Shredding user account?

j0eh4x · 02-10-2011, 06:37 PM

I'm running linux mint and I would like to switch to root, shred my main user account/home folder and then create a new account... is this possible? or do I need to do a full reinstall? if it is possible if someone could provide the steps that'd be great

mjmwired · 02-10-2011, 07:40 PM

Why not just create a new user account first?

# man useradd

No full re-install is needed.

jschiwal · 02-10-2011, 08:02 PM

You would want to do just as mjmwired suggested. Use the admin tools to create a new user. Pay attention to the group membership of the first user, which is the administrator allowed to use "sudo" and the administrator tools. Test the new user's capabilities before deleting the first user.

If it is only the username you want to change, you can edit /etc/passwd and rename the home directory and save yourself a lot of work.

j0eh4x · 02-11-2011, 10:37 AM

actually I was looking to do a secure delete of all files under that account, i know just adding a new user and then erasing the old one isnt that

repo · 02-11-2011, 10:40 AM

Quote:

I was looking to do a secure delete of all files under that account,

Create the new account, delete the old account, delete the old /home/user directory.
If you really have things to hide, reinstall, and reformat the partition.

Kind regards

Noway2 · 02-11-2011, 12:14 PM

There is a secure delete package with a tool called SRM (secure remove) (link). There has been debate over time regarding its effectiveness and whether or not there is a need for this level of "shredding" with current file systems. I personally use it when I want to take extra caution to get rid of something. It works by over-writing the sectors with random and specially patterned garbage to make recovery extra difficult.

anomie · 02-14-2011, 10:54 PM

SRM is probably easiest (especially if it handles recursion for you). Other options include some carefully crafted find(1) + shred(1) or dd(1) commands, e.g.:

Code:

# find /home/baduser -type f -exec shred {} \;
# rm -r /home/baduser

Be careful with that. Don't run it unless you want to irretrievably blow everything away under /home/baduser.