The Revisionist is a tool for extracting and indexing hidden metadata (such as deleted or modified text) from large collections of MS Word files. It can operate whole Web sites or SMB or NFS directories. It is handy for pen-testing, or it can be used just to spot embarrassing secrets.
It’s useful in that it can deal with documents in batch rather than one at a time.
You might remember we posted about Metagoofil a while back, which is similar in concept.
You can download The Revisionist here:
Or read more here – the demo site.
eM3rC says
Very cool program.
Aside from reformatting and wiping the hard drive thirty times is there any way to securely delete data?
I use Window Washer to clear stored up information but if someone could recommend a better program that would be great.
goodpeople says
Very usefull. I used a tool like this in a job conflict situation once. It gave me lots of extra information that my boss really didn’t want me to have.
Sir Henry says
@eM3rc:
A hammer has always worked well for me to completely invalidate and chances of recovery.
@goodpeople:
I truly love anecdotal histories of your sort. You will have to provide that as an aside in more detail at some point.
As for this tool, I can imagine a good use to simply save yourself from embarrassment. For instance, I once got a copy of a friend’s resume so that I could mimic the format and style. What I did not know until looking at the file attributes was that the metadata contained his name, email, address, etc. This was helpful for him, obviously, but could have been disastrous to me (more my ego than anything else).
eM3rC says
@ Sir Henry
I was looking for something more along the lines of erasing it so it would be repairable. =P
Magnets seem to work just as well although it literally removed everything.
eM3rC says
This is a really off topic post but I need to ask this community a couple of questions.
First, I know this is a never ending argument, but I would like to know what linux distributions you guys could recommend for a user who is involved in programming, gaming, video/photo editing and other graphically intensive stuff.
Second, my computer protection software is going to expire soon and I was wondering what you think the top 3 pieces of computer protection software are (combination of or security suites are both acceptable).
Thanks in advance!
Sir Henry says
@eM3rC:
I, personally, use Ubuntu, but have found the latests versions (7,04/7,10) to be a bit bloated and veering away from what value they had in the 6.x versions. Given, I could always rebuild the kernel, but I will choose to check out other distros because it is always a good thing to see what else is out there. Also, and I know that goodpeople will back me up here, KDE 4.0 will be released in two days and looks to be a very good offering and fierce competitor to Gnome. Do not get me wrong, I love my Gnome, but, again, I am always game to find something that may work better for me.
As for your second question, it depends upon how deep you are willing to go. What you might want to figure out is what you want to protect, first and foremost. Then, based upon that, look at what is the best out there to do what you need. I work in all aspects of security (network, end point, pki, etc) so a question like that is hard to answer without knowing more about your needs.
goodpeople says
@eM3rC
.. and we also need some information on what games you like to play, what language you do your programming in, etc.
Your security issue:
– Comodo firewall
– Avira virusscanner
– BoClean anti spyware
eM3rC says
@Sir Henry
Thanks for the info about the linux operating systems. From what I’ve read, it appears gnome is a more stable and speed based approach while KDE is like windows eye candy. As for security, all I want is my basic protection. I do not have anything valuable on my computer and see no reason why it would be hacker aside from botnets or some hacker testing out his skills. As for the type, all I would need is basic AV, spyware, maybe rootkit and firewall although I would not like a resource hog.
@goodpeople
Basic steam games like Orange Box, CSS and hopefully CoD4. At this point I am only working on C++ but plan to move to languages such as java and python sometime in the near future.
thanks for the recommendations!