Re: You find a USB stick on the ground in public, what do you do?
By: Digital Man to on Sun Sep 17 2023 02:57 pm

(it's not your USB stick and you don't know where it came from)

hmm.. DDMsgReader seems to be one off on voting on polls now (I know it used to be correct); I intended to vote for throwing it into the trash can, but it looks like it registered my vote as plugging it into a Wal-Mart computer.

I don't think I'd want to plug a random USB stick into any computer, unless it was just a spare test computer and not connected to the internet (since I don't know what's on it). I'd wonder if someone might have malicious intent by leaving a USB stick somewhere, but I doubt the police would want to spend their time on it.

Nightfox

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Re: You find a USB stick on the ground in public, what do you do?
By: Nightfox to Digital Man on Sun Sep 17 2023 06:52 pm

Re: You find a USB stick on the ground in public, what do you do?
By: Digital Man to on Sun Sep 17 2023 02:57 pm

(it's not your USB stick and you don't know where it came from)

hmm.. DDMsgReader seems to be one off on voting on polls now (I know it used to be correct); I intended to vote for throwing it into the trash can, but it looks like it registered my vote as plugging it into a Wal-Mart computer.

I don't think I'd want to plug a random USB stick into any computer, unless it was just a spare test computer and not connected to the internet (since I don't know what's on it). I'd wonder if someone might have malicious intent by leaving a USB stick somewhere, but I doubt the police would want to spend their time on it.

A malicious USB stick can actually physically destroy a computer (and possibly cause harm to people nearby):
https://www.darkreading.com/endpoint/rule-of-thumb-usb-killers-pose-real-threat

Also, it's possible that a USB stick is not (just) a storage device, but could be a keyboard/mouse (HID) device disguised as a storage device, that when plugged in will do a bunch of things to/with your computer that you don't want.
https://blog.teamascend.com/rubber-ducky

There's more than just the 'autorun' of malware to be concerned about.

But yeah, you should fix that voting problem. Walmart would appreciate it. :-) --
digital man (rob)

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Re: You find a USB stick on the ground in public, what do you do?
By: Digital Man to on Sun Sep 17 2023 14:57:04

(it's not your USB stick and you don't know where it came from)

8. Plug it into a spare, non-internet connected computer without a hard drive running Linux from a CD with a BIOS likely too old to be infectable. :)
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Re: You find a USB stick on the ground in public, what do you do?
By: Nelgin to Digital Man on Mon Sep 18 2023 09:39 pm

Re: You find a USB stick on the ground in public, what do you do?
By: Digital Man to on Sun Sep 17 2023 14:57:04

(it's not your USB stick and you don't know where it came from)

8. Plug it into a spare, non-internet connected computer without a hard drive running Linux from a CD with a BIOS likely too old to be infectable.

And Bang! 5 seconds later the computer smokes and catches fire. Wrong answer! --
digital man (rob)

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On 18 Sep 2023, Nelgin said the following...

8. Plug it into a spare, non-internet connected computer without a hard drive running Linux from a CD with a BIOS likely too old to be
infectable. :) ---

there's lots of creepy stuff that maybe hasn't been done yet.. for example a usb-c device that pretended to be a monitor could be fed everything you do.. assuming you managed to put the pc into 'mirror mode' .. something you might be able to automate by also making the usb stick include a keyboard/mouse
controller.. at that point you could probably create something to remotely control the computer too. a non-savvy user might choose mirror mode on their own just to avoid losing windows to the invisible desktop lol

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On 18 Sep 2023, fusion said the following...

probably create something to remotely control the computer too. a non-savvy user might choose mirror mode on their own just to avoid
losing windows to the invisible desktop lol

actually, i think as part of the power saving stuff, when the screens are off the video card will power itself down part way and windows sees no monitors connected.. the usb-c display might be the last one left and get everything anyways.. ;)

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/32)
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Digital Man wrote to Nelgin <=-

8. Plug it into a spare, non-internet connected computer without a hard drive running Linux from a CD with a BIOS likely too old to be infectable.

And Bang! 5 seconds later the computer smokes and catches fire. Wrong answer!

Mine does that all the time anyways, USB or no USB. :)


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Re: Re: You find a USB stick on the ground in public, what do you do?
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Digital Man on Tue Sep 19 2023 08:08 am

Digital Man wrote to Nelgin <=-

8. Plug it into a spare, non-internet connected computer without a hard drive running Linux from a CD with a BIOS likely too old to be infectable.

And Bang! 5 seconds later the computer smokes and catches fire. Wrong answer!

Mine does that all the time anyways, USB or no USB. :)

... Ask people to work against their better judgement

if i find a usb stick first thing i do is destroy it.
i'm protecting myself and that person from harm.
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Re: You find a USB stick on the ground in public, what do you do?
By: Nelgin to Digital Man on Mon Sep 18 2023 09:39 pm

Re: You find a USB stick on the ground in public, what do you do?
By: Digital Man to on Sun Sep 17 2023 14:57:04

(it's not your USB stick and you don't know where it came from)

8. Plug it into a spare, non-internet connected computer without a hard driv > ---
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Meh, then its concealed capacitor blows your motherboard up.

