Overview
Swif.ai MDM supports Soft Wipe (also called Partial Wipe) for Linux devices. This is the only remote wipe option available on Linux — Full Wipe is not supported on the Linux platform. For a full comparison of MDM features by operating system, see Swif.ai MDM Major Features by OS.
Soft Wipe is designed for scenarios such as employee offboarding or device reassignment, where you need to remove user data and secure the device without performing a full factory reset. The device remains enrolled in Swif after the wipe.
What Soft Wipe Does
When you send a Soft Wipe command to a Linux device, the following actions are performed:
Removes all user accounts except the Swif admin (
swifteam). All local user accounts — including any currently logged-in users — are deleted along with their home directories.Clears the Swif admin home directory. All files and directories under
/home/swifteamare deleted (system files such as.bashrc,.bash_profile, and.sshare preserved).Resets the Swif admin password. The
swifteamuser's password is changed to a new, randomly generated value. If a password already exists in the Swif dashboard database it is synced to the device; otherwise a new one is generated and stored. The new password is accessible to IT admins from the Swif web console.Rotates the encryption recovery key (if LUKS encryption is enabled). If the device has disk encryption configured and the Encryption Recovery Policy is assigned, Soft Wipe will automatically rotate the LUKS passphrase and report the new recovery key back to the Swif dashboard. The old recovery key will no longer unlock the drive. This prevents a former user from reading the hard drive's data even with physical access.
Reboots the device. After completing all of the above, the device automatically reboots. Since all user accounts have been removed, the OS will prompt the new user to set up a fresh account upon next boot.
Swif Admin Behavior After Soft Wipe
The
swifteamadmin user is a hidden user — it does not appear on the login screen.Its password is randomized and stored in the Swif dashboard, accessible only to IT admins.
The device remains enrolled in Swif MDM after the wipe. The Swif agent continues to run and accept commands.
For more details, see Swif Admin User Behavior on Managed Devices.
Supported Distributions
Soft Wipe is supported across all Linux distribution families that Swif supports:
Debian-based — Ubuntu, Pop!_OS, etc.
RPM-based — Fedora, CentOS, RHEL, etc.
Arch-based — Arch Linux, Manjaro, etc.
NixOS
Note: On NixOS, user and service management works differently (via nixos-rebuild). Swif handles this automatically, though the initial environment build after installation may take longer than on other distributions.
How to Send a Soft Wipe Command
Log in to the Swif.ai web console.
Navigate to Devices and select the target Linux device.
Go to the Commands tab.
Click Soft Wipe (or "Partial Wipe").
Confirm the action.
The command will be queued and executed as soon as the device checks in. The device will reboot automatically once the wipe is complete.
Important Notes
Full Wipe is not available on Linux. If you need to completely erase a Linux device, you must do so manually or via a separate process. Only Soft Wipe is supported through Swif MDM.
Encryption key rotation requires the Encryption Recovery Policy. To have the LUKS recovery key rotated during Soft Wipe, ensure the
LINUX_ENCRYPTION_RECOVERY_POLICYis assigned to the device beforehand. Without this policy, the encryption key will not be changed.The device stays enrolled. Unlike a Full Wipe, Soft Wipe does not remove the Swif agent. The device remains managed and continues to report to the dashboard.
Files outside
/homeare not removed. Soft Wipe deletes user home directories and clears/home/swifteam, but does not touch system-level files outside of/home. If additional cleanup is needed, use the Live Terminal feature.