Dolphin Shred-it

Dolphin right click context menu -> Shred files/dir
Securely delete your files from within the Dolphin file manager!

├──  usr
│  └──  share
│     └──  kio
│        └──  servicemenus
│           ├──  shred-it.desktop
│           ├──  shred-it.png
│           └──  shred-it.py
├──  LICENSE
├──  README.md
└──  requirements.txt

Dependencies:

• Dolphin
• PyQt5
notify2
• shred - part of the Coreutils package, incl. in most distros base installation.

INSTALL

System Wide

$ git clone https://github.com/MrPenguin07/dolphin.shred-it.git && cd dolphin.shred-it
$ sudo cp usr/share/kio/servicemenus/* /usr/share/kio/servicemenus/
$ sudo chmod +x /usr/share/kio/servicemenus/shred.py

Local User

$ git clone https://github.com/MrPenguin07/dolphin.shred-it.git && cd dolphin.shred-it
$ cp usr/share/kio/servicemenus/* ~/.local/share/kio/servicemenus
$ chmod +x ~/.local/share/kio/servicemenus/shred.py

There is an optional GTK3 version of the script, use this version with instructions as above

Add the context menu in dolphin settings;

Right-click context menu;

Qt5 Confirmation;

Notes

The default is 5 passes, can be changed within shred.py
SHRED_ITERATIONS = 5

May also be run from the shell;
$ python3 shred.py <file/dir>

Caveats/Limitations

Important

When using shred for secure file deletion, it's important to be aware of the following limitations:

• Snapshot File Systems: Ineffective on file systems configured to use snapshots as snapshots may retain copies of the data.

• Journaling File Systems:

  • Somewhat effective on file systems that focus on metadata journaling (e.g. ext4 with the default data=ordered).
  • Less effective on file systems that journal both metadata and file data.

• SSD and Wear Leveling: Varied effectiveness on SSDs due to firmware & wear leveling algorithms.

• RAID Systems: On RAID configurations with parity, old data may remain recoverable even after shred has been run.

These caveats are also faced by bleachbit and other more professional tools, they are inherent to modern disks & filesystems.
This app is NOT designed for professional grade data destruction, however it should prove effective for;

• Personal info, Bank statements, Work files you took home and finished using etc.

For more reliable secure deletion options, consider low level tools.