Secure File Shredder Tool

Version: 1.0
Author: Steve Mathot
Company: mCoDev Systems
Website: https://www.mcodev.net

A Python-based utility for securely deleting files and directories by overwriting their contents before removal. Designed for forensic-grade data destruction with options and progress feedback.

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🛠 Features

• Secure multi-pass overwrite using random data
• Optional file renaming before deletion for added obfuscation
• Recursive directory shredding with extension filtering (1)
• Wildcard support including **/*.ext for deep matching (2)
• Simulation mode (--dry-run) for safe testing
• Silent mode (--silent) to skip confirmation prompts
• Verbose output for detailed file processing
• Color-coded terminal output using colorama
• Chunk size and pass count customization

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🚀 Usage

python fileshred.py <file_path or wildcard> [options]

Options

Option	Description
-s, --silent	Skip confirmation prompt
--dry-run	Simulate deletion without modifying files
--no-delete	Overwrite file contents but do not remove from filesystem
--chunk-size N	Set chunk size in bytes (default: 4096)
-p, --passes N	Number of overwrite passes (default: 3)
-r, --recursive	Enable recursive shredding and support for ** wildcards (1)
--ext .EXT	Filter files by extension when shredding directories (e.g., .log) (2)
--verbose	Show detailed output during execution
--pattern	The overwrite pattern to use. (zeros, ones, alternating, random). (default: random)
-h, --help	Show help message
--version	Display version and author info
--man	Show manual page

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📂 Examples

python fileshred.py *.log
python fileshred.py secret_*.txt --dry-run
python fileshred.py *.txt -s -p 5
python fileshred.py logs/ -r --ext .log --verbose
python fileshred.py "**/*.log" -r
python fileshred.py "logs/**/*.txt" -r --ext .txt
python fileshred.py "*.tmp"

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⚠️ Disclaimer

This tool performs irreversible data destruction. Use with caution. The author and company are not responsible for any data loss or misuse.

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📦 Requirements

• Python 3.6+
• Colorama library

Install dependencies: pip install colorama

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ℹ️ Known Issues

• (1) The recursive directory walker (options -r and --recursive) is not really functioning correctly. It will only process files in the target directory, but won't go further down into other directories. I really can't be bothered at the moment to fix this. Maybe in a future update. Recursive directories was not in the scope of the development requirements for this script.
• (2) The --ext option remains untested, use at your own risk.

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🧠 Notes

• Overwriting files on SSDs may not guarantee complete data removal due to wear-leveling.
• For maximum security, consider combining this tool with full-disk encryption and secure erase utilities.

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ℹ️ Installation

• Git clone the folder somewhere on your system, or download the zip and unzip somwhere.

• For Windows (Using PowerShell):

  • Make sure you have all the requirements installed:
    • Install Python3 from the Microsoft App Store
    • Run the command pip install colorama for the Colorama dependency
  • Modify the ps1 file (C:\Users\\\<Username\>\\[OneDrive\\]Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1)
    • (Create the file if it doesn't exist)
    • Add the following function to the bottom of the file:

        function shred {
          python "X:\path\to\fileshred.py" @args
        }

• For Linux (Using Bash): (I'm using Debian based system, other distribution may differ on how to install python3 and colorama)
  • Run the following commands to install the requirements (as root):
    • apt install python3-full python3-colorama -y
    • Check the location of python3 with the command 'which python3' and take note of it. For example /usr/bin/python3
  • Modify your .bashrc (command: nano ~/.bashrc) and add the following function to the bottom of the file:

    shred() {
      /path/to/python3 /path/to/fileshred.py "$@"
    }

• Now you can use the command shred <Filepath> [options] from anywhere on the system to call for the script. (In PowerShell or Bash terminal)
• One additional note for PowerShell users on Windows:
  • If the ps1 script is blocked and you can't use the shred command, open a PowerShell session with elevated permissions and execute the command below to allow script execution:

  Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

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👁️ License

This project is released under the MIT License.