, if you ever find yourself in a situation that involves federal agents beating down your door, you may want to throw your stash in the microwave. However, there\u2019s always that awkward situation where you have to explain why you have fifty microwaved DVDs and CDs in your microwave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Disk Wiping Software<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve heard of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dban.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">DBAN or Darik\u2019s Boot and Nuke<\/a>. Most people who work in IT have. This is because it works and it is very effective. You can pop the CD in, go through a few menu\u2019s and then leave the machine running while DBAN does all the work. It can wipe every hard disk connected to the system in succession. There are options to do more than one pass, which you should avoid unless you don\u2019t mind waisting your time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another method I use quite a bit is to just hook a drive up to a Linux system or pop a bootable Live CD in the machine and boot into a Linux environment to use the \u201cDD\u201d command. It can be as simple as this:&nbsp; dd if=\/dev\/zero of=\/dev\/[DISK HERE]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Remember to read the man page on DD if you plan on using it. There is also DCFLDD which can perform the same actions and more. DCFLDD has been geared towards computer forensics and security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For file level wiping I\u2019m a fan a&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20120902011743\/http:\/\/www.jetico.com\/bcwipe.htm\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jetico\u2019s BCWipe<\/a>. The software is highly customizable and different wiping options can be setup to run at different times. It can wipe free space or unallocated space on a hard disk which is where older \u201cdeleted\u201d files reside. This will prevent recovery of data using forensics and data recovery software from unallocated space. It will also wipe file slack. Data is split between clusters on the hard disk. Files are rarely the perfect size to always fill every cluster up, so what is leftover after the end of that file in a cluster is file slack. It can contain remnents of previous files. It can also wipe and clean old file entries, the swap file, recently used file lists and many other things including custom locations. Lets just say that if BCWipe is used correctly, it can really make a computer forensics examination a pain in the ass and probably render any examination of the drive irrelevant depending on the type of evidence that needs to be collected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Don\u2019t limit yourself to just this software. There is a lot of file level wiping software out there. Some free and some not so much. The reason I have listed BCWipe is that I personally use it and find it very reliable and effective. Another bit of free software that I find useful is&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ccleaner.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CCleaner<\/a>, which is very similar to BCWipe. You must turn on actual overwriting of files manually within the settings of the program. I use it alongside BCWipe to cover a larger area of temp files, recent file lists and other areas history and artifacts may be lurking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A great method of confirming that your hard drive has been fully wiped is to open the physical disk with a hex editor like WinHex and confirm that the wiping pattern matches what you\u2019ve chosen. I personally just use zero\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">In conclusion\u2026<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you have any comments, suggestions or ideas please comment. Share the names of any software you use as well. If you have developed your own software or want to and would like to promote it then think about&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/anti-forensics.com\/forum\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">creating an account on the anti-forensics forum<\/a>&nbsp;to post a topic about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many people are under the impression that hard drives need to be wiped with multiple passes to prevent recovery of data. This is simply untrue with modern hard drives. According to the National Institute for Standards and Technology, \u201cStudies have shown that most of today\u2019s media can be effectively cleared by one overwrite.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,22],"tags":[73,80,78,51,77,72,74,79,75,81],"class_list":["post-495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anti-forensics","category-digital-forensics","tag-bcwipe","tag-ccleaner","tag-dcfldd","tag-dd","tag-degaussing","tag-disk-wiping","tag-erase-files","tag-hard-drive","tag-hdd","tag-wipe-files-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Disk Wiping: One Pass is Enough - Anti-Forensics.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Many people are under the impression that hard drives need to be wiped with multiple passes to prevent recovery of data. 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