USB drive hacking

Posted Jun 14th 2006 1:00AM by Eliot Phillips
Filed under: peripherals hacks

[wesley mcgrew] has been playing around with Sandisk's U3 Smart USB Drives technology. U3 is designed to make implementation of portable applications easier. The USB drive appears as a CDROM drive and can autorun applications. Wesley has a guide for how to patch in your own CD ISO. This ties in pretty well with the dangers of USB drives that we've covered before (one, two) and Schneier has a recent post on USB security issues as well.

[UPDATE: [matt] pointed out a recent Security Catalyst podcast with Abe Usher on podslurping]

Reader Comments

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1. It's silver plated http://www.engadget.com/2004/08/17/silver-plated-usb-flash-memory-drive/

Posted at 3:06PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Eliot Phillips

2. The Security Catalyst, who you've listed in the past in your "roundup of security podcasts" has a great interview with Abe Usher, who wrote one of the original "podslurping" proof-of-concept utilities. You can download, or listen direct, here: http://www.securitycatalyst.com/2006/04/13/security-catalyst-25-insider-interviews-podslurping-with-abe-usher/

Posted at 3:06PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Matt

3. interesting artical - goes to show why I have autorun turn off on everything... off topic - but what usb drive that you have is chrome? looks cool haha

Posted at 3:06PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by strazzere

4. Hello all, maybe you can help me out. I'm trying to autoplay a software on my usb key. I configure the autorun.inf to start automaticaly with the program, but not the damn window that ask you what to do (media player, no action, and blablabla). Is that possible? i don't have a u3, it's a basic usb key. I read alot on that but, it doesn't seems to work. Is there a solution? How can i partition my usb key like a cd? thanks, chris

Posted at 3:06PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by chris

5. @ #29 (dude) Yes , I know how,if you go to the www.911cd.net forum and search you will find some VERY usefull tips and links to tools that might let you do it, but it all depends on what controler-chip your drive uses.

Posted at 3:06PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by smith

6. anyone know how to change the RMB bit to show the device as non-removable and therefor able to enable autorun???

Posted at 3:06PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by dude

7. Its all in the controler-chip guys. IF your drive has the right one , you can flash it... well you can flah them ALL if you can find the tool.My FSC MemBird shows itself as a FIXED disk.

Posted at 3:06PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Smith

8. Hmmm. Has anyone else tried this out? Some PCs state that they'll need to reboot before installing the U3 drive... rendering the "slurp" considerably less effective...

Posted at 3:06PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Doc

9. someone come up with a way to create u3 fuctinonity to a generic flash drive

Posted at 3:06PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by werejag

10. #23: no need, check out http://portableapps.