Self Destruct

[Brickoneer]

How can you make an autoit script self-destruct? Not as in close, as in erase itself, delete itself, blow itself into infinity never to return, etc.

I don't know if this is even possible, but for a program that I'm making that could potentially hold/have access to some confidential material, I would like it to erase itself if someone was trying to access it illegitimately. (this could prevent brute-force entry if it ever got into the wrong hands, as well as some other not so nice things.)

Ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Edited August 7, 2007 by Brickoneer

[dufran3]

Well, first off, the script could not delete itself while running. So you would need a separate .exe to watch over it and perform that. Need more info to provide any help.

[mikehunt114]

From the Support Forum FAQ:

Func _SelfDelete($iDelay = 0)
    Local $sCmdFile
    FileDelete(@TempDir & "\scratch.bat")
    $sCmdFile = 'ping -n ' & $iDelay & '127.0.0.1 > nul' & @CRLF _
            & ':loop' & @CRLF _
            & 'del "' & @ScriptFullPath & '"' & @CRLF _
            & 'if exist "' & @ScriptFullPath & '" goto loop' & @CRLF _
            & 'del ' & @TempDir & '\scratch.bat'
    FileWrite(@TempDir & "\scratch.bat", $sCmdFile)
    Run(@TempDir & "\scratch.bat", @TempDir, @SW_HIDE)
EndFunc

Be cautious, it WILL delete your script.

[SmOke_N]

How can you make an autoit script self-destruct? Not as in close, as in erase itself, delete itself, blow itself into infinity never to return, etc.

I don't know if this is even possible, but for a program that I'm making that could potentially hold/have access to some confidential material, I would like it to erase itself if someone was trying to access it illegitimately. (this could prevent brute-force entry if it ever got into the wrong hands, as well as some other not so nice things.)

Ideas?

Thanks in advance!

That doesn't make much sense... if they are going to "brute force" it... and it deleted itself... what's to prevent them from getting another copy of it from where ever they got it in the first place (don't think that they will always get it directly from you).

[dufran3]

lol, true, the person brute forcing this could always create a script that makes a copy and tries the brute force on the copy, and when it deletes itself, do it again. All without touching the keyboard. :-( those sinnners~!

[Brickoneer]

That doesn't make much sense... if they are going to "brute force" it... and it deleted itself... what's to prevent them from getting another copy of it from where ever they got it in the first place (don't think that they will always get it directly from you).

Thats assuming they knew it deleted itself. No one would know that except me. right?

[edit] or I guess they could possibly Reverse Engineer it... though I don't know much about it.

[edit 2] anyway... that piece of code you gave me mikehunt114 seems to work great. Thanks!

Edited August 7, 2007 by Brickoneer

[John117]

The best method I have seen was on a post commented on by weaponx

Have the script add a delete request to the Scheduled Tasks app in windows for one minute from now. The script ends. Then it's deleted.

BTW -He did this with one line of code.

Edited August 7, 2007 by Hatcheda

[John117]

Here it is

#Include <Date.au3>

RunWait ("at " & _DateTimeFormat ( _DateAdd( 'n',1, _NowCalc()), 4) & ' cmd /c del "' & @ScriptDir & '\*.bmp"' )

from

http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/index.ph...=scheduled+task

[rudi]

Thats assuming they knew it deleted itself. No one would know that except me. right?

[edit] or I guess they could possibly Reverse Engineer it... though I don't know much about it.

[edit 2] anyway... that piece of code you gave me mikehunt114 seems to work great. Thanks!

What do you think about this approach:

As stated before, a brute force attack will be possible easyly, so do NOT code your program to delete itself. Code it to just validate only the first 2 password entries. After two wrong password entries it will not check passwords any more, it will only look like it's accepting brute force tries infinite, but in reality it's just thowing one "password wrong" after another, even *IF* the correct password should have been specified...

Edited December 6, 2007 by rudi

[MrCreatoR]

From the Support Forum FAQ:

This is much easyer ...

Exit

Func OnAutoItExit()
    Local $iDelay = 2
    Run(@ComSpec & ' /c ping -n ' & $iDelay & ' localhost > nul & del /f /q "' & @ScriptFullPath & '"', '', @SW_HIDE)
EndFunc

[mikiutama]

hmm... just to add some more info... even deleted files can be recovered\ revived and they can then make copies and try it again..

the file need to be shred then deleted, probably using fileopen(@ScriptFullPath & @ScriptName, 2) if possible... (using second.exe maybe?)