Secure File Delete Program with an Interface

[kurut]

I am looking for a program to delete the files securely and in a way impossible to recover back. The ones I found for LM were all command line software and none had a interface.

What I'm searching for is something lets me just right click to folders/files to shred without any command line frustration.

You may tell me that command-line terminal thing is the essence of the Linux, I totally understand. But the reason I'm using LM is not because it's amazing; I use it because I escaped from Win10

Thanks in advance for your help.

[jimallyn]

Install the Nautilus file manager, and install the nautilus-wipe extension to add the wipe function to the right click menu.

[Mute Ant]

"delete the files securely and in a way impossible to recover back" Well you can't do that in software. Linux has no control over where a store puts the data or how many copies there are. The only 'impossible to recover' method of data deletion is physical destruction of the storage medium.

[Cosmo.]

First question is, is this a magnetic drive or a SSD? In the latter case you physically cannot, regardless with or without GUI.

[kurut]

First question is, is this a magnetic drive or a SSD? In the latter case you physically cannot, regardless with or without GUI.

I have both SSD and magnetic drive and looking for a solution for both. I know its not possible to delete something %100 secure, but still looking for an optimum solution.

[thx-1138]

...if you are on Mate / Caja, this will give you a nice right-click "Wipe this file" option:
https://github.com/Fred-Barclay/Caja-Wipe
It runs

srm -rv

on the background:
http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/pre ... srm.1.html

Edit: Here's also a ridiculously quick'n'dirty pseudo-gui script...again, for Caja
(no idea myself how Cinnamon / Nemo handle scripts, sorry...maybe others can contribute / explain)
You can place it under '/home/your-user-name/.config/caja/scripts'...

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash

title="Secure Delete"

srm -rv "$@" | zenity --text-info \
	--title "$title" \
	--width=640 \
	--height=480
exit 0

[InChrist]

Install the Nautilus file manager, and install the nautilus-wipe extension to add the wipe function to the right click menu.

Thank you. I have installed both - even if I use Nemo File Manager normally.
I do not find the wipe function when right clicking on a file in Nautilus.

Do I need a restart before it would work?

[jimallyn]

Do I need a restart before it would work?

I don't know for sure. I don't think I ever actually used it myself, just got that from somebody else. But I would think with something like that that hooks into other applications and the system, you would at least have to restart the desktop. So I would probably just go ahead and reboot. I sent myself an email to remind myself, and I will try to give it a try tonight.

[InChrist]

In order to wipe the free space on the hard disk I installed Nautilus and the Nautilus wipe extension. Then I started to wipe the available disk space.

As this tooks a while I worked in the browser. I was not able to save to the disk. “No free disk space” Although there is much disk space left. I guess it was reserved by the wipe program during the process. Also I could not use Nemo during this time or the system monitor ...
I wanted to stop the wiping as it was about half way, by clicking cancel. This did not work out. I tried to close Nautilus and several times the wipe program with the x window button. Then I just made a reboot.

Now I cannot log in anymore. This pops up:

MDM could not write to your authorization file. This could mean that you are out of disk space or that your home directory could not be opened for writing. In any case it is not possible to log in.

So be more careful than I was.
I wil ask for help in the fitting forum

[zootsocket]

Double Commander includes a Wipe command, activated by Alt-delete. The number of passes is definable in the Configuration menu.

[karlchen]

Note on InChrist's post: The announced thread can be found here: Can not log in anymore - MDM could not write to authorization file.

[InChrist]

Can I wipe the unused hard disk space with double commander? Is it dangerous also?

Is it allright to have two file managers open at the same time?

[phd21]

Hi "InChrist", and Anyone Else Interested in this,

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

It would help to know more about your system setup. If you run "inxi -Fxzd" from the console terminal prompt, highlight the results, copy and paste them back here, that should provide enough information.

There are a few posts on securely deleting files and folders already in this forum and elsewhere.

First install, or make sure these are installed, "secure-delete" and "wipe" from the Software Manager or Synaptic Package Manager (SPM) or the console terminal command prompt

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install secure-delete wipe

Most existing Linux Mint file managers can have a secure delete option added to their right click menu by adding that from the "Synaptic Package Manager (SPM)". I use Linux Mint KDE (17.3 and 18.1) and have added it to that using KDE options.

Certain applications also provide secure delete options like "Bleachbit", * PeaZip, etc...
Qwipe - secure file delete (works as an app on any Linux Mint system) can be integrated with Dolphin and Konqueror file managers.
https://www.linux-apps.com/content/show ... tent=91031


"Double Commander" per user "zootsocket" does indeed work worth "wipe" and other secure delete commands can be added easily in their configuration (shortcuts), nice ...

A Powerful Dual-Pane File Manager `Double Commander` New Update For Ubuntu/Linux Mint
http://www.noobslab.com/2017/01/a-power ... nager.html

There are two versions of the file manager "double commander" a "GTK" and "QT" version.
To install this using the PPA method, open a console terminal, type in, or copy & paste, each line below one by one:
Click "Select All" above command, right click the highlighted command, select Copy (or Ctrl+Insert), click in the console terminal window, and right click paste (or Shift+Insert), repeat for each command.

Code: Select all

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:alexx2000/doublecmd

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get update

Double-Commander GTK version:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install doublecmd-gtk

Double-Commander Qt version:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install doublecmd-qt

FYI: How to: Delete your Data Securely on Linux - good read - click reference links and read those too.
https://ssd.eff.org/en/module/how-delet ... rely-linux


Hope this helps ...

