nwipe is a Linux computer program used to securely erase data. It is maintained by Martijn van Brummelen and is free software, released under the GNU General Public License 2.0 licence. The program is a fork of the dwipe program that was previously incorporated in the DBAN secure erase disk.[2][3][4][5][6]

Nwipe
Developer(s)Martijn van Brummelen
Stable release
v0.37[1] / May 10, 2024; 6 months ago (2024-05-10)
Repository
Operating systemLinux
Platformx86
Available inEnglish
TypeSecure erase
LicenseGPLv2
Websitegithub.com/martijnvanbrummelen/nwipe/

nwipe was created to allow dwipe to be run outside DBAN, using any host distribution. It utilizes a simple text-based ncurses user interface or can be run directly from the command line. It is available as an installable package in the repositories of many Linux distributions, including Debian and Ubuntu.[3][6][7][8][9][10]

nwipe was first released as version 0.17 on 20 October 2014.[11]

Erasing methods

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nwipe can be set to use a number of different patterns, through the method selection:[6]

  • Default - DoD Short - The United States Department of Defense 5220.22-M[12] short 3 pass wipe (passes 1, 2 & 7).
  • Zero Fill - Fills the device with zeros, in a single pass.
  • RCMP TSSIT OPS-II - Royal Canadian Mounted Police Technical Security Standard, OPS-II
  • DoD 5220.22M - The United States Department of Defense 5220.22-M full 7 pass wipe.
  • Gutmann Wipe - Peter Gutmann's method for the Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory.
  • PRNG Stream - Fills the device with a stream from the PRNG.
  • Verify only - Only reads the device and checks that it is all zero.
  • HMG IS5 enhanced - Secure Sanitation of Protectively Marked Information or Sensitive Information

It uses two types of pseudo random number generators:[6]

Employment

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nwipe has also been incorporated in free software rescue toolkit packages, such as the All in One - System Rescue Toolkit, Parted Magic, ShredOS and SystemRescue.[3][6][13][14]

References

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  1. ^ "Release v0.37 · martijnvanbrummelen/nwipe". GitHub.
  2. ^ Rennie-Waldock, Nathan. "Unofficial fork of DBAN". GitHub. Archived from the original on 26 December 2020. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
  3. ^ a b c Beverley, Andrew (March 2010). "Nwipe". Archived from the original on 7 February 2018. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
  4. ^ Vanbrummelen, Martijn (6 December 2017). "nwipe". github.com. Archived from the original on 26 December 2020. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  5. ^ Free Software Foundation (2020). "Nwipe". directory.fsf.org. Archived from the original on 5 March 2020. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  6. ^ a b c d e Hunt, Adam (25 December 2020). "How-To Erase with nwipe" (PDF). Full Circle magazine. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 December 2020. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
  7. ^ Canonical Ltd. (2019). "nwipe - securely erase disks". manpages.ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 23 April 2021. Retrieved 23 April 2021.
  8. ^ Launchpad (website) (15 March 2020). "nwipe package in Ubuntu". launchpad.net. Archived from the original on 16 October 2013. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  9. ^ Debian (2020). "Package: nwipe (0.25-1)". packages.debian.org. Archived from the original on 5 March 2020. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  10. ^ Techworld Staff (10 April 2018). "Best disk wiping tools for hard drives, smartphones and SSDs". techworld.com. Archived from the original on 26 August 2018. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  11. ^ van Brummelen, Martijn (20 October 2014). "0.17". github.com. Archived from the original on 26 December 2020. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  12. ^ "U.S. National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (DoD 5220.22-M)". dtic.mil. United States Department of Defense National Industrial Security Program. 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 August 2008.
  13. ^ Vreeland, Paul (2 January 2018). "All in One - System Rescue Toolkit". Archived from the original on 26 December 2020. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  14. ^ Garcia, Pablo (26 April 2011). "Wipe Hard Drive Clean Using Free Software". Geeky Projects. Archived from the original on 6 June 2017. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
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