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Re: ext2/ext3, sync/async filesystems, data hygiene



Tom Vier <tmv@comcast.net> wrote:

> I'm the author of wipe, btw (the one at wipe.sf.net). Meta-data journaling
> alone isn't a problem (except for wiping filenames), but full data
> journaling is, and some journaled fs (like reiser) don't necessarily place
> data on the same blocks when you overwrite (log-structured and versioning
> filesystems, especially). To be sure you overwrite the old blocks, you have
> to overwrite the whole partition.

But that's not usually practical!


> That's why it's best to encrypt sensitive data in the first place. That way,
> there's no plain text left around.

True, but if you want to edit a file (with vi, gimp, openoffice or
anything else) you have to save it then encrypt it then wipe it. A
file you can't edit is not a useful file!


> If you do use my util, get the latest WIP version from sourceforge. There's
> a couple minor bug fixes.

Thanks for the information. Keep up the good work!



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