{
  "slug": "sanitization-verification",
  "term": "Sanitization verification",
  "aliases": [
    "Media sanitization verification"
  ],
  "definition": "Sanitization verification inspects the outcome of a sanitization operation to determine whether the selected technique completed successfully.",
  "note": "For clear and logical purge, NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 2 section 4.5.1 describes checking completion status, errors, anomalies and media health. For physical purge, check the sanitizing equipment's completion; for destruction, inspect the remnants and identify the equipment. Elaborate post-clear or post-purge content sampling is not necessary unless organizational policy requires it. Verification supplies evidence for validation; it is not the acceptance decision itself. [nist-r2]",
  "status": "shipping",
  "advantages": [
    {
      "text": "Separates observed operation results from the later decision about acceptable confidentiality risk.",
      "citationIds": [
        "nist-r2"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "limitations": [
    {
      "text": "A submitted command or a full progress counter is not necessarily a final successful operation result; interpret the relevant status semantics.",
      "citationIds": [
        "nvme-2-0e"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "related": [
    "data-sanitization",
    "sanitization-validation",
    "clear-sanitization",
    "purge-sanitization",
    "destroy-sanitization",
    "sanitize-nvme"
  ],
  "supersedes": [],
  "supersededBy": [],
  "firstSeen": null,
  "lastSeen": null,
  "updated": "2026-10-14",
  "citations": [
    {
      "id": "nist-r2",
      "title": "NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 2 (2025), Guidelines for Media Sanitization, 4.5.1, printed page 24",
      "url": "https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.800-88r2.pdf",
      "accessed": "2026-10-14"
    },
    {
      "id": "nvme-2-0e",
      "title": "NVM Express Base Specification 2.0e, sections 5.24 and 5.16.1.25",
      "url": "https://nvmexpress.org/wp-content/uploads/NVM-Express-Base-Specification-2.0e-2024.07.29-Ratified.pdf",
      "accessed": "2026-10-10"
    },
    {
      "id": "hesela",
      "title": "Hesela: SSD sanitization: why TRIM and a successful command are not enough",
      "url": "https://hesela.com/analyses/ssd-sanitization-trim-evidence/",
      "accessed": "2026-10-14"
    }
  ]
}