5 ms·

As has been pointed out, you couldn't block this kind of thing without blocking USB keyboards altogether. I wonder what it would look like to have a background

by _bxg1 7y ago

As has been pointed out, you couldn't block this kind of thing without blocking USB keyboards altogether. I wonder what it would look like to have a background program that would detect and intercept any newly connected device by default, give it a fake (VM?) environment, and log everything it tried to do to the screen while prompting to ask if you want to let it into the "real" system. Obviously this is what security professionals do manually, but I'm talking about a totally transparent and automatic version that could be left running all the time.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
rcfox 7y ago
I once worked at a place where the keyboard and mouse were chained to the tower and glued in place, and the spare USB ports were glued over.
- alexhutcheson 7y ago
  What happens when you spill coffee on your keyboard?
  - aunkabahb 7y ago
    You call someone in the IT department to replace the keyboard. ? Generally though, places that I've worked at with the same restrictions, also don't let you have liquids at the desk with said stations. I've been in plenty of machine rooms where liquids == fired/escorted from the building.
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
    Help Desk comes by with a new keyboard, a hair drier, and a glue gun, probably.
fouronnes3 7y ago
A simple system like android fine grained permissions? <usb device> is asking to send keyboard input. Allow/Deny?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  This strikes me as the right solution, with two caveats: • It should allow the keyboard through—or have a timeout that defaults to "yes"—if a mouse or keyboard is not already connected. • I should have the option to disable it.
  - fouronnes3 7y ago
    desktops and servers could have special "root ports" physically colored red and hidden at the back of the case that don't require permissions.
    - dredmorbius 7y ago
      PS/2!
  - Gaelan 7y ago
    If there's a monitor, you don't need to trust the first keyboard—just display a message with "type this [random] code to allow this keyboard."
    - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
      I like this, but how do you know the keyboard layout?
      - sthgrau 7y ago
        My thought was that it would be an excellent, low knowledge way of figuring that out. For example, if it said type "qwerty" and it came through as "azerty", that would get you 95% of the way to having a fully functional keyboard. Mapping out the requisite keys needed to fully identify the keys could probably be done with a fairly short number of key presses for 99+% of likely keyboards. For this case, I am assuming that the keyboard and os language are fairly compatible, at least translatable.
zelon88 7y ago
I made a script which runs on user logon in my Windows domain and watches for any USB storage device. It doesn't stop the attack, but in my small(ish) network I can easily recognize unauthorized devices. https://github.com/zelon88/Workstation_USB_Monitor https://github.com/zelon88/Workstation_USB_Monitor
- dijit 7y ago
  I used to do the other way around, and disable all my ports until I knew I needed to use one. Of course, there's always the possibility that I unlock my port and plug in some infected USB of my own volition and it's much more likely than some random person plugging something in. But, anyway, this thing presents as a keyboard, not a storage device.
  - zelon88 7y ago
    I thought about disabling ports, and on some machines I do, but for the most part there would be mutiny if people couldn't charge their phones or use USB sticks for legitimate purposes. I try instead to make sure everyone is skeptical and weary of everything technology related+the corporate network. I'm in the process of creating a USB drop-test script for employee training purposes. Awareness and preparedness training has been one of my best investments of time and energy with a staggering ROI. My team recently passed my last phishing test 100%.
    - fencepost 7y ago
      For phone and device charging, go purchase a bunch of reputable 2 - 4 port chargers and cables and set a policy that phones at other devices should never be plugged into computers. If you want to really dissuade people, add to the policy that the full contents of any phone plugged into a company computer may be silently downloaded and examined by IT. If the corporate network you're talking about is Windows Active Directory based then I believe that there are Group Policy settings to only allow connection of encrypted external drives. I'm not sure when this was introduced, and it might only be on Windows 10, but hopefully at this point most businesses are either already there or moving in that direction.
egypturnash 7y ago
On my Macs, when I try to connect a new Bluetooth keyboard, the system pops up a dialogue asking me to type a randomly-generated passcode before it'll accept any further data from the keyboard. But it just completely trusts any USB device I plug into it to do whatever. I wonder how much work it would be to have it ask for the user to type a randomly-generated passcode before accepting input from a new USB device?

