Need to create a program to....

[insolentone2]

I am trying to create a program that can be booted from a cd, and do all of the following:

Load a working OS from Disk
Run a "Wipe" program to erase all the HDDs on the system (not format, need a 3 pass wipe)
Open a hex editor to view the sectors and be able to manually verify that the drive is wiped.

I know how to do all of these individually, but not sure how to get them all together to load onto one CD.

I know there's a linux "Wipe" program, and I know you can run them from a liveCD, and I like the cursehex editor, but I need a way to make this all load and run from a cd without installing each manually.

Any clues or suggestions?

[GregBrannon]

There are Open Source Recovery and/or Troubleshooting CDs that come with the minimal OS and some of the tools you mentioned. I suggest you start with one of those, add the other software to the CD that you need to do your wiping and checking, and then write a script to automate the process after the recovery disk boots.

It should be pretty simple, but if you need more help, come back with specific requirements and scripting problems.

[insolentone2]

Just need to figure out what those recovery/troubleshooting cds are.

[GregBrannon]

Google "linux recovery cd" for a page (and more) of possibilities.

[Rubberman]

So, basically, you want a "wipe system" disc. Talk about pointing the gun at your own head! Anyway, it is possible. You will need to edit the /etc/rc.local (usually a link to /etc/rc.d/rc.local) script, and add your shell code there to wipe the system hard drives. You probably want to start with something as suggested by DougBrannon.

[insolentone2]

Exactly. Want to wipe all drives of all types in a system and be able to verify that it is done. Thank you. I will take a look into this.

[Rubberman]

When you get this CD working, I would suggest a REALLY big label on the disc to the effect "WARNING! This disc will melt down your computer! DO NOT BOOT unless you REALLY want to experience global nuclear destruction!"

[insolentone2]

Well, that's what my company does, we wipe HDDs.. So if I see a HDD.. I want it wiped! just trying to find a better way of doing it other than paying per drive, or using a program that cannot Hex view HDDs over 500 GB. I think this still might be over my head...

[gnuuser]

I use d-ban to wipe the disk
they are then forensically sterile

the iso for it is just over 2 meg in size
it uses the mersiene twister (3 passes of 12 loops) and a final pass to blank and verify the disk (the drive is overwritten a total of 37 times)
far exceeding D.O.D. requirements
((D.O.D. security requirements only call for the drive to be written over 7 times))
it will also test the disk and display if it has errors
you can download the iso here

About DBAN | Darik's Boot And Nuke


when I wipe the drives if d-ban shows errors I usually do not reuse the drive
as it will have stability issues later

[insolentone2]

2 major problems with d-ban. the no go on that is that i have to manually verify it myself, and the biggie is that the person who created d-ban also created e-ban. e-ban is the commercial version of the program that he created for my company's biggest competitor. So... they refuse to use anything created by them. kinda sucks.

also, DOD only requires a 3 pass wipe, the new standard is 7 pass. Time is a major issue, the faster i can turn the systems the better.