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Difficulty: MediumMicrosoft Command-Line Tools

A systems administrator deleted a folder containing confidential financial spreadsheets from a Windows workstation's local storage (`C:\Confidential`). To meet compliance standards, the administrator must ensure that any residual data in the unallocated space of that directory is permanently overwritten without reformatting the drive or affecting existing files. Which of the following command-line utilities and switches should the administrator execute?

  1. cipher /w:C:\ConfidentialAnswer
  2. B
    chkdsk /r C:
  3. C
    format C: /p:1
  4. D
    shred -u C:\Confidential\*

Answer

The command 'cipher /w:C:\Confidential' correctly overwrites unused unallocated disk space within the specified path without modifying active files or formatting the partition.
The correct command uses 'cipher /w:directory', which securely wipes unallocated disk space in the designated directory by overwriting free sectors with zero bytes, one bytes, and random numbers. This ensures deleted files cannot be reconstructed using forensic recovery utilities while preserving all active files.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the administrative goal and constraints
The requirement is to sanitize residual unallocated space left by deleted files on a specific folder path on a Windows system without formatting the volume.
Standard file deletion in Windows only removes pointers from the file system table while leaving data payload in unallocated sectors until overwritten.
2
Evaluate native Windows command-line options for securely wiping unallocated space
The Windows Cipher utility (`cipher.exe`) with the `/w` switch overwrites deallocated/free space across specified directories.
Executing 'cipher /w:directory' writes three passes (zeros, ones, and random numbers) to the unallocated space of the designated folder, rendering deleted files unrecoverable.

Key Concept

Microsoft Windows Command-Line Utilities - Cipher Utility Data Sanitization
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Microsoft Command-Line Tools

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