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A few months ago, I downloaded Edenwaith Permanent Eraser from the edenwaith website and set it to DoE (3x) in the preferences.

I am using Mac Mini 2011, MacOS Sierra, and use it to delete files and folders via a Finder plug-in.

7-pass would probably be overkill unless it was really sensitive data, but is 3x good?

I have other questions:

How likely is it that a file or folder deleted under DoE 3-pass could be recovered?

When would it make sense to use 7-pass or 35-pass for a file or folder?

Is this a sensible measure to take so far for deletion of data?

I would much appreciate any advice.

avenas8808
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  • @AndroiGenhald; this is about a specific software type – avenas8808 Mar 20 '18 at 15:07
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    If you have an SSD, what you are doing won't work and is wearing the disk out quickly. What kind of drive do you have? – Neil Smithline Mar 21 '18 at 02:55
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    You want us to review how a certain program does something and then provide an analysis on its methods? That's not what we do here. We can talk about the US DoE 3-pass method though, which is what that other question covers. – schroeder Mar 22 '18 at 08:37

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Yes, it should be enough

The software you mentioned implements the 3-pass DoE method, which is covered by the answer provided in AndrolGenhald's link.

Recovering data from wiped drives is an old vulnerability which doesn't seem to be exploitable anymore. At least not by your common attacker. Thus a, 3, 7, or 35-pass wipe doesn't really matter.

Note that I'm assuming that you're using modern hard drives and that your threat model is composed of burglars, people looking in dumpsters, etc. Against governmental agencies, I would recommend to start from new hard drives using common encryption method, while physically destroying the old hard drives. However, they would probably look for easier attack vectors first.

When pondering the security of your data, one of the first steps is always to define your threat model. This threat model (partially) depends on the sensitivity of the data you want to protect. Are you a student that doesn't want their roommate to snoop on their laptop? A password should be good. Are you a spy with highly confidential data? Perhaps, then, you'd need to go a step further.

PS: If you have SSDs, I think the erasing process may be trickier. (Could someone confirm?) As a safety precaution I would, once again, recommend you to start from scratch with brand-new hard drives and a use encryption.

Yuriko
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  • Yes, the erasing process is trickier for SSDs due to wear leveling, overprovisioning, and dynamic compression (on some drives). Usually you have to hope it supports ATA Security Erase. – forest Mar 21 '18 at 09:58