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Makes sense to not include a feature that wasn’t reliably working, right? This issue was addressed by removing the “Secure Empty Trash” option. Impact: The “Secure Empty Trash” feature may not securely delete files placed in the Trashĭescription: An issue existed in guaranteeing secure deletion of Trash files on some systems, such as those with flash storage.
#SECURE EMPTY TRASH MAC MAVERICKS MAC OS X#
This is referenced in the security notes for OS X El Capitan, here as CVE-2015-5901 if you’re interested, and repeated below:Īvailable for: Mac OS X v10.6.8 and later This is the next obvious question, why did Apple remove the Secure Empty Trash feature from Mac OS X in new releases? The short answer as to why the secure delete feature was deprecated is because Secure Empty Trash did not reliably work on some users with certain hardware. Why was “Secure Empty Trash” Removed from OS X El Capitan? While this is basically the equivalent of using what used to be the Secure Empty Trash function on the Mac, it’s obviously more complex, and entirely unforgiving, and thus it’s really only appropriate for advanced users with sufficient command line experience. The video below demonstrates how srm works coinciding with the Finder using drag and drop to print the complete file path into Terminal:
#SECURE EMPTY TRASH MAC MAVERICKS HOW TO#
Those interested in understanding a bit more about the secure removal srm command and how to force remove a file too can can learn more here in our detailed walkthrough. You can leave off the -v flag if you’d like, but verbose mode gives you a nice progress indicator. Srm -v /path/to/file/to/securely/delete/example.png If you’re adept with the command line, you can always skip drag and drop and use the following syntax to point at the proper path: In other words, your file or folder that you secure removed is gone for good. The deleted files are overwritten 35 times, which exceeds the US Department of Defense standard for securely erasing data by five times. Once you hit the return key there is no going back, this is truly irreversible.
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For those with a knowledgable command line background, you’ll likely recognize this alternative approach of secured file removal as using the srm command, which performs a secure delete from the command line in OS X and linux.