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I believe the main issue is that the stick can be configured so that Windows will automatically run an executable on the USB stick when it's plugged in, so OS X
by cmelbye 15y ago
I believe the main issue is that the stick can be configured so that Windows will automatically run an executable on the USB stick when it's plugged in, so OS X and Linux wouldn't be affected by that.
- palish 15y agoSorry, to be clear, I was asking whether Linux or OS X also have the same silly idea of "Let's execute an arbitrary program on the USB stick whenever it's plugged in!" I don't know the answer because I don't use Linux for day-to-day work (I work in gamedev, whose primary platform is Windows) and I'm too poor too afford a Macbook.
- technomancy 15y agoThis is only half the problem, and it is trivial to defeat. What we should really be worried about is malware that acts as a USB keyboard, since that's much harder to protect against. It's also much harder to reliably launch an attack from, but in the case of a targeted attack where the OS is known it wouldn't be too difficult to come up with something that could sneak some nasties in with a low chance of detection.