Prevent `dd` from destroying SSD or HDD

Question

I have two SSD's and on HDD.

When I use sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdd count=1000 good things happen and I erase partitions from my USB flashdrive.

When I use sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb count=1000 bad things happen and I loose Windows 7 and Ubuntu 14.04 partitions from my 500 GB Hard Disk.

Bad things happened once. How can I prevent dd from doing it again?

ie Check that of= doesn't contain sda, sdb or sdc.

Answer 1

Create dd wrapper script

Open the terminal using Ctrl+Alt+T. Then call gedit with:

gksu gedit /usr/local/bin/dd

and copy and paste these commands:

#!/bin/bash

# Who called this script?
PARENT_COMMAND="$(ps -o comm= $PPID)"   
if [[ $(id -u) != 0 ]]; then # Only non-root processes enter password (ie "sudo dd ..." is ok)
    echo dd must be called with sudo powers
    exit 1
fi

# log dd usage for audit trails
# log-file '"$PARENT_COMMAND"" - ""$@"' "/var/log/dd-usage"

# Display hints & arguments. Get any key to proceed or <Ctrl>+C to abort
echo "╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗"
echo "║                                                                ║"
echo "║                      dd - Data Duplicator                      ║"
echo "║                                                                ║"
echo "╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝"
echo
echo " Parameter 1 hint: if=/dev/zero"
echo " Parameter 2 hint: of=/dev/sdY where Y cannot be a, b or c"
echo " Parms >2 hints:   bs=512 is default block size"
echo " Parms >2 hints:   count=100 will process 100 blocks"
echo
echo " Use /bin/dd --help for more info (don't use dd --help)"
echo
# Display drive letterss, names and sizes without partitions for guide
lsblk -ido KNAME,TYPE,SIZE,MODEL
echo
echo " Current parameters: "”$@”
echo
echo "      Press <Enter> to continue or <Ctrl>+C to abort."

read ANYKEY

if [[ "$2" != of=* ]]; then
    echo -e "\a" # PC speaker beep or pleasant bell with PulseAudio hooks
    echo "ERROR! Parameter 2 must start with 'of=' (output file=)"
    exit 2
fi

if [[ "$2" =~ "sda" ]]; then
    echo -e "\a" # PC speaker beep or pleasant bell with PulseAudio hooks
    echo "ERROR! Output file (of=) cannot be /dev/sda"
    exit 2
fi

if [[ "$2" =~ "sdb" ]]; then
    echo -e "\a" # PC speaker beep or pleasant bell with PulseAudio hooks
    echo "ERROR! Output file (of=) cannot be /dev/sdb"
    exit 2
fi

if [[ "$2" =~ "sdc" ]]; then
    echo -e "\a" # PC speaker beep or pleasant bell with PulseAudio hooks
    echo "ERROR! Output file (of=) cannot be /dev/sdc"
    exit 2
fi  

# Call REAL dd command with parameters passed to this wrapper sript
/bin/dd "$@"

exit 0

Save the file and exit gedit.

Lastly mark the new dd as executable with:

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/dd

What it looks like

Below is how it appears on your terminal screen when you've called the new dd script without using the protected drives.

$ sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdd bs=512 count=100
╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║                                                                ║
║                       dd - Data Duplicator                     ║
║                                                                ║
╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

 Parameter 1 hint: if=/dev/zero
 Parameter 2 hint: of=/dev/sdY where Y cannot be a, b or c
 Parms >2 hints:   bs=512 is default block size
 Parms >2 hints:   count=100 will process 100 blocks

 Use /bin/dd --help for more info (don't use dd --help)

KNAME TYPE   SIZE MODEL
sda   disk 223.6G KINGSTON SHSS37A
sdb   disk 465.8G ST9500423AS     
sdc   disk 119.2G KingFast        
sdd   disk  29.8G USB Flash Drive 
sr0   rom   1024M DVD+-RW GT80N   

 Current parameters: 'if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdd bs=512 count=100'

      Press <Enter> to continue or <Ctrl>+C to abort.

100+0 records in
100+0 records out
51200 bytes (51 kB, 50 KiB) copied, 0.00339331 s, 15.1 MB/s

Notes

Because the wrapper script is located in /usr/local/bin it is called before the regular command stored in /bin.

The second parameter must begin with of= and can not contain sda, sdb or sdc, add more drives to protect or subtract drives depending on your installation.

Line draw characters may not work on older platforms or different character sets. Use "+---+" for top and bottom lines and "|" for middle lines or remove them altogether.

log-file is a script for logging commands to audit files. You can replace it with your own command and un-comment the line by removing the leading #.