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PartialVolume / shredos.x86_64

Shredos Disk Eraser 64 bit for all Intel 64 bit processors as well as processors from AMD and other vendors which make compatible 64 bit chips. ShredOS - Secure disk erasure/wipe
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Network boot: persist PDF options #182

Open cyberm8 opened 7 months ago

cyberm8 commented 7 months ago

I really like the PDF report feature.

I understand that the /etc/nwipe/nwipe.conf and /etc/nwipe/nwipe_customers.csv files are persisted when a USB key is used.

However, I boot ShredOS via the network. As a result, I have to systematically redefine the PDF fields (customers, organisation, technician name). In fact, I always enter the same thing.

Is it possible to define a default value, which can be changed as required (typically the technician's name is likely to change)?

If this isn't already possible, is it something that could be considered?

PartialVolume commented 7 months ago

I'm currently working on how settings are saved when network booting.

The three possible enhancements are:

  1. Write config files to a FTP server. This feature already exists within ShredOS, I would just need to add the code that reads and writes the nwipe config and customers file.
  2. An option similar to option 1 but using http. The URL would be specified as a nwipe option.
  3. An option that reads/writes any USB stick it finds looking for the config and saving the config. You could then use any exFAT/FAT32 formatted USB as your config store, it wouldn't need to be the device ShredOS booted from.

Any comments on pros & cons or other options you feel are better are most welcome.

PartialVolume commented 7 months ago

Also see #173

cyberm8 commented 7 months ago

I think option 1 is preferable.

An FTP server is probably already set up as the PDF reports have to be sent somewhere. What about using the TFTP set up for the PXE boot?

Option 2 is acceptable, but maybe it's not a good idea to force the deployment of a web server just for a few text files?

Option 3 seems the least practical. It would use up a USB stick, and you'd have to juggle with it if you had to wipe several machines at once (or have several USB sticks). Not to mention the likelihood of purging the key by mistake.

PartialVolume commented 7 months ago

What about using the TFTP set up for the PXE boot?

That's certainly a possibility and as long as I can get the issue sorted that I explain below then this would be my preferred option too.

I've been running some tests on my PXE server and I can copy the files back to the tftp server from ShredOS. It will be necessary to create a directory of your tftpd root, i.e /srv/tftp/nwipe_data, give it ownership of tftp chown tftp:tftp /srv/nwipe_data and permissions of chmod 774 /srv/nwipe_data. /etc/init.d/tftpd-hpa will need to be edited so that the start command in that file has --create.

Also as ShredOS doesn't know it's been booted over the network a option such as shredos_options="tftp_server=192.168.1.241" needs to be added to the pxe configuration so that line is passed as a extra kernel command line option.

Help regarding PXE config needed!

This is where I need some help with the PXE configuration, I can't figure out how you pass command line options when booting pxe using EFI. I'm editing pxelinux.cfg and appending the above option to the APPEND line but when I boot ShredOS and type more /proc/cmdline I just see the default values, but not the extra option I added. Do I need to run some command after editing pxeconfig.cfg before the values are recognised?

PartialVolume commented 7 months ago

[Edited] directories were incorrect.

Help regarding PXE config needed! This is where I need some help with the PXE configuration, I can't figure out how you pass command line options when booting pxe using EFI. I'm editing pxelinux.cfg and appending the above option to the APPEND line but when I boot ShredOS and type more /proc/cmdline I just see the default values, but not the extra option I added. Do I need to run some command after editing pxeconfig.cfg before the values are recognised?

Forget that help, I needed a nice strong cup of coffee and then realised where I was going wrong.

So if the following changes to the PXE server configuration sound reasonable, then I'll go ahead and make the additions to ShredOS's scripts.

i.e changes to the PXE server

mkdir  /srv/tftp/nwipe_data
chown tftp:tftp /srv/tftp/nwipe_data
chmod 774 /srv/tftp/nwipe_data

then
vi /etc/init.d/tftpd-hpa 
and add --create to the start command

finally
Add shredos_options="tftp_server=192.168.1.241" to the kernel command line in the ShredOS grub files etc
replace 192.168.1.241 with the address of your PXE server.

