root kit

[Robert E. Seastrom]

I am unaware of any (modern) disks which can nuke their servo tracks
under software control via the normal interface.  All bets are off if
you have access to the diag port.

DBAN just writes patterns over the entire surface of the disk,
including the MBR or GPT table, so it's off to repartition land for
you when it's all done.

-r

Alex Fraser <beatnic at comcast.net> writes:

> Just what I need for my home  security project.  I do hope it don't wipe out
> the low level format and ruin the disk?
> Robert E. Seastrom wrote:
>
>           DBAN is your friend.  [[http://www.dban.org/]]
>
> -r
>
> Robert Stratton [[<bob at stratton.net>]] writes:
>
>                     That will work for most of them, as long as you take care to overwrite the Master Boot Record, as many hide in there these days. If I were going to try that, I'd do the reformatting from a computer booted off of read-only media, like a "live CD."
>
> It is not certain however as there's at least one proof-of-concept of a rootkit that survives disk wipes. 
>
> [[http://www.tomshardware.com/news/bios-virus-rootkit-security-backdoor,7400.html]]
>
> --Bob S.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
>                               I'm working on security for my home network. I often buy second hand
> computers that come with hard drives. Of course I don't run the old
> operating system that was on the computer, but I have been wondering
> if when you format the drive does it get rid of any installed virus,
> worms or root kits?
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