166
votes
Accepted
Wiping an SSD with Parted Magic seemed too quick
Modern SSDs use a technology called SED which allows instant erasure. It works by transparently encrypting the entire drive and keeping the key on the drive. ATA Secure Erase is then implemented by ...
- 66.3k
155
votes
Have I properly destroyed my SSD?
This approach to data destruction is theatrical and has little grounding in reasonable threat models.
The most effective policy to ensure safe and responsible disposal of SSDs is:
Use full-disk ...
- 134k
51
votes
Accepted
Does the destruction of sensitive information limit the choice of hard drives to non-flash based devices?
Data destruction is a technique of last resort. If you are planning to use a new storage device, you should use full disk encryption. This allows you to either destroy the encrypted master key or ...
- 66.3k
18
votes
How secure is hardware Full disk encryption (FDE) for SSD's
TL;DR: Do not use hardware encryption on any storage medium no matter whether it's a thumb drive, an HDD, or an SSD! That's a really, really bad idea!
Hardware manufacturers are know to have included ...
- 2,330
17
votes
Accepted
Should I trust that the Android factory reset actually erases my data?
All android 7+ devices are enrolled with File Based Encryption (FBE) that encrypts /data partition from first boot. FBE keys are bound to TEE and user screen lock authentication. On factory reset, TEE ...
- 6,731
16
votes
Have I properly destroyed my SSD?
If you really want to be sure the data is unrecoverable, take the drive to a place that does document and hard drive shredding. They'll put the drive through a machine that will shred it into hundreds ...
- 22.1k
13
votes
Does the destruction of sensitive information limit the choice of hard drives to non-flash based devices?
Tl;dr: Because you can never trust all storage drives to securely wipe themselves, you must plan as if none of your drives can be securely wiped.
Placing a dependency on the type of media is not the ...
- 34.1k
12
votes
Have I properly destroyed my SSD?
It appears that heat is unreliable to erase data on memory chips (the flame of a butane lighter, like yours, burns at under 1430 °C).
However, the nail in the chips will prevent them to be readable ...
- 10.5k
10
votes
How to erase as much as possible an SSD without ATA Secure Erase?
I don't know why you say that SSDs implement ATA Security Erase improperly. Modern ones implement it using SED (which uses an encryption key known to the drive and stored in non-volatile memory for ...
- 246
10
votes
Accepted
Is GNU shred relevant for SSDs?
The Gutmann method is not useful for any modern device, whether a hard drive or a solid state drive. The fact that you cannot safely wipe a solid state drive due to wear leveling is irrelevant. For ...
- 66.3k
10
votes
Have I properly destroyed my SSD?
I joined from SO just to suggest this (also was unable to just upvote Polynomial's fantastic post above, so I figured I'd just add another way to destroy it successfully).
Scrub rust off of some iron ...
- 209
8
votes
Does the ATA Trim command irrecoverably delete data on an SSD?
The trim command does not delete the data but simply marks a block of data as currently unused by the OS. It will probably return the block as zero if asked by the OS (although I don't know if this is ...
- 196k
8
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to take an image of the firmware of HDD and SSD?
There is a standard to write firmware, the ATA DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE command and the segmented version (transfer protocol 3), but there is no standard for reading the firmware back. As another answer ...
- 66.3k
8
votes
Have I properly destroyed my SSD?
@Polynomial is right that software full-disk encryption, enabled from the beginning of the drive's lifetime, is the best way to protect your data. (I don't trust ATA Secure Erase—it's too hard to ...
- 81
7
votes
Accepted
Password managers and SSD wear and tear
TL;DR:
Full-disk encryption: do not blindly trust what is repeated on the Internet. While there is some technical truth behind these claims they may be incomplete or not match current technologies. ...
- 19.2k
7
votes
How does full disk encryption cater for overprovisoned disk space in flash devices and can this result in data leakage?
FDE does not need to know anything about overprovisioning. If the partition is encrypted, no plain-text will ever be written anywhere. Blocks reserved for wear leveling will either have un-initialized ...
- 52.8k
7
votes
Accepted
How does full disk encryption cater for overprovisoned disk space in flash devices and can this result in data leakage?
If you encrypt the disk from the start, when you first start using it, then this isn't a problem. All data you write is encrypted and remapped sectors just lead to encrypted data being remanent on the ...
- 134k
7
votes
Accepted
How to securely erase the free space on an SSD in windows 10?
Assuming that the SSD has a properly implemented TRIM function, then Free Space should already be wiped for you, this is what TRIM does as a side effect of preparing deleted/unallocated files for ...
- 8,108
6
votes
How BIOS password stored internally?
Is password hashed before saving to CMOS?
Depends on the BIOS.
Which hash algorithm is used?
Depends on the BIOS.
How much storage is dedicated for passwords?
Depends on the BIOS.
What is ...
- 1,240
5
votes
Accepted
HDD password vs Bitlocker
There's no practical way to inspect the Samsung disk's implementation of AES-256. The same is true of the Bitlocker algorithm, but the software implementation has a few advantages:
Microsoft can ...
- 7,525
5
votes
SSD Erasure verification
Because of the way SSDs manage writes, it is not possible to truly verify that data has been erased without modifying the low-level firmware on the drive itself. Below are the features SSDs have (wear ...
- 209
5
votes
Is there a real-world example of SSD data recovery?
Recovery is only possible under certain conditions:
have an older SSD with no TRIM support
or
have Windows XP (as it does not support TRIM) or another old OS with no TRIM support
or
you connect the ...
- 8,879
5
votes
Accepted
Does full disk encryption offer mitigation in the case of the firmware of an SSD being compromised?
Partially. Full disk encryption, when done through software (e.g. LUKS), means that a compromised storage device will only ever see encrypted data, never decrypted data. It will never have access to ...
- 66.3k
5
votes
Accepted
Does formatting an SSD securely delete all data?
In theory, yes.* In reality, it depends on the SSD's implementation of TRIM.
TRIM is an optimization. Its actual implementation is left up to the manufacturer. Currently, most SSD manufacturers will ...
- 66.3k
4
votes
Integrity of an SSD forensic image
The "solution" is to thoroughly document your imaging procedure, including pictures, chain of custody, write blockers, and so on, so that if/when someone does call your methodology into question, you ...
- 66
4
votes
Is there a real-world example of SSD data recovery?
My very first thought:
Nobody can be absolutely sure that something has not happened, so the only acceptable answer to your question would be an example. I'm trying to explain my thoughts on why you ...
- 498
4
votes
Accepted
How to physically destroy an SSD at home?
The most practical option for physically destroying an SSD is to simply use a hammer. If you can, open the SSD and locate the data-bearings chips and make sure that each chip is sufficiently destroyed....
- 176
4
votes
ATA Secure Erase is too fast
This is most likely entirely normal, because of how modern SSDs are designed.
When you use ATA secure erase it is not wiping the whole disk. It is removing the encryption keys on the drive controller, ...
- 724
3
votes
How do I verify that my FDE/SED Opal SSD is indeed encrypted
You cannot independently verify the encryption function of OPAL drives because:
the encryption and password-derivation happens transparently: you either have a password-protected
disk which doesn't ...
- 325
3
votes
How to erase as much as possible an SSD without ATA Secure Erase?
Short answer: Disabling the HPA and resetting the DCO only unhides previously reserved sectors on the drive, and does not involve any secure erasure itself. It only makes these sectors available to ...
- 31
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible