I will have to plug the flash drive with Portableapps to an infected computer. How do I protect the flash drive from being infected?
Thank you.
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I guess the obvious question is that if you know the computer is infected why not clean it first?
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
first off, all computers should have live anti-virus software.
Second, you can't. You just gotta hope what antivirus software on the host computer will catch and remove any virus it contains.
Third, if there is a virus, you can always clean the host and your USB drive with ClamWin Portable.
1 can you use a live antivirus cd to clean the computer first??
2 make sure that you do a full disk scan of the drive when you get it "home"
3 DO NOT USE THE DRIVE IN ANOTHER COMPUTER UNTIL IT IS CLEANED
1 impractical. Its hard to carry a CD in your pocket.
2 scanning the host while you use the PC is faster/safer
3 That doesn't tell you where you got the virus and is pretty impractical as well, if you use a PC, then scan, then use another PC, scan again, and then repeat.
one: I have clamWin start automatically when inserted.
and if I have put that flash drive in a foreign system when I get it home I first put it in my linux system to look it over. that way I can make sure the autorun.inf file has not been messed with and I can delete anything bad manually.
I'm not saying this is the only solution or even the best. but it's what I do right now.
"No one man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices." - Edward R. Murrow
Alright. Sorry for the misleading.
Let say, I have to plug the USB to computer in my school (I'm pretty sure that all school computers are infected because so many people use them). Of course I don't want to spend an hour to scan for virus. How do I protect my Portableapps USB?
get one of those usb keys that can lock into a read-only setting.
Don't be an uberPr∅. They are stinky.
Are you sure that Portableapps works with read-only media?
http://research.pandasecurity.com/panda-usb-vaccine-version-1-0-1-4/
It disables autorun on the drive. It's not a perfect solution, but it keeps out a lot of the USB viruses that are in the wild right now.
SWAG
Will the USB WriteProtector (when turn ON) works with Portableapps?
I believe only USB WriteProtector can protect the virus write to USB.
what you mean by that.
There are software 'solutions' around, claiming to protect something , but this is pure nonsense.
There still exist some drives, I have one of them, which have small hardware switch on them marked WP. Yes, this works definitely. Unfortunately those drives are very rare today, the only one I have still found is an old 128mb in size.
Portable apps will work with write protected drive, but some will need extra setting in ini files for that. If set properly, they work also from CD which is wp by default.
Clearly, if you use mail client, receive mails, they will not be stored on the stick if it is wp, so no changes can be done at all, no data stored.
if you had this here in mind:
http://www.gaijin.at/dlusbwp.php
this is pure nonsense. It simply sets a value in the registry on the computer you are just working on. Here it will the refuse to write to this particular drive, but if you can change a value in registry, any body, including any software can do so. So it does not do any changes to the stick itself, the stick is still not protected by any means. And yes, everytime you come to next computer, you have to first run the 'software' to change a key in the registry, by that time you are infected already.
Well and if you go to some antivirus and computer security forum, they might finally recommend you probably most efficient antivirus solution for your case, the well known brain.exe, ask auntie google where to get it from.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
Is as follow...
1. Create a folder autorun.inf that way the virus can't create/replace a file with that name... with this option, a virus can infect the usb but can't spread (and will not run), and you can just delete it...
2. Search this forum, locate AutoMemScan, download it, install it on your usb and configure it.
3. Of course, download and install ClamWin portable and update it.
Now, when you have to use an untrusted computer, connect your USB and open the folder (not double click it, but explore it using the right click -> explore option), and run AutoMemScan before anything else...
After that, in a trusted computer, select to see any hidden/system file, and on your USB (exploring, not double clicking) delete any hidden file you didn't put there...
I have to say that with this option, I never had an infection on my computers transmitted by my USBs...
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report
I used a USB from a co-worker to print some images for her. I had my Portable Apps USB plugged in also. She has an Apple laptop.
Afterward, I then noticed my thumb drive access light continued flashing even when I was not accessing the drive. On the thumb drive, there was a new folder in the root directory named “RESTORE”. Inside is another folder named a number that looks like a registry key. Inside that folder are the files “Desktop.ini” and “Drive13.exe”. When I delete the “RESTORE” folder, it is recreated in less than 30 seconds. I found the same files on my C: drive. I ran Symantec on both my system and thumb drive and they come back clean. It was not.
I did some Internet research and found this is a bug (Trojan?) that is transmitted from Apple to Apple with no harm. When inserted in a Windows machine, it copies itself and send who knows what to who knows where. Since it was on a work computer, I called IT to clean it.
So, yes it happen. It was not pretty. It took IT almost 30 minutes to remove it. I have now turned off autoplay for everything, but I am not sure that fixes the problem... Should help though.
hootowls
How do I protect the flash drive from being infected?
Unless you have a write protected drive you can't. All you can do is hope you have a system with a strong enough AV to clean it after it has been used.
And don't worry about Autorun.inf, MS has disabled autorunning for removable devices since XP SP3 I believe. So unless your school has old systems that's the least of your concerns.
Another good practice, backup your flash files before leaving the house.
Ed
MS has disabled autorunning for removable devices since XP SP3 I believe
Nope, Vista (Business) and 7 (at least the ones I tried) had autorun.
Well it doesn't run on the XP SP3 machines I have and why do you think John developed this app?
https://portableapps.com/node/13770
Ed
That is, disabled autorun for programs. It still shows the open in Explorer, browse pictures, listen to audio, etc. items, but for 7 at least, and it may have been Vista SP1 as well, the file marked for running in Autorun.inf is ignored.
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
I believe you're thinking the Autoplay window which is NOT the same as the autorun.inf file. And it is not automatic, the user has to click on a response option. It is convenient and functional but it is not autorun which would automatically execute a program specified in the autorun.inf file.
Ed
I guess the computer I used with Vista was special because I just put my drive in and it said (like always) 'Check for errors?' or something, then I click 'NO!!!' and then the little window with the selection pops up, like it does on every other computer I use. I'm almost positive 7 did so too, but I'm not positive because I just wanted to print something, not actually use my portable apps, so I just explored the drive.
If you go to each application's support page, most of them can be run right from a CD.
https://portableapps.com/support/thunderbird_portable#cd
https://portableapps.com/support/firefox_portable#cd
https://portableapps.com/support/openoffice_portable#cd
etc.
As for the size of the CD, there are miniCDs and even miniDVDs on 3" in diameter:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini_CD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiniDVD
A miniDVD holds 1.4 GB, so you can have a pretty full complement of apps that fit in your pocket.
One more thing: do you actually have any evidence that the school PCs are infected? You should talk to the Sys Admin or whomever and find out what they are doing to prevent it. Large corporations have thousands of users on their networks, but as long as they are moderately diligent, most of the systems are kept clean.
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
Someone replied: "Portable apps will work with write protected drive, but some will need extra setting in ini files for that." This answer is vague. What extra setting? Why aren't apps written with this extra setting so they will function in write protected flashdrives and SD memory cards?
"Why aren't apps written with this extra setting so they will function in write protected flashdrives and SD memory cards?"
It's not a design objective to the creators of most apps. And as such it may not be possible for portableapp creators to overcome the shortcoming.
Ed