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Old 19th March 2017
Frice Frice is offline
Real Name: Eric
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Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: Sweden
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Quote:
Originally Posted by e1-531g View Post
I also don't see use case. Well, maybe if somebody has SSD, after some time he/she could sell it somebody and want to make sure that there would be any traces of useful data. SSDs have relatively large space reserved for relocations, because memory cells can be destroyed by frequently writing to them. There could be relocated data, which can't be destroyed by simply zeroing by dd, but probably can be accessed if somebody would hack SSD's firmware.
I can think about a few use cases where it can by useful if somebody stores it on Pendrive.
1. Somebody steals your laptop. You don't want to disclose your secrets to this person. The thief probably would not bother to steal Pendrive, so your data is safe from disclosure.
2. You are crossing the border. Border agent wants your password to the encrypted partition. You don't want to disclose information. If your secret is a passphrase, you can give it to them, but you won't.
If your secret is on Pendrive stored somewhere else (i.e. your lawyer has it), you can't give it to the border agent.
You have a higher probability of success to make through border when you can't provide this secret compared to when you can but just don't want to.
Thanks for the input. This is not a laptop that will be stolen &/or pass a border. And the plan is to get some solution, so I can have the keys here or elsewhere, meaning if I pass that border, they won't be available.

Quote:
SSDs have relatively large space reserved for relocations, because memory cells can be destroyed by frequently writing to them. There could be relocated data, which can't be destroyed by simply zeroing by dd, but probably can be accessed if somebody would hack SSD's firmware.
I'm not sure, but using hdparm(8) (unfortunately, Linux only) you can reset the disk (aka “factory reset”).
“… all its cells will be marked as empty …” »»
Some Rescuedisks have that feature bundled. Also saw this guide to about over-provisioning. But a reset should do it just to null the blocks/cells.
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