Assuming /srv/tftp/nwipe_data/nwipe.conf & /srv/tftp/nwipe_data/nwipe_customers.csv exist on the pxe/tftp server they will be read on nwipe start. On nwipe exit, /srv/tftp/nwipe_data/nwipe.conf & /srv/tftp/nwipe_data/nwipe_customers.csv will be written back to the pxe/tftp server. In addition the dmesg.txt nwipe_logs and PDF certificates will also be written to /srv/tftp/nwipe_data/ on the PXE server.

PartialVolume commented 7 months ago

@Aterfax Would the ability to restore and save of nwipe.conf & nwipe_customers.csv and save log, pdfs etc to the pxe tftp server work in your PXE setup? See previous comment for the changes you would need to make.

cyberm8 commented 7 months ago

It makes me think about posting my Ansible playbook to setup a PXE server for ShredOS...

What you're proposing sounds interesting. You just need to create a "nwipe_data" subfolder and do the appropriate chown/chmod.

Sending PDFs to this location via TFTP would make FTP unnecessary. As I send myself the latest reports and logs by e-mail before deleting them, it wouldn't particularly affect me a priori.

PartialVolume commented 7 months ago

It makes me think about posting my Ansible playbook to setup a PXE server for ShredOS...

@cyberm8 You should, it's good to see how others setup PXE, my setup on ubuntu (KDE Neon) is minimalist. The software i use is tftpd-hpa and isc-dhcp-server and for EFI booting the ShredOS .efi file is used along with the /srv/tft/cluster/shredos/EFI/BOOT/grub.cfg file which is used just as it would be on a USB stick for adding kernel command line options. I notice that others use the APPEND line to add options.

Aterfax commented 7 months ago

Ultimately I think the important considerations will be ensuring whatever methods implemented will allow the person erasing to ensure that their correct erasure details (nwipe.conf) are or can be selected and the output can be copied to storage of their choice, be it TFTP / (S)FTP.

They could be doing this via a straight PXE boot or nested via something like Netboot.xyz and their Docker container setup.

With the https://netboot.xyz/docs/docker/ implementation, I don't think it will let you change any configuration around the TFTP server within it and may not support having PUT operations to send PDFs nor would it give the user any easy way to access uploaded PDFs if it even permitted uploads. What it will do though, is make hosting files over HTTP/HTTPS trivial as that is built in functionality.

I think we should be keen to treat the need to supply the details for the nwipe.conf/nwipe_customers.csv and the config to send the files somewhere after as separate issues but probably ideally supporting both HTTP/(S)FTP and TFTP posture for both where appropriate.

e.g. Allow for nwipe_conf_url or a nwipe_conf_tftp_path and allow the user to configure where to upload the subsequent log / PDF be it via lftp as previously or tftp with a user supplied upload path.

PartialVolume commented 7 months ago

Ultimately I think the important considerations will be ensuring whatever methods implemented will allow the person erasing to ensure that their correct erasure details (nwipe.conf) are or can be selected and the output can be copied to storage of their choice, be it TFTP / (S)FTP.

Agreed, a command line option, something like config_location=tftp, ftp, http, usb. If the user doesn't provide this option then ShredOS will make the most logical decision based on what it determines was the boot method or what other options might be on the command line.

The config_location will take precedence so if you boot by USB but want your config and files saved to FTP then config_location would allow that to happen. I Might have to have two options to separate pdfs and logs from configs. So in addition a results_location=. So if you set config_location=usb results_location=ftp then nwipe.conf & customers.csv configs would be read/written to/from USB as you are booting from USB and certificates/logs go to FTP or tftp or http etc.

kristianronningen commented 4 months ago

I'm involved in a project to reinstall old laptops donated to us, and hand them off to people in need. Part of this effort is to wipe/shred the disks of those laptops and provide reports back to donors. We use pxe/netboot for this, to make it easier to handle a large amount of laptops. We would very much like to see a way to pre-populate the customer information on the netboot server, and then just simply select the appropriate ShredOS boot option for each donor during PXE boot of each laptop. Having the donor name in the log/PDF report makes these things easier to track. (We're also looking at adding a custom incrementing serial number for each laptop, but I suspect this may be too specific to make sense in a netboot environment.)

The repository containing the ansible playbook/roles we use to set up our netboot host is publicly available at https://git.nuug.no/nuug-public/skolelinux-netboot if anyone is interested.

Edit: I realize my wording above might not have been as clear as I wanted. The intention is to use --autonuke with a pre-selected config (containing customer name etc) so that it's all as automated as possible. Human interaction is bad for large volumes. :)