Commands using shred (11)

  • securely erase unused blocks in a partition

    This command securely erases all the unused blocks on a partition. The unused blocks are the "free space" on the partition. Some of these blocks will contain data from previously deleted files. You might want to use this if you are given access to an old computer and you do not know its provenance. The command could be used while booted from a LiveCD to clear freespace space on old HD. On modern Linux LiveCDs, the "ntfs-3g" system provides ReadWrite access to NTFS partitions thus enabling this method to also be used on Wind'ohs drives. NB depending on the size of the partition, this command could take a while to complete. Show Sample Output


    8
    # cd $partition; dd if=/dev/zero of=ShredUnusedBlocks bs=512M; shred -vzu ShredUnusedBlocks
    mpb · 2009-06-21 14:17:22 7
  • How to secure delete a file

    Instead, install apt-get install secure-delete and you can use: -- srm to delete file and directory on hard disk -- smem to delete file in RAM -- sfill to delete "free space" on hard disk -- sswap to delete all data from swap


    6
    shred -u -z -n 17 rubricasegreta.txt
    0disse0 · 2010-01-31 15:24:54 0
  • Erase to factory a pendrive, disk or memory card, and watch the progress


    6
    sudo shred -vz -n 0 /dev/sdb
    bugmenot · 2012-08-06 22:37:44 0
  • Securely destroy data (including whole hard disks)

    GNU shred is provided by the coreutils package on most Linux distribution (meaning, you probably have it installed already), and is capable of wiping a device to DoD standards. You can give shred any file to destroy, be it your shell history or a block device file (/dev/hdX, for IDE hard drive X, for example). Shred will overwrite the target 25 times by default, but 3 is enough to prevent most recovery, and 7 passes is enough for the US Department of Defense. Use the -n flag to specify the number of passes, and man shred for even more secure erasing fun. Note that shredding your shell history may not be terribly effective on devices with journaling filesystems, RAID copies or snapshot copies, but if you're wiping a single disk, none of that is a concern. Also, it takes quite a while :)


    5
    shred targetfile
    sud0er · 2009-04-28 19:57:43 5
  • Safe Delete

    remove file that has sensitive info safely. Overwrites it 33 times with zeros


    2
    shred -n33 -zx file; rm file
    copremesis · 2009-05-08 19:15:41 3
  • Realy remove file from your drive

    This command remove a file from your filesystem like the normal rm command but instead of deleting only the inode information this also delete the data that was stored on blocks /!\ warning this may be long for large files Show Sample Output


    1
    function rrm(){ for i in $*; do; if [ -f $i ]; then; echo "rrm - Processing $i"; shred --force --remove --zero --verbose $i; else; echo "Can't process $i"; type=$(stat "$1" -c %F); echo "File $i is $type"; fi; done;}
    thelan · 2010-06-10 22:40:27 0
  • securely overwrite a file with random junk, rename it to clear the directory entry and finally delete it

    Show Sample Output


    0
    shred -vzu /tmp/junk-file-to-be-shredded
    mpb · 2009-06-18 12:00:19 3
  • Destroy file contents after encryption

    Make sure the file contents can't be retrieved if anyone gets ahold of your physical hard drive. With hard drive partition: gpg --default-recipient-self -o /path/to/encrypted_backup.gpg -e /dev/sdb1 && shred -z /dev/sdb1 WARNING/disclaimer: Be sure you... F&%k it--just don't try this.


    0
    gpg -e --default-recipient-self <SENSITIVE_FILE> && shred -zu "$_"
    h3xx · 2011-07-24 05:51:47 0
  • Completly blank a disk

    Instead of zeroing the filesystem, this command overwrites N times (default is 3) the disk content, making data recovery much harder. The command accepts many more options


    0
    shred --iterations=N /dev/sdaX
    bibe · 2012-01-23 20:40:36 1
  • Shred an complete disk, by overwritting its content 10 times

    Shred can be used to shred a given partition or an complete disk. This should insure that not data is left on your disk


    -2
    sudo shred -zn10 /dev/sda
    dcabanis · 2009-04-30 13:02:43 3
  • Delete a file securely by overwriting its contents


    -5
    shred -v filename
    techie · 2013-05-07 14:58:17 0

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find files in a date range
Find files in a specific date range - in this case, the first half of last year. -newermt = modification time of the file is more recent than this date GNU find allows any date specfication that GNU date would accept, e.g. $ find . -type f -newermt "3 years ago" ! -newermt "2 years ago" or $ find . -type f -newermt "last monday"

exec chmod to subfiles
Using `-exec cmd {} +` causes find to build the command using all matching filenames before execution, rather than once per file.

Get AWS temporary credentials ready to export based on a MFA virtual appliance
You might want to secure your AWS operations requiring to use a MFA token. But then to use API or tools, you need to pass credentials generated with a MFA token. This commands asks you for the MFA code and retrieves these credentials using AWS Cli. To print the exports, you can use: `awk '{ print "export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=\"" $1 "\"\n" "export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=\"" $2 "\"\n" "export AWS_SESSION_TOKEN=\"" $3 "\"" }'` You must adapt the command line to include: * $MFA_IDis ARN of the virtual MFA or serial number of the physical one * TTL for the credentials

Create a pdf version of a manpage
Quick and dirty version. I made a version that checks if a manpage exists (but it's not a oneliner). You must have ps2pdf and of course Ghostscript installed in your box. Enhancements appreciated :-)

A command to post a message and an auto-shortened link to Twitter. The link shortening service is provide by TinyURL.
A command to post a message and an auto-shortened link to Twitter. The link shortening service is provided by TinyURL.

Show drive names next to their full serial number (and disk info)
As of this writing, this requires a fairly recent version of util-linux, but is much simpler than the previous alternatives. Basically, lsblk gives a nice, human readable interface to all the blkid stuff. (Of course, I wouldn't recommend this if you're going to be parsing the output.) This command takes all the fun out of the previous nifty pipelines, but I felt I ought to at least mention it as an alternative since it is the most practical.

"Pretty print" $PATH, show directories in $PATH, one per line with replacement pattern using shell parameter expansion
Can be used to create path alias. From: https://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/bash-aliases-mac-centos-linux-unix.html. #9

Belgian banking "structured communication"
Derived from current time down to minutes.

Reload all sysctl variables without reboot
Reload all defined kernel variables from /etc/sysctl.conf(if no parameter after -p is given) without the old myth "Ah, you'll need to reboot to apply those variables"...

recursive remove all htm files

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