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Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 00:26:36 +0200
From: cpghost <cpghost@cordula.ws>
To: Jonathon McKitrick <jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org>
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Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Hidden spot on hard drives?
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On Wed, Oct 05, 2005 at 07:44:37PM +0100, Jonathon McKitrick wrote:
> the company where I work (with Windows) is evaluating a copy protection
> product that stores info somewhere on the HDD where the user cannot touch it,
> a format will not erase it, and Norton Ghost will not find it.
> 
> 1.  Any idea where this info could be stored?

Where from do smartmontools fetch the results of the disk selftests?
Perhaps from an area that is not mapped, using some unusual controller
commands? This controlled-accessed area looks like a nice place to hide
some data, even hidden from a "dd if=/dev/ad1 ..." (they don't get reset
even after a disk format).

Though I haven't read the source code of smartctl... Just wildguessing here.

> 2.  Any way the same thing could be done under FreeBSD?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> jm

-cpghost.

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