GSOC 2012 project clarification

[Sanket Padawe <sanketp12%gmail.com@localhost>]

Hi,
I am currently doing my Master's  in CS from Stony Brook University
and the project named "Implement file system flags to scrub data
blocks before deletion" for GSOC 2012 have really interested me. I
have recently worked on linux kernel in my Fall semester and have
completed file system project which was related to creating virtual
block device driver for emulating different characteristics like
latency, etc. of  disk drives. So in short I am familiarized to linux
kernel but havent worked on Netbsd kernel before. But at the same time
I think it won't be that difficult for me to work on Netbsd kernel for
this project after being worked on linux kernel. Infact it would be a
very good experience and I would definitively get to learn a lot from
this project. Also I have completed Redhat Certifications which also
shows that I am comfortable with linux.

I want to know few more things about this GSOC project. So I would at
first let you know about my understanding of this project. So what I
have understood is that whenever that flag is set and a file/folder
gets deleted i.e. at the point of unlink system call we just need to
rewrite all the blocks of that file with some random data and then
release those blocks. Normally what happens is we do not overwrite
file blocks before deleting so some data remains even after that file
is deleted and that might cause a
security issue if the file had some important secret data. So by
generating some pseudo random numbers we can erase the previous secure
data. The second part of the project would be modifying different
kernel and user level functions which deal with those flags. I would
like to know is there anything else which you are expecting from this
project or is there any particular flow of doing this project required
by you. Also it would be helpful if you let me know other information
which you think is important for doing this project.

 Hoping to hear back from you soon.

 Thanking you,
 Sanket Padawe