Secure delete with python

Roel Schroeven rschroev_nospam_ml at fastmail.fm
Mon Sep 6 16:40:50 EDT 2004


Ville Vainio wrote:

>>>>>>"Benjamin" == Benjamin Niemann <b.niemann at betternet.de> writes:
> 
> 
>     >> fp = open(path, "wb")
>     >> for i in range(os.path.getsize(path)):
>     >> fp.write("*")
>     >> fp.close()
>     >> os.unlink(path)
> 
>     Benjamin> and there is no guarantee that this actually overwrites
>     Benjamin> the old file. The filesystem may choose to write the new
>     Benjamin> content at another location of the disk, leaving the
>     Benjamin> original data untouched.
> 
> Seriously? What OSen are known for doing this? I'd had thought that if
> the file size is unchanged, the data is always written over the old
> data...

VMS, I believe, has a versioning system built into the file system. Each 
time a file is saved, a new version is created while the old versions 
are still there. All from hearsay though, I have never used or seen VMS 
myself.

-- 
"Codito ergo sum"
Roel Schroeven



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