USB drive used at school and home - protection from malware

Discussion in 'other security issues & news' started by pepperer, Sep 23, 2008.

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  1. pepperer

    pepperer Registered Member

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    Hi,
    I have a USB drive that I use to take files (homework, etc.) back and forth between my home computer and computers at school. What do I need to do to make sure I don't bring home viruses, rootkits, etc.?
    Thanks.
     
  2. JRViejo

    JRViejo Super Moderator

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    pepperer,
    If your home computer's USB drive letter is constant, say G for example, you could disable autorun on that drive to prevent anything from running when inserting the drive. Your AV should scan the drive as soon as you plug it in with autorun enabled, but the above disabling step would give you time to run scans prior to using the drive.

    Another suggestion is to install ClamWin Portable on the USB drive and run a scan of only the files that were used at school, prior to unplugging the drive from their PCs. Single file scans wouldn't take too much time.

    Hopefully, other Wilders members will soon post their ideas as well.
     
  3. farmerlee

    farmerlee Registered Member

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    You can try drivesentry goanywhere. You install it on the usb drive and when you insert it in a computer drivesentry loads up and allows you to control what gets written to the drive.
     
  4. axial

    axial Registered Member

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    The following seems to be one possible solution:

    http://blog.didierstevens.com/programs/usbvirusscan/

     
  5. Franklin

    Franklin Registered Member

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  6. pepperer

    pepperer Registered Member

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    Thanks guys.
    So if I make sure 1) that my computer doesn't run an autorun.inf on my flash drive when I plug it in, and
    2) I scan the contents of the drive before clicking on anything,

    how safe is my computer from viruses if one got onto my flash drive at school?
     
  7. Doodler

    Doodler Registered Member

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    Sorry for the ambiguity, but I think the answer is...it depends. If you take the above steps and you plug in an infected flash drive that has a virus signature that is already identified by your AV, then it should alert you and presumably protect you. But if it's a zero-day infection (i.e., not yet identified by your AV), then you've got problems.

    To deal with the zero-day potential, you could add a third step by running the flash drive in a sandbox (Sandboxie) or other virtual environment.
     
  8. emperordarius

    emperordarius Registered Member

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    I don't think you're really gonna get new threats, at most some Brontoks or Online Game trojans. Just disable autorun, your av should automatically scan the drive(if not you should configure it to scan all removal drives), and even if it doesn't it will alert you if you try to access an infected files.
     
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