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Multiple Vendor NTFS File Wipe Vulnerability

Under some circumstances, many Windows-based file cleaning utilities do not properly wipe data from NTFS file systems. NTFS is supported in Windows XP/NT/2000 operating systems.

Data contained in Alternate Data Streams may not be properly removed using many Windows file-wiping utilities (such as BCWipe, Eraser, SecureClean, East-Tec Eraser 2000, PGP). For example, if a file-wiping utility is used to delete a normal file then the Alternate Data Stream attached to that file will remain intact.

One possible consequence of this issue is that a user will not be able to use the standard methods to remove potentially malicious data from their system.

It is important to note that this vulnerability does not affect file-wiping utilities on older Microsoft Windows operating systems that do not provide support for the NTFS file system, such as Windows 9x/ME.