Pretty, shiny usb drive is all it takes to compromise security….
Sometimes you just want to cry… This writeup is an example of the “soft underbelly” of every network’s security plan… the users. Basically, you have a group that was hired to do a computer security audit of a credit union. They were told that some of the main concerns were social engineering (easy sharing of passwords among/from employees) and they were concerned about removable usb drives being used to copy data out of the credit union. So, they hatched an idea to try and make use of what they’d learned were the concerns. They prepared 20 usb keys with pictures and some “specially designed software” and scattered them in places where employees would find them… smoking areas, parking lot, etc.
The real kicker is that 15 of the drives were picked up AND plugged into pcs AND they apparently each clicked through the included files INCLUDING the specially crafted trojan, which then started reporting back usernames and passwords as they went to work. I guess in ancient times it was the trojan horse, but today it’s the trojan usb key?
It’s best to be suspicious of “things found”. Many companies have strict NO USB storage policies. If you’re concerned about disabling that, (for windows systems) you might reference this article on disabling usb discs in windows. What’s nice about this method is that you can disable JUST the usb storage devices (without affecting mice/keyboards/scanners) and any devices attached when you do this will still be usable (in case there are sanctioned usb storage devices.)
Of course, in most linux systems you can either disable the usb_storage driver or disable the ability of users mounting drives. There was some slashdot discussion about autorun with regards to usb, but from the article it doesn’t sound like they tried to do any “autorun” other than give something people might be interested to click on. (Files that look to be images). I can imagine that Windows default policy of hiding file extensions doesn’t help, although there are ways to do the above without executable files ending in .exe or com or scripts ending in bat or cmd… etc.
So what’s the advice? Test anything “discovered” on a “safe” (read NETWORK DISCONNECTED) system, treat it like you would imagine any dangerous package left outside might be treated, with great suspicion and caution.
Social Engineering is still the #1 security vulnerability.