I think some USB 3.x hubs allow direct memory access to USB devices, which is ugly as heck. How direct memory access became a thing for pluggable devices makes the people who had the idea deserving of a slow public execution.

--
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Re: You find a USB stick on the ground in public, what do you do?
By: Digital Man to Nelgin on Mon Sep 18 2023 20:46:36

And Bang! 5 seconds later the computer smokes and catches fire. Wrong answer! --

Can throw ashes in the trash rather than have to take it to recycling. nelgin for the win!
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Re: You find a USB stick on the ground in public, what do you do?
By: Nightfox to Digital Man on Sun Sep 17 2023 06:52 pm

(it's not your USB stick and you don't know where it came from)

hmm.. DDMsgReader seems to be one off on voting on polls now (I know it used to be correct); I intended to vote for throwing it into the trash can, but it looks like it registered my vote as plugging it into a Wal-Mart computer.

I don't think I'd want to plug a random USB stick into any computer, unless it was just a spare test computer and not connected to the internet (since I don't know what's on it). I'd wonder if someone might have malicious intent by leaving a USB stick somewhere, but I doubt the police would want to spend their time on it.

Some CISOs like to leave them randomly so they can catch people plugging them in.

---TLM

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Re: You find a USB stick on the ground in public, what do you do?
By: The Lizard Master to Nightfox on Thu Sep 28 2023 01:09 pm

I don't think I'd want to plug a random USB stick into any computer, unless

Some CISOs like to leave them randomly so they can catch people plugging them in.

What is a CISO?

Nightfox

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Re: You find a USB stick on the ground in public, what do you do?
By: Nightfox to The Lizard Master on Fri Sep 29 2023 09:21 am

Some CISOs like to leave them randomly so they can catch people plugging them in.

What is a CISO?

Chief Information Security Officer

---TLM

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Re: You find a USB stick on the ground in public, what do you do?
By: Digital Man to Nightfox on Sun Sep 17 2023 20:22:11

There's more than just the 'autorun' of malware to be concerned about.

But yeah, you should fix that voting problem. Walmart would appreciate it. :-)

"The county is responsible for securing the machines, it's not our job."

I won't go into, or list any specific issues. That said, I don't work for the company that made the on-demand printers used in Maricopa county and others anymore. All said, I am more skeptical of election integrity than most.


--
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tracker1@roughneckbbs.com

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Re: Re: You find a USB stick on the ground in public, what do you do?
By: fusion to Nelgin on Mon Sep 18 2023 23:48:00

there's lots of creepy stuff that maybe hasn't been done yet.. for example a usb-c device that pretended to be a monitor could be fed everything you do.. assuming you managed to put the pc into 'mirror mode' .. something you might be able to automate by also making the usb stick include a keyboard/mouse controller.. at that point you could probably create something to remotely control the computer too. a non-savvy user might choose mirror mode on their own just to avoid losing windows to the invisible desktop lol

There's lots of creepy stuff that *has* been done. You can do an HID as well as small storage and even a wireless network adapter. If the device being plugged into is unlocked, and you know the OS in question, there's quite a bit you can do.

For a system I had concerns about, I actually wanted to have a second sealed system with only a serial interface externally with a write-only log to at least track any potential security issues... But, what could go wrong with systems running windows, software that has plain text database passwords available to non-admin accounts and ballot PDF files that aren't even cryptographically signed. And so what if these systems were actually deployed on systems that aren't the systems tested on... and no big deal if configurations were changed the night before and morning of the election...

"Most secure election in US history."


--
Michael J. Ryan
+o roughneckbbs.com
tracker1@roughneckbbs.com

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Re: Re: You find a USB stick on the ground in public, what do you do?
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Digital Man on Tue Sep 19 2023 08:08:00

And Bang! 5 seconds later the computer smokes and catches fire.
Wrong
answer!

Mine does that all the time anyways, USB or no USB. :)

No joke, a friend's first experience with a USB keyboard mid 90's, the interface melted/smoked... he wouldn't do anything with USB for half a decade after that.


--
Michael J. Ryan
+o roughneckbbs.com
tracker1@roughneckbbs.com

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Re: You find a USB stick on the ground in public, what do you do?
By: The Lizard Master to Nightfox on Thu Sep 28 2023 01:09 pm

Some CISOs like to leave them randomly so they can catch people plugging them in.

I used to occasionally "drop" them in the office carpark and go tap people on the shoulder when they'd be plugged into a work PC. People can't resist the temptation of a random USB drive.

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Re: You find a USB stick on the ground in public, what do you do?
By: Ewing to The Lizard Master on Tue Oct 03 2023 10:16 am

Re: You find a USB stick on the ground in public, what do you do?
By: The Lizard Master to Nightfox on Thu Sep 28 2023 01:09 pm

Some CISOs like to leave them randomly so they can catch people plugging them in.

I used to occasionally "drop" them in the office carpark and go tap people on the shoulder when they'd be plugged into a work PC. People can't resist the temptation of a random USB drive.

not much work to do , eh?
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