How to remove metadata from Word and PDF files before leaking them Very helpful tools. One should remove metadata from PDF and Word files, and "flatten" PDF documents before leaking them anywhere or distributing copies of documents to others. How to remove metadata from Word and PDF files before leaking them Flattening PDF Annotations in Adobe Acrobat Flattening PDF Annotations in Adobe Acrobat: AECbytes Tips and Tricks Remove Hidden Metadata from Word Documents & PDF files TechnoEsq Remove Hidden Metadata from Word Documents Office 2003/XP Add-in: Remove Hidden Data Download details: Office 2003/XP Add-in: Remove Hidden Data
Re: How to remove metadata from Word and PDF files before leaking them This needs to be stickied! This is very helpful info, thanks!
Re: How to remove metadata from Word and PDF files before leaking them Thanks for the links! I've been looking for something to remove metadata, but this is the first time I've seen this info.
Re: How to remove metadata from Word and PDF files before leaking them Some people may find this simple tool useful; it wipes all the free space on your hard drive. Its free and easy to use: TraceKiller Download - Softpedia Independent info on the Trace Killer program: wlargroup.com | Web Safety Ratings from McAfee SiteAdvisor
Re: How to remove metadata from Word and PDF files before leaking them To erase free space on a Mac you can use Disk Utility: (Mac OS X 10.4): Erasing free disk space "Secure Empty Trash" does a 7 pass overwrite on the files in the trash you can use "srm" with the command line. This can be handy if you just want to do a single overwrite. 7 pass is probably overkill and takes 7 times as long [SPOILER]SRM(1) SRM(1) NAME srm - securely remove files or directories SYNOPSIS srm [OPTION]... FILE... DESCRIPTION srm removes each specified file by overwriting, renaming, and truncat- ing it before unlinking. This prevents other people from undeleting or recovering any information about the file from the command line. srm, like every program that uses the getopt function to parse its arguments, lets you use the -- option to indicate that all following arguments are non-options. To remove a file called '-f' in the current directory, you could type either "srm -- -f" or "srm ./-f". OPTIONS -d, --directory ignored (for compatibility with rm(1)) -f, --force ignore nonexistent files, never prompt -i, --interactive prompt before any removal -r, -R, --recursive remove the contents of directories recursively -s, --simple only overwrite with a single pass of random data -m, --medium overwrite the file with 7 US DoD compliant passes (0xF6, 0x00, 0xFF, random, 0x00, 0xFF, random) -z, --zero after overwriting, zero blocks used by file -n, --nounlink overwrite file, but do not rename or unlink it -v, --verbose explain what is being done --help display this help and exit --version output version information and exit NOTES srm can not remove write protected files owned by another user, regard- less of the permissions on the directory containing the file. The -s option overrides the -m option, if both are present. If neither is specified, the 35-pass Gutmann algorithm is used. Development and discussion of srm is carried out at <http://source- forge.net/project/?group_id=3297>, which is also accessible via <http://srm.sourceforge.net>. [/SPOILER]
Re: How to remove metadata from Word and PDF files before leaking them Does anyone have a method of removing metadata from WMA files? At least the metadata that ID's the computer it was generated on?
Re: How to remove metadata from Word and PDF files before leaking them Metadata can also be found in image files.
Re: How to remove metadata from Word and PDF files before leaking them Indeed. There are metadata removal tools for image files as well.
Re: How to remove metadata from Word and PDF files before leaking them Actually, I think that would be incorrect. I think 7 times is more useful than just once. Once may not get it all. A 7 pass program gets everything for certain. I have, on my XP, something called "Eraser". It's a free download and it uses a customizable option that lets you choose your pass amount. I use the (iirc) 35 pass erase. Start it before bed, go to sleep, wake up and have everything deleted without and worry it missed something.
The "you have to do it more than once" standards were based on a considerably older technology. It is no longer necessary. It doesn't hurt, but it's no longer needed on very-high-capacity drives.
There's something even easier: install a free pdf printer (e.g. bullzip) and reprint it to pdf .... and if u want to make sure nothing escapes your wandering eye: print it as images... and reassemble
Of course then whenever it goes up on the net it will be unsearchable by Google (though they seem to be working on that). Better, know file formats! Know what goes into them. Know where the metadata goes. Know what's in it and what it does. Always look at it in a hex editor first. If you really feel like fun, insert fake metadata so the half-bright dickweeds who always look at it and post it have something to entertain them.
Depends how serious you are. It's not that much more difficult to do a military-grade wipe. So it doesn't hurt to overkill. Of course, if you really are dealing with the military, you're basically fucked anyway. No degree of wiping will save you. As xkcd once pointed out.
