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SMEM(1) 		     General Commands Manual			 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 Mag-
     netic and Solid-State Memory" presented at the 6th Usenix	Security  Sympo-
     sium 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 available.

     *	    27 passes with special values defined by Peter Gutmann.

     *	    5 random passes. /dev/urandom is used for a secure RNG if available.

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 op-
	    tion. (tip)

     BETA!  smem is still beta.

BUGS
     No bugs. There was never a bug in the secure_deletion package (in	contrast
     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 un-
     der 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 MERCHANTABILITY or FIT-
     NESS 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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