Feature #5323

Document a GUI way to securely erase Flash media via Gnome Disks

Added by Tails 2013-07-18 07:39:05 . Updated 2019-08-29 08:51:37 .

Status:
Resolved
Priority:
Normal
Assignee:
Category:
Target version:
Tails_4.0
Start date:
Due date:
% Done:

0%

Feature Branch:
doc/16282-buster-doc
Type of work:
End-user documentation
Blueprint:

Starter:
1
Affected tool:
Deliverable for:

Description

As “pointed out in the forum”: -https://tails.boum.org//forum/Wiping_Flash_Media:_Problem_in_TAILS_Doc/- (dead link, sorry), former versions of our documentation on secure deletion, was wrongly stating that overwriting twice the available diskspace [on a USB or solid-state drive] is usually, but not always, sufficient to securely clean the drive.

This basically says that in order to securely delete a file from a USB you could delete the file and then the run "Wipe available diskspace" even if you have other files on the volume. Which is wrong according to the paper by Wei & al..

We could propose to wipe the entire device and then reformat it. But srm doesn’t seem to run on block devices: I get "Warning: /dev/sdc is not a regular file, rename/unlink only!". On the other hand shred seems to work as usual. It is included in Tails but doesn’t have a graphical interface.

So we cannot document a GUI procedure to truly wipe a USB stick at the moment.

Subtasks

Related issues

Related to Tails - Feature #8047: Document the wipe features of Disks Duplicate 2014-10-09
Related to Tails - Bug #10629: Improve GNOME Disks instructions Resolved 2015-11-24
Blocks Tails - Feature #16711: Core work 2019Q3 → 2019Q4: Technical writing Resolved 2016-01-08

History

#1 Updated by intrigeri 2013-10-04 09:08:24

  • Subject changed from wiping flash media to Better way to wipe Flash media
  • Starter set to No

#2 Updated by intrigeri 2014-09-22 11:44:05

  • Type of work changed from Upstream to Communicate

#3 Updated by sajolida 2016-01-15 19:11:57

  • related to Feature #8047: Document the wipe features of Disks added

#4 Updated by sajolida 2016-11-16 19:48:57

  • Assignee set to spriver
  • QA Check set to Info Needed

I tested GNOME Disks “Format Disk… → Erase” option on a USB stick and it indeed overwrite the entire device. So we might have a solution here. Still, we need to check whether doing one pass only (zeroes) is enough on flash media (reading the paper by Wei & al again as a start). And then adapt /doc/encryption_and_privacy/secure_deletion.html.

spriver: do you want to have a look?

#5 Updated by Anonymous 2017-06-29 09:04:58

  • Type of work changed from Communicate to End-user documentation

#6 Updated by Anonymous 2017-06-29 09:14:25

  • Subject changed from Better way to wipe Flash media to Document a GUI way to securely erase Flash media
  • Starter changed from No to Yes

Actually as this ticket here is referenced onhttps://tails.boum.org/doc/encryption_and_privacy/secure_deletion/index.en.html, I will close Feature #8047.

Next steps: document the Wipe feature of GNOME Disks. Document the difference with the currently advertised option to “wipe available disk space” using a right click in Nautilus.

Spriver: are you interested in working on this? If not, please reassign to sajolida so that we can see what should be done. Thanks!

#7 Updated by Anonymous 2017-06-29 09:17:37

  • Description updated

Previous part of description, for future reference but now unrelated:

Now that the plans for nautilus-wipe to be based on diskscrub are abandoned, the most sensible way to fix this would probably be:

  1. add an option to wipe with 3 random passes, rather than a mere zero one, to the udisks Format method
  2. add access to this feature from Palimpsest, which seems a more appropriate place to trigger destructive operations at the block device level than a Nautilus extension

Next thing to do: report this as wishlist tickets upstream.

-> I don’t think this has been done and probably our current options are well researched, so this is not part of this ticket anymore.

#8 Updated by Anonymous 2018-01-18 14:21:10

  • Assignee changed from spriver to sajolida
  • QA Check deleted (Info Needed)

Next steps are still: document the Wipe feature of GNOME Disks. Document the difference with the currently advertised option to “wipe available disk space” using a right click in Nautilus.

Unassigning from spriver as she has not commented on this ticket since 7 months. Sajolida: maybe somebody else is interested in working on this?

#9 Updated by sajolida 2018-05-28 14:17:46

  • Assignee deleted (sajolida)
  • Priority changed from Normal to Low

Not me.

#10 Updated by Anonymous 2018-08-19 10:51:48

  • related to Bug #10629: Improve GNOME Disks instructions added

#11 Updated by Anonymous 2018-08-19 10:52:03

  • related to Feature #15659: Document GNOME Disks for Debian, Linux, and manual upgrades added

#12 Updated by Anonymous 2018-08-19 10:52:20

  • related to deleted (Feature #15659: Document GNOME Disks for Debian, Linux, and manual upgrades)

#13 Updated by Anonymous 2018-08-19 10:52:53

  • Subject changed from Document a GUI way to securely erase Flash media to Document a GUI way to securely erase Flash media via Gnome Disks

#14 Updated by sajolida 2019-06-28 16:49:30

  • Status changed from Confirmed to Needs Validation
  • Assignee set to cbrownstein
  • Priority changed from Low to Normal
  • Target version set to Tails_4.0
  • Parent task set to Bug #16282
  • Feature Branch set to doc/16282-buster-doc

Done in 56e29049fb on the doc/16282-buster-doc branch.

@cbrownstein: You’ll review this anyway as part of Bug #16282 so I’m making this ticket a subtask.

#15 Updated by sajolida 2019-06-28 16:49:47

  • blocks Feature #16711: Core work 2019Q3 → 2019Q4: Technical writing added

#16 Updated by sajolida 2019-08-29 06:57:51

  • Status changed from Needs Validation to Fix committed
  • Assignee deleted (cbrownstein)

Reviewed as part of doc/16282-buster-doc.

#17 Updated by intrigeri 2019-08-29 08:51:37

  • Status changed from Fix committed to Resolved