I have a script that decrypts some data to a tmpfs, the directory is secure (permissions), the machine's swap is encrypted (random key on boot) and when the script is done it does a 35 pass wipe (Peter Gutmann) of the cleartext on the tmpfs . I do this because I'm aware wiping files on a journaling file system is insecure, data may be recovered. For discussion, here're the relevant bits extracted: # make the tmpfs mkdir /mnt/tmpfs chmod 0700 /mnt/tmpfs mount -t tmpfs -o size=1M tmpfs /mnt/tmpfs cd /mnt/tmpfs # decrypt the data gpg -o - <crypted_input_file> | \ tar -xjpf - # do processing stuff # wipe contents find . -type f -exec bcwipe -I {} ';' # nuke the tmpfs cd .. umount -f /mnt/tmpfs rm -fR /mnt/tmpfs So, my question, assuming for the moment that nobody is able to read the cleartext in the tmpfs while it exists (I use umask to set cleartext to 0600), is there any way any trace of the cleartext could remain either in memory or on disk after the snippet above completes?