by _bxg1 7y ago

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

rcfox 7y ago

I once worked at a place where the keyboard and mouse were chained to the tower and glued in place, and the spare USB ports were glued over.

alexhutcheson 7y ago
What happens when you spill coffee on your keyboard?
- aunkabahb 7y ago
  You call someone in the IT department to replace the keyboard. ? Generally though, places that I've worked at with the same restrictions, also don't let you have liquids at the desk with said stations. I've been in plenty of machine rooms where liquids == fired/escorted from the building.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
  Help Desk comes by with a new keyboard, a hair drier, and a glue gun, probably.

fouronnes3 7y ago

A simple system like android fine grained permissions? <usb device> is asking to send keyboard input. Allow/Deny?

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
Wowfunhappy 7y ago
This strikes me as the right solution, with two caveats: • It should allow the keyboard through—or have a timeout that defaults to "yes"—if a mouse or keyboard is not already connected. • I should have the option to disable it.
- fouronnes3 7y ago
  desktops and servers could have special "root ports" physically colored red and hidden at the back of the case that don't require permissions.
  - dredmorbius 7y ago
    PS/2!
- Gaelan 7y ago
  If there's a monitor, you don't need to trust the first keyboard—just display a message with "type this [random] code to allow this keyboard."
  - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
    I like this, but how do you know the keyboard layout?
    - sthgrau 7y ago
      My thought was that it would be an excellent, low knowledge way of figuring that out. For example, if it said type "qwerty" and it came through as "azerty", that would get you 95% of the way to having a fully functional keyboard. Mapping out the requisite keys needed to fully identify the keys could probably be done with a fairly short number of key presses for 99+% of likely keyboards. For this case, I am assuming that the keyboard and os language are fairly compatible, at least translatable.

zelon88 7y ago

I made a script which runs on user logon in my Windows domain and watches for any USB storage device. It doesn't stop the attack, but in my small(ish) network I can easily recognize unauthorized devices. https://github.com/zelon88/Workstation_USB_Monitor https://github.com/zelon88/Workstation_USB_Monitor

dijit 7y ago
I used to do the other way around, and disable all my ports until I knew I needed to use one. Of course, there's always the possibility that I unlock my port and plug in some infected USB of my own volition and it's much more likely than some random person plugging something in. But, anyway, this thing presents as a keyboard, not a storage device.
- zelon88 7y ago
  I thought about disabling ports, and on some machines I do, but for the most part there would be mutiny if people couldn't charge their phones or use USB sticks for legitimate purposes. I try instead to make sure everyone is skeptical and weary of everything technology related+the corporate network. I'm in the process of creating a USB drop-test script for employee training purposes. Awareness and preparedness training has been one of my best investments of time and energy with a staggering ROI. My team recently passed my last phishing test 100%.
  - fencepost 7y ago
    For phone and device charging, go purchase a bunch of reputable 2 - 4 port chargers and cables and set a policy that phones at other devices should never be plugged into computers. If you want to really dissuade people, add to the policy that the full contents of any phone plugged into a company computer may be silently downloaded and examined by IT. If the corporate network you're talking about is Windows Active Directory based then I believe that there are Group Policy settings to only allow connection of encrypted external drives. I'm not sure when this was introduced, and it might only be on Windows 10, but hopefully at this point most businesses are either already there or moving in that direction.

egypturnash 7y ago

On my Macs, when I try to connect a new Bluetooth keyboard, the system pops up a dialogue asking me to type a randomly-generated passcode before it'll accept any further data from the keyboard. But it just completely trusts any USB device I plug into it to do whatever. I wonder how much work it would be to have it ask for the user to type a randomly-generated passcode before accepting input from a new USB device?