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                                 Presents...



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 плллллллп     плллп    плллллллллп пллп   пллп  плп      пллп     плллллллллп

            The Ultimate Utility for 100% Reliable Data Security

                                Version 1.0



                                Written  By

     ллллллм млллллл млллллм оллн мллллллм млллллм ллллллл млллллм ллллллм
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     ллллллп плллллл плллллп оллн лл лл лл лл   лл   олн   плллллп лл  плл
                               Phalcon/Skism


                             Dedicated to Laura








About this program:
-------------------

    Every hacker has something lying around on his computer that he doesn't
want anyone else to see.  It could be the cracked password file for a local
college Unix, or it could be a collection of the CORE newsletters.  Maybe
it's nothing more incriminating than his secret PGP keyring.  Whatever it
is, it's something he wants to keep secret.  Absolutely, 100% secret.  In
most cases, that secrecy can be obtained through encryption.  However, some
days, encryption just isn't enough, and the information has to be destroyed.
Fast.  Reliably.  And without drawing a lot of attention from "visitors".

    There have been many programs written to overwrite files for security
purposes, but none that I've ever seen were really suited to the purpose of
nuking data secretly, quickly, and with no human interaction.  So, I sat
down and wrote OveRite.  What makes this one so different?  See for yourself:

Features:
---------

    ў SPEED!  OveRite uses a buffer size of 64k to overwrite files.  This
      means fewer writes per file, which means VERY FAST wiping.
      (On my 15ms IDE cached drive, it took out a 500k file in about 2
      seconds - and 1 meg in 77 different files in under 10 seconds)

    ў PRE-DETERMINED TARGET FILE LIST:  OveRite has the unique ability to
      read in a textfile which contains the pathnames (including wildcards)
      for any number of files to wipe.  You can create a list of files or
      directories you want wiped, and OveRite will do each one in turn.
      This allows OveRite to nuke all the files you want wiped in one fell
      swoop, which speeds things up quite a bit.

    ў MULTIPLE PASSES - You can specify the number of times you want OveRite
      to overwrite each file.  One time is usually sufficient for most
      purposes, but you can specify 2,3,10, or even 1000 passes per file.  Of
      course, multiple passes slow things down a bit, but provide better
      security.

    ў DEPT. OF DEFENSE WIPE - OveRite will wipe files to the standard set up
      by the D.O.D. - That is, it will write all 1's, then all 0's,
      repeating this process 3 times.  Then, it will write the + symbol
      once.  The D.O.D. specs state that this last write should be verified,
      however I opted to eliminate that specification, for speed reasons.
      If there WAS an error during the write, you'll be told.  Verification
      isn't necessary, in my opinion.  BTW - 7 passes - this slows things
      down quite a bit!

    ў DELETION/TRUNCATION OPTIONS - By default, OveRite will truncate and
      delete each file it wipes.  However, there are command line options
      to specify No Deletion, or No Truncation, if that's what you prefer.

    ў SUPRESSED SCREEN OUTPUT - OveRite was written so it would provide as
      much, or as little screen output as you want.  Let's face it - if you
      hear a knock at the door, and see a few guys in suits out front, you
      want to nuke data without advertising that you're doing it.  OveRite
      gives you the option of turning off ALL screen output (except error
      messages) for those times when you'd rather not make a scene.

    ў NO INPUT NEEDED - Unlike Norton's WipeInfo, OveRite doesn't require
      user keypresses for wiping files.  It's made to be used in batch
      files, or standalone.  Of course, OveRite can be set to ask for
      confirmation before wiping files.  The default, however, is NOT to
      ask, and just wipe.  Therefore, be a bit careful.  There is no
      recovering from OveRite.

    ў WIPE CHARACTER SELECTION - Users can use the /C option to choose the
      character they'd like to overwrite files with.  It really doesn't make
      much of a difference which character is used, but what the heck, I
      figured I had to add at least one /<-/>/\/) feature...  The default
      character is '0'.


Using OveRite:
--------------

    OveRite is easy to use.  It's 100% command line driven.  The syntax for
    OveRite is:

    OveRite <options> <filespec>

    Examples:

    OveRite C:\SECRET\*.*  would overwrite and delete all files in C:\SECRET

    OveRite /N /C:X *.*    would overwrite all files in the current directory,
                           with the character 'X'.  The overwritten files
                           would NOT be deleted.

    OveRite /F:TARGETS.TXT C:\DOS\*.EXE  would first wipe out all the .EXE
                           files in the C:\DOS directory, and would then
                           beging reading TARGET.TXT, and overwriting each
                           file listed in TARGET.TXT.

    OveRite C:\*.* /A      would ask for confirmation before overwriting all
                           the files in the root directory of drive C:

    OveRite /H             would display a help file.

    (The options and filespecs can be given in any order on the command
    line, and are NOT case sensitive.  -A, /A, -a, and /a are all valid as
    option formats)

    Simply typing OveRite and pressing <ENTER> will display a help screen.

    The options for OveRite are as follows:

    /C:<character> - Overwrite files with <character>
    /F:<target file list> - specify list of files to overwrite
    /V - Toggle verbose mode off, to suppress all screen output
    /A - ask user for confirmation before beginning overwriting process
    /T - do NOT truncate files after overwriting them
    /N - do NOT delete files after overwriting them
    /P:<passes> - Overwrite files <passes> number of times
    /D - Overwrite files to modified Dept. of Defense specifications (7 passes)


    By default, OveRite will overwrite files with '0's, and will only make
    one pass per file.  It will then truncate and delete the files.  Verbose
    mode is on, by default, and confirmation mode is OFF.  DOD mode is NOT
    turned on by default.


Additional Information:
-----------------------

    OveRite is meant for SPEED, and the fast, reliable destruction of
sensitive data.  Although is IS technically possible to recover data which
has been overwritten, through the use of extremely expensive data recovery
technology, it is safe to say that overwriting data is enough to protect it
from just about all prying eyes.  There is a company in Eurpoe which claims
they can retrieve data which has been overwritten up to 20 times.  I don't
doubt this, but I DO doubt the accuracy with which they do it.  It is also
safe to say that they are one of the FEW companies in the world with this
technology.  The local police departments surely won't have a way of
recovering, and I doubt that any other law enforcement agency would be
willing to do to the great expense and trouble of recovering overwritten
data.  It's not worth the time or the money, in most cases.  For all
practical purposes, OveRite will completely, irreversibly destroy your
sensitive information.  Period.


Tech Notes:
-----------

    OveRite was written in Turbo Pascal 7.0, and uses a 64k buffer to
overwrite files with.  All the available memory (up to 64k) is used, with a
call to the GetMem procedure, and this area of memory is filled with the
character which is to be written over files.  A loop using the BlockWrite
procedure writes over 64k of the target file at once.  This greatly enhances
speed.  If 64k of heap memory isn't available, overwrite uses the MaxAvail
amount of RAM for the buffer.  Source code to the OveRite program may be
made available at a later time, if I feel like it.

        --DecimatoR
          Phalcon/Skism Programming
          May, 1993


             "Phalcon/Skism - coming soon to a system near you"
