SDMEM(1)

📦 version 3.1.1, in nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable

💖 SDMEM 💖 (like, the secure memory wiper bestie)

okay so first things first, this is sdmem from the secure_deletion toolkit, and it's literally here to wipe your RAM so clean it's giving ✨nothing✨. no cap.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

sdmem [-f] [-l] [-l] [-v]

(yeah the double -l is not a typo, i'll explain, keep reading bestie 🫶)

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so picture this: sdmem is designed to delete data that might still be chilling in your memory (aka your RAM) in a secure way, so that thieves, law enforcement, or other threats can't recover it. lowkey iconic, highkey necessary. 💅

and here's the tea: with the new SDRAMs, data does not just wither away — it stays static in there, and extracting the necessary information is honestly easy. scary, right? 😭

the wipe algorythm is based on the paper "Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory" presented at the 6th Usenix Security Symposium by Peter Gutmann, one of the leading civilian cryptographers. yes, THE Peter Gutmann. we stan. 👑

the secure data deletion process of sdmem 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. (the special-est of values fr fr)
  • 5 random passes. /dev/urandom is used for a secure RNG if available.

like… that's so many passes. the memory is getting the full spa treatment. 🧖‍♀️

🎀 COMMANDLINE OPTIONS 🎀

  • -f — fast (and insecure mode): no /dev/urandom. so basically, she's speeding and she's not being careful about it. choose wisely. 💀
  • -l — lessens the security. Only two passes are written: the first with 0x00 and a final random one. it's giving "diet security." 🥤
  • -l — a second -l lessons the security even more: only one pass with 0x00 is written. yes, that's -l -l. one single pass. that's it. that's the whole wipe. live your truth i guess 🙈
  • -v — verbose mode. she'll tell you everything she's doing. main character energy, honestly. 🗣️

🌈 BEWARE 🌈

SLOW — Wiping the memory is very slow. You might use sdmem with the -ll option. (tip) ⏳🐌

like genuinely, bring a snack, bring a drink, maybe a whole personality change. it's gonna take a minute.

BETA! — sdmem is still beta. 🧪

she's in her beta era, okay? be nice to her.

🦋 BUGS 🦋

No bugs. There was never a bug in the secure_deletion package (in contrast to my other tools, whew, good luck ;-)

…not me being obsessed with this absolute flex. 💀✨

Send me any that you find. Patches are nice too :) 🫶

👑 AUTHOR 👑

van Hauser / THC <vh@thc.org>

(legend behavior, no notes 💜)

🍓 DISTRIBUTION 🍓

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

sdmem 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 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

(translation: it's free, it's open, and if it breaks, that's on you bestie, the GPL said so 💅)

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

srm (1), sfill (1), sswap (1)

the whole secure_deletion squad, iykyk 🧚

and that's the whole vibe, bestie 🎀 this page is SDMEM(1) from the General Commands Manual, and the package version is (C) 1997-2003 by van Hauser / THC — so yeah, a certified classic with a genuinely ancient-but-iconic date on it. slay forever. 💖✨🌈

📦 where this page comes from