If you discover a security vulnerability in DriveWipe, please report it responsibly:

1. Do not open a public GitHub issue for security vulnerabilities
2. Use GitHub Security Advisories to report privately, or email the maintainers directly
3. Include steps to reproduce, if possible
4. Allow reasonable time for a fix before public disclosure

Security concerns for DriveWipe include:

• Bypasses of safety checks (e.g., wiping boot drive, skipping confirmation)
• Data leakage (e.g., sensitive data in logs, reports, or temporary files)
• Insufficient erasure (e.g., patterns not written correctly, sectors skipped)
• Privilege escalation from the tool
• Cryptographic weaknesses in the PRNG or crypto erase implementations

• The AES-256-CTR PRNG is seeded from the OS CSPRNG and uses hardware AES-NI acceleration
• Sensitive memory (keys, patterns) is zeroized on drop using the zeroize crate
• The tool refuses to operate without elevated privileges
• Boot drive detection prevents accidental self-destruction (Linux: /proc/mounts, macOS: /sbin/mount, Windows: IOCTL_VOLUME_GET_VOLUME_DISK_EXTENTS)
• Multi-step confirmation prevents accidental data loss
• All operations are logged for audit purposes

• ATA Secure Erase uses a temporary password set and cleared within the same session. If the erase is interrupted, the drive may remain password-locked. The tool attempts to disable the password after erase completion.
• ATA security state is checked before issuing erase commands. Frozen drives are rejected with guidance to suspend/resume the system. Locked drives are rejected.
• NVMe Sanitize operations are asynchronous at the firmware level. The tool polls sanitize progress and reports completion status. An interrupted sanitize can be recovered by the drive's firmware.
• TCG Opal crypto erase destroys the encryption key on self-encrypting drives. Drives with non-default SID passwords require the current password; the tool cannot bypass drive ownership.
• macOS ATA limitation: ATA Secure Erase is intentionally not supported on macOS due to the lack of a reliable ATA passthrough mechanism. NVMe commands on macOS require nvme-cli.
• USB bridge warning: Firmware commands (ATA/NVMe/TCG Opal) may fail or behave unpredictably through USB-to-SATA/NVMe bridge adapters. The tool warns users when USB-attached drives are detected.