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Folder protection
f0dder:
OK, that gives some protection against the residual plaintext problem. But are you sure your RamDrive product uses nonpageable memory? Otherwise you might be (slightly - depending on ramdisk size) increasing the risk of residue in the pagefile.-f0dder (March 29, 2013, 05:15 PM)
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I am not knowledgeable enough to see whether the ram drive memory is subjected to Windows paging system, but I can show you this: (see attachment in previous post)-tslim (March 29, 2013, 05:56 PM)
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Hmm, dunno - that's a pretty confusing dialog. And it doesn't really seem like their website provides any detail either (just finding the right website was bothersome enough :P) - they do spend time discussing that each tick corresponds to 32MB, though. (The website currently hosting the ramdrive seems relatively fishy - selling an 'enterprise' version, but using a free web host and gmail address? You might want to take a look here :)).
Now, #2 is questionable practice, but #3 by itself is enough that I'd recommend people to stay the heck away from this program. It's insecure design, and if something as basic as this isn't done right, one has to guess what else isn't in order.-f0dder (March 29, 2013, 05:15 PM)
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Man... you have scared me...-tslim (March 29, 2013, 05:56 PM)
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I found something that looks like it could be the encryption routine (handles IRP_MJ_WRITE and loops over the data in 512-byte blocks, then the remainder) - I didn't spend a lot of time untangling it, but the code didn't look familiar. I think we can add "homebrewn crypto algorithm" to the checklist, which is the final nail in the coffin.
And once again: try out TrueCrypt. It might be slightly less convenient than Folder Protect (you'll have to manually mount the volume/container, rather than get a "enter passphrase" popup when navigating to a protected location) - but it's tried, tested, and opensource. No magic pixie dust and fantastic claims, just pure old software engineering.
tslim:
Hi f0dder,
Is the SoftPerfect Ramdrive actually install like a drive/device, I mean like when we install a physical drive where all inf file is involved. Or it just run like a program which create a virtual drive after windows bootup.
Ya, I have to admit the one I am using is really poor at the way they publish their product. They even take the trouble to deliver program on a per user basic. I mean if I leak my copy to the public, because of each copy has a unique blueprint, I couldn't deny my fault...
However the program works and is very stable, I have been using it for quite some years, if my memory serves me right, I have used it since XP time. The author also is quite responsive when I write him for help.
You have convinced me, I will try TrueCrypt. I find myself always a bit stingy in giving up another drive no. Currently I have 14 drive number used up and each one has it special meaning to me. e.g. R for RamDrive, V for Virtual drive, B for Backup. In fact I know another similar freeware (for home use) long ago, but I don't know how good it is compare to TrueCrypt.
f0dder:
Is the SoftPerfect Ramdrive actually install like a drive/device, I mean like when we install a physical drive where all inf file is involved. Or it just run like a program which create a virtual drive after windows bootup.-tslim (March 29, 2013, 07:08 PM)
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Yup, it's driver based (don't think you can do a ramdrive without drivers), it supports boot-time ramdisks, saving/loading to image file (and loading image during boot), does differential image save (i.e. only saving modified portions == fast) - and all the other stuff I need. It's not as fully-featured as, say, SuperSpeed RamDisk - but I don't need the additional features (like selecting which type it shows up as, or >4gb support on 32bit Windows), and it's gratis - and fast :)
You have convinced me, I will try TrueCrypt. I find myself always a bit stingy in giving up another drive no. Currently I have 14 drive number used up and each one has it special meaning to me. e.g. R for RamDrive, V for Virtual drive, B for Backup. In fact I know another similar freeware (for home use) long ago, but I don't know how good it is compare to TrueCrypt.-tslim (March 29, 2013, 07:08 PM)
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Darn, that's a huge number of drive letters in use! Even back when I did obsessive partitioning, I don't think I had more than 5 disk partitions or so. These days I'm down to three disk partitions (the SSD split in 'system' and 'data/docs', and the HDD as a single partition), 'R' for my persistent ramdrive, one DVD-burner and one virtual DVD drive - and when mounting a TrueCrypt disk, 'T' for that (and 'S' for an additional one if I need to move stuff from one disk to another) - but that's the max these days :)
I wouldn't really use anything closed-source for encryption these days (how many years have I been promising to open-source fSekrit now? :-[), and the fact that TrueCrypt is both open-source and works on Win/OSX/Linux makes me comfortable. It also has a pretty clean no-nonsense UI, and generally just works. Don't think there's (m)any opensource Windows products that are still maintained - a coworker mentioned some other product a while ago, but I can't recall which.
tslim:
For me the most missing feature on a ram drive software is 'Allow multiple ram drives'. The one I use doesn't offer this.
You know why I can remember the freeware I just mention? Because I use one of the r-tools company product, their R-Wipe&Clean. Man, you should try that, they are very serious in their product. Compare to R-Wipe&Clean many other competitors looks just like toys.
f0dder:
For me the most missing feature on a ram drive software is 'Allow multiple ram drives'. The one I use doesn't offer this.SoftPerfect handles that - I have a permanent (and file-backed) 1gig for %TEMP%, firefox profile and the like, and sometimes I'll create a scratch drive for whatever purposes - I sometimes work with datasets with a huge amount of very small files, it's much faster to do this on a ramdrive than a physical disk (NTFS journals filesystem metadata - i.e. not file data itself, but "create file", "rename file", "delete file", "file has grown/shrunk by XXX bytes").
You know why I can remember the freeware I just mention? Because I use one of the r-tools company product, their R-Wipe&Clean. Man, you should try that, they are very serious in their product. Compare to R-Wipe&Clean many other competitors looks just like toys.-tslim (March 29, 2013, 07:48 PM)
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Took a quick sweep over their feature-list, and it seems like a somewhat mixed bunch - I'm not too thrilled seeing a file/free-space wiper being combined with anything else, since it might give the impression those "other things" will also be secure wiped (i.e. IE history, removed registry keys, ...) which I kinda doubt. But I guess it makes sense from a marketing view :)
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-tslim (March 29, 2013, 07:48 PM)
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