Stop destroying files that ARE write protected.

[Alan_B]

W7 etc. use reparse point/Junctions to pretend that files are in additional places,

and you may read these files on multiple paths.

 

It is possible to think you are seeing different copies, and you may think you can delete one.

If you destroy one, you destroy all the copies because there was only one that occupied space on the disc.

 

W7 etc. use special access permissions to prevent deletion of what you can read.

If you want to delete you have to use a real path, not a mirage imitation.

 

Unfortunately if via a Junction you can Read a file you can :-

Also Append to that file ;

and you can also CREATE a new file via that junction.

 

I therefore predict that what you can write you can overwrite, and suggest you can also securely overwrite.

Therefore although W7 etc. will automatically protect against CCleaner doing a normal delete,

a secure delete will cut through the defenses with no trouble at all.

 

As evidence for this danger I quote serious loss of files as per :-

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=30095

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=29618'>http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=29618

 

NB I give full details of how it all ends badly in my post at

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=29618

 

I suggest that if CCleaner uses Secure Deletion on W7 etc it should at the minimum warn that it will defeat O.S. protection,

and/or preferably detect if any target is being accessed via a reparse point etc. then it should REFRAIN from destroying with a secure deletion, and perhaps indicate this during the analysis, so the user knows how close he came to disaster, and if he really wants it gone then he should acknowledge yet another warning of the danger.

 

Alan