View Full Version : Secure Sanitizer: A good FF addon
Secure-Sanitizer (http://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/secure-sanitizer/) is an addon allowing not to delete, but to wipe (DoD 3 passes) browsing/history datas, cookies, cache etc (and even flash cookies if Better Privacy is used at the same time, and if "add LSO item to Firefox 'Clear History' dialog and settings" is selected in Better Privacy option).
To my knownledge, Secure Sanitizer is the only addon or script allowing that.
Secure Sanitizer is perfectly doing its job until 3.6.22 FF version, but unfortunately it works no more with 6.02 version, even with the addon Check Compatibility enabled, and even in modifying max version in secure_sanitizer.xpi. :frown:
not sure when this would be needed. if i sell the disk or the whole machine i wipe it completely anyway. it's a nice addon for sure i just don't see the direct need of it :gru:
not sure when this would be needed. if i sell the disk or the whole machine i wipe it completely anyway. it's a nice addon for sure i just don't see the direct need of it :gru:
For sure, this would not be sufficient in case of selling your disk. But even in that case, although no sufficient, it would necessary to wipe your surfing traces. In such case, the addon is then useless because it is not doing enough, and not because it is doing too much.
For the other more common situations, and relatively to your question ("when this would be needed ?"), I would answer: Always.
"Always" at least if you belong to people who in Tools->Options->Privacy -> Settings have ticked "when I quit browser, it should automatically clear all cookies": Choosing to clear cookies often, say every time you quit your browser, means that you consider them as undesirable things, best avoided to keep. But then, what is the logic to chose to only "clear" them, ie to only lose access to them, leaving them intact, and not to really destroy them ? I fail to find some rationality behind that. I fact, I think that concerning eg cookies, only 2 behaviors are rational:
* To be completely indifferent, never worrying about them and never clearing them (except maybe when they are beginning to consume too much resources)
* To consider them as potentially dangerous for your privacy, their existence being a sometimes necessary evil. And in such case, each time you no more expressly need them, you have not to clear them, but to nuke them.
It's really a pity imo that Secure Sanitizer will no more been maintained. :frown:
I installed it but could not make it working. 'Options' button under Tools->Add-ons->Secure Sanitizer is grayed out.
Then I realized that in Tools->Options->Privacy I have 'Automatically start Firefox in a private browsing session' checked :)
So, it looks like in my case the add-on is not required? Am I achieving the same results by working in a private session?
But then, what is the logic to chose to only "clear" them, ie to only lose access to them, leaving them intact, and not to really destroy them ? I fail to find some rationality behind that.
so you mean they're not deleted by firefox?
so you mean they're not deleted by firefox?
It depends on what "deletion" exactly means. 1 year ago, with the setting "clear cookies when I quit Firefox" enabled, I had been able to recover them with recuva.
Maybe things have changed now (but I doubt it). When I will have time enough, I will repeat the experiment. And in case of private session too, in order to explore the very interesting question posed by Seldom.
Come on! Really?
Just encrypt your primary partition if you're so concerned about your privacy. But I've been in the business for too long to know that despite friends playing jokes on you nobody wants that data.
Another thing you might do is move temp to a ram drive. But like I said nobody bothers and if somebody does they usually don't need physical access to your drive to get sensitive information.
There is an alternative way to navigate around such privacy issues. There are commercial cleaners on the market. One being Cyberscrub Privacy Suite as well as the PGP suite which also does a decent job of cleaning your leftovers. Quite secure too I would add.
It depends on what "deletion" exactly means. 1 year ago, with the setting "clear cookies when I quit Firefox" enabled, I had been able to recover them with recuva.
of course. no normal program will use anything else but the system's regular delete function. as long as that exact space on the disk hasn't been overwritten with other data you can recover it on certain filesystems.
but that leads me back to my first post:
not sure when this would be needed. if i sell the disk or the whole machine i wipe it completely anyway.
not sure when this would be needed. if i sell the disk or the whole machine i wipe it completely anyway.
In this case it's useless. But the disk in not selled at every moment of it's life. . I think that in everyday situations, it's better to wipe undesirable data than only "clear" them. Then, any tool allowing to wipe them is wellcome.
I think that in everyday situations, it's better to wipe undesirable data than only "clear" them
why?
if somebody would want to recover that he would have to gain access to your box and would have to run a filesystem recovery tool without you noticing it just to recover your cookies? :gru:
quite unlikely imho
why?
if somebody would want to recover that he would have to gain access to your box and would have to run a filesystem recovery tool without you noticing it just to recover your cookies? :gru:
quite unlikely imho
Because I have not time enough to manually check what kind of code the cookies are containing. If not destroyed, they may continue to do a dirty work.
Plus, many persons are able to run a filesystem recovery eg in case of share pc (eg in a family... or at work, in a company....). In some situations, I prefer that nobody could be able to recover any infomation about traces of sites I have visited.
Secure Sanitizer do a job like "wiping the free space" (an option that eg CCleaner offers) , but limited to networking data.
In short, when you have to chose between a product, say a detergent, one able to remove tomato stains, and and other able to remove tomato stains and oil stains, for the same prize, it seems to me better to chose the second product.
Because I have not time enough to manually check what kind of code the cookies are containing. If not destroyed, they may continü to do a dirty work.
no. if they got deleted the usual way they will not work anymore.
More precicely, this addon reincarnated in an other named Click&Clean (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/clickclean/). At first sight, it looks like normal cookies, history and cache cleaner but it supports usage of some external application to do the job... Like Ccleaner with 1 passe wiping activated.
11732
And it is fully compatible with FF 6.0.2.
So, I have DL and configurated a portable version of Ccleaner, dedicated for Click&clean usage.
Good addon ! (isn't Instab ? :biggrin:)
Unfortunately, it seems to not work with Eraser or Bleachbit (https://www.sb-innovation.de/f69/bleachbit-18646/), so that Dom cookies are not wiped (only cleaned by BetterPrivacy).
no. if they got deleted the usual way they will not work anymore.
So, it always suffices to delete matadata of a file in order to disallow some malicious code included in that file to track or spy what's going on the PC where it lies ?
So, it always suffices to delete matadata of a file in order to disallow some malicious code included in that file to track or spy what's going on the PC where it lies ?
a regular delete operation removes the "link" to the data so it can't be found anymore. metadata is something else.
but yes, once a file has been deleted the normal way the os can't find it anymore hence it can't be used for anything anymore unless the evil virus has a data recovery routine included which would be quite useless in most cases because the old data can only be recovered as long as the space hasn't been overwritten yet.
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