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Thread: Is it possible to overwritte disk encryption software?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Beans
    980
    Distro
    Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver

    Is it possible to overwritte disk encryption software?

    Is it possible to overwrite disk encryption software? No to steal information or recover passwords, but just to be able to reboot.

    I ask this because I ran into the following problem:

    I installed DiskCryptor, but for some reason my password is not recognized when the computer restarts.

    Fortunately I just encrypted a 256MB partition, so I deleted it with a live-cd and rebooted. However, I-m still being asked for a password.

    After that I deleted the whole windows installation and rebooted, it still asks for the password... So I figured that the only way this can work is if the part of DiskCryptor that asks for the password is installed in the MBR or something like that. How can I delete it?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Lab, Slovakia
    Beans
    10,790

    Re: Is it possible to overwritte disk encryption software?

    Note that erasing a disk with dd does exactly that - using these instructions you will erase the whole disk. If you have more than one disk and erase the wrong one, don't complain about it, take it like a man...

    The partition table is stored in the first few hundred bytes of the disk. So if you don't mind losing *all* your data, then you can delete it using dd:
    $ sudo dd bs=1024 count=1 if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda

    You can use the same method to overwrite the entire disk (resulting in the same net effect), but it will take a long time. In this case, simply don't tell dd when to stop, so it will carry on till the end of the disk:
    $ sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda

    Cheers,

    Herman

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Beans
    980
    Distro
    Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver

    Re: Is it possible to overwritte disk encryption software?

    Quote Originally Posted by HermanAB View Post
    If you have more than one disk and erase the wrong one, don't complain about it, take it like a man...
    Sometimes I say that too

    So I was about to try the dd command, but I had to do some work before and I did a emergency Ubuntu install in a new partition and it fixed the problem!

    I conclude that reinstalling grub overwrote the left overs of DiskCryptor.

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