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Old 31st December 2019
stanl stanl is offline
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Default USB drive vulnerable?

Basic question - if i have a usb drive plugged in but not mounted, is that drive vulnerable should I be hit with a ransomware/malware attack?

Thank you
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Old 31st December 2019
e1-531g e1-531g is offline
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I don't know how susceptible OpenBSD is to malware infection in this case, but I think attacker may sniff things typed on USB-connected keyboard or sometimes even built-in keyboard.
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Old 31st December 2019
Beastie Beastie is offline
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Yep, there are hardware keyloggers, rubber duckies (not the yellow bath toy kind), etc. If you're really paranoid, no device can be trusted.

Now if you're talking about those malware that have been infesting USB devices for more than a decade now, then these (used to?) depend on autoruns to execute their payload and/or the user being fooled into opening what they shouldn't (e.g. executables with a "folder" icon). Fortunately pretty much all of these are made for Windows and can quite easily be detected and eleminated. They will often store the payload in directories that have the "hidden" attribute or ones with the "system" attribute such as the "Recycle Bin" or "System Volume Information".
Needless to say most of them will not run on anything other than Windows and will definitely not pose any threat if you don't even mount the device. Also, maybe it's just me but 1) I've noticed a sharp decrease in this kind of USB-borne malware in the past few years and 2) these are more often transmitted through hijacked email accounts.

So theoretically, you mostly have to worry about the first type.
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Old 1st January 2020
TronDD TronDD is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stanl View Post
Basic question - if i have a usb drive plugged in but not mounted, is that drive vulnerable should I be hit with a ransomware/malware attack?

Thank you
Sure. The drive is still known to system even if no file system is mounted. The malware can scan the USB bus and mount any drive it finds. I don't know if any of them do that, but it'd be trivial.

A hardware encrypted drive should prevent any changes. A software encrypted drive could have the data erased, but not read.
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