RE: [mtools] MTOOLS security question - Unused File Space from a file's EOF to end of physical block on disk

[Stone, Todd -Systems]

Correct, shouldn't be a hard change.  Our procedures call for a "new" floppy 
each time and "review" by security folks.  Most interested in going from Tru64 
(UNIX) to DOS Floppy.

R. Todd Stone 
Flight Safety Software Engineer 
SLRSC - Software Engineering 



-----Original Message-----
From: David C Niemi [mailto:address@hidden
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2006 4:48 PM
To: Stone, Todd -Systems
Cc: address@hidden
Subject: Re: [mtools] MTOOLS security question - Unused File Space from
a file's EOF to end of physical block on disk



Wow, it wouldn't be terribly hard to modify Mtools to zero unallocated 
data.  However, the thought of mixing classified and unclassified data in 
a FAT file system sounds quite frightening, especially if VFAT is involved 
and the file names themselves could be classified.

DCN

On Tue, 31 Jan 2006, Stone, Todd -Systems wrote:
> Our system contains both UNCLASSIFIED and CLASSIFIED data.  Our security 
> agency (AF-CERT in our case) have procedures for copying from a mixed 
> classification system to UNCLASSIFIED media.
>
> Files occupy full blocks and the concern is over contents of the unused 
> (slack) space between the files's EOF (End-of-File) marker and physical 
> end of the data block as occupied on disk.  This unused data could be 
> considered CLASSIFIED if contents aren't zeroed out.  Does or has anyone 
> modified MTOOLS to clear unallocated (slack) space?

+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| David C Niemi  (Reston, VA, USA)  niemi at tuxers dot net |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
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