DoubleCommander_FileManager_SecureDelete_Wipe1sm.jpg

qwipe_SecureDelete1sm.jpg

[InChrist]

Thank you.
What I have found out (also by your answers) and tested partly.

Secure delete – erase – wipe for files and folders
This does not work for SDDs, flash drives, flash sticks, as their disk management stores the file in places which can not be addressed by other tools directly. Solid state hard drives: wear levelling means you cannot overwrite securely. Instead you either encrypt the entire volume and dispose of the key to wipe, or you destroy the device.
Windows: Install Eraser, open Explorer, right click on file or folder, eraser, erase.
Also erase available (free) space on all storage media: right click on the storage media … have not tested this yet if it does not destroy the system.
Linux: Install Nautilus Wipe, open the Nautilus file manager, right click on file or folder, Wipe
Android: Install Android Eraser, start it, free version wipes up to 10 MB a day


More on Wipe, erase

In general

New hard drives: no technology currently exists that can read after even one overwrite.
But still: It is difficult, if not impossible, to securely delete both individual files and free space.
Office might sometimes even keep temporary files containing the contents of the file. On a Linux or other *nix system, OpenOffice may keep as many records as Microsoft Office, and a user's shell history file may contain commands that include the file's name, even though the file has been securely deleted. In practice, there may be dozens of programs that behave like this.
It's hard to know how to respond to this problem. It is safe to assume that even if a file has been securely deleted, its name will probably continue to exist for some time on your computer. Overwriting the entire disk is the only way to be 100% sure the name is gone. Some of you may be wondering, "Could I search the raw data on the disk to see if there are any copies of the data anywhere?" The answer is yes and no. Searching the disk (e.g. by using a command like grep -ab /dev/ on Linux) will tell you if the data is present in plaintext, but it won't tell you if some program has compressed or otherwise coded references to it. Also be careful that the search itself does not leave a record! The probability that the file's contents may persist is lower, but not impossible. Overwriting the entire disk and installing a fresh operating system is the only way to be 100% certain that records of a file have been erased.

Wipe unused (available) disk space on hard disks

This does not work for SDDs, flash drives, flash sticks, as their disk management stores the file in places which can not be addressed by other tools directly. Solid state hard drives: wear levelling means you cannot overwrite securely. Instead you either encrypt the entire volume and dispose of the key to wipe, or you destroy the device.

With shred
Have not tested it yet, only read about it.
In the terminal: If wiping a whole drive is inconvenient, randomizing all the free space in a partition is a good second-best. sudo shred -v /dev/sdX This will overwrite all the blocks on the device with random data three times, the -v flag is for verbose and will print the current progress.
You can add the option -n to only do this N times, to save time on large capacity devices. This might take a while, depending on the size of your external hard drive (I think it takes twenty minutes or so for my 4 GB flash drive). You can also set all bits to zero after the last iteration by adding the option -z, I prefer to do this. sudo shred -v -n1 -z /dev/sdX
Advantage of shred over dd in this scenario: I have a faulty disk that I need to return to the vendor for an exchange. dd halts at the first bad block, and fails to clobber the rest (unless I painfully use skip=... to jump ahead each time it stops). shred ignores write errors and happily continues in this case.

Fill a partition by copying movies from a DVD (or iso-files?)
Read about it in a forum, have not tested it yet.

With Secure-Delete
In the terminal: sfill to wipe free space from your home folder. sudo sfill -lv /home/dave
l for only 2 random passes, z eroes instead the last random pass.
Is in the repository. Have not tested it yet.

Bleachbit
Somebody writes: I was reading a rather heated discussion about Bleachbit on another forum. At least I know how to minimize the hazards of using it now. Is in the repository. Have not tested it yet.

NOT with Nautilus wipe
Do not use wipe available disk space with Nautilus wipe (in Nautilus) as it messes up something and the system has to be installed new. Timeshift is not able to restore it. Is in the repository.


Whole disk, drive or partition, flash drive

With Disk
Is installed in Linux Mint 18.3 already. When formatting with it, use the option delete with overwriting with zeroes for the regarding partition.

Fill a partition by copying movies
...to randomize the whole drive.

With Secure-Delete
In the terminal: sfill to wipe free space from your home folder. sudo sfill -lv /home/dave
l for only 2 random passes, z eroes instead the last random pass.
Is in the repository. Have not tested it yet.


Files and folder on hard drives

This does not work for SDDs, flash drives, flash sticks, as their disk management stores the file in places which can not be addressed by other tools directly. Solid state hard drives: wear levelling means you cannot overwrite securely. Instead you either encrypt the entire volume and dispose of the key to wipe, or you destroy the device.

With Nautilus wipe
Right click in Nautilus
Do not use wipe available disk space as it crashes something and the system has to be installed new. Timeshift is not able to restore it.
Nautilus wipe and Nautilus (both needed) are in the repository

With Double Commander
includes a Wipe command, activated by Alt-delete. The number of passes is definable in the Configuration menu. Not in the repository

With Secure-Delete
In the terminal: srm -rlz /home/kl/Documents/aaa, see also skills/ICT/delete...png
r ecursive, l only 2 random passes, z eroes instead random in last filling - is in the repository

Bleachbit
Somebody writes: I was reading a rather heated discussion about Bleachbit on another forum. At least I know how to minimize the hazards of using it now. Is in the repository. Have not tested it yet.

Peazip
Not in standard repository. Not tested yet.