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SMEM(1)								       SMEM(1)

NAME
       smem - secure memory wiper (secure_deletion toolkit)

SYNOPSIS
       smem [-f] [-l] [-l] [-v]

DESCRIPTION
       smem  is	 designed  to  delete  data which may lie still in your memory
       (RAM) in a secure manner which can not  be  recovered  by  thiefs,  law
       enforcement or other threats.  Note that with the new SDRAMs, data will
       not wither away but will be kept static - it is	easy  to  extract  the
       necessary  information!	 The  wipe  algorythm  is  based  on the paper
       "Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic  and  Solid-State	 Memory"  pre‐
       sented  at  the	6th Usenix Security Symposium by Peter Gutmann, one of
       the leading civilian cryptographers.

       The secure data deletion process of smem goes like this:

       *      1 pass with 0x00

       *      5 random passes. /dev/urandom is used for a secure RNG if avail‐
	      able.

       *      27 passes with special values defined by Peter Gutmann.

       *      5 random passes. /dev/urandom is used for a secure RNG if avail‐
	      able.

COMMANDLINE OPTIONS
       -f     fast (and insecure mode): no /dev/urandom.

       -l     lessens the security. Only two passes  are  written:  the	 first
	      with 0x00 and a final random one.

       -l     -l  for  a  second time lessons the security even more: only one
	      pass with 0x00 is written.

       -v     verbose mode

BEWARE
       SLOW   Wiping the memory is very slow. You might use smem with the  -ll
	      option. (tip)

       BETA!  smem is still beta.

BUGS
       No  bugs. There was never a bug in the secure_deletion package (in con‐
       trast to my other tools, whew, good luck ;-) Send me any that you find.
       Patches are nice too :)

AUTHOR
       van Hauser / THC <vh@thc.org>

DISTRIBUTION
       The  newest version of the secure_deletion package can be obtained from
       http://www.thc.org

       smem and the secure_deletion package is (C) 1997-2003 by van  Hauser  /
       THC (vh@thc.org)

       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
       under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published  by  the
       Free Software Foundation; Version 2.

       This  program  is  distributed  in the hope that it will be useful, but
       WITHOUT ANY  WARRANTY;  without	even  the  implied  warranty  of  MER‐
       CHANTABILITY  or	 FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General
       Public License for more details.

SEE ALSO
       srm (1), sfill (1), sswap (1)

								       SMEM(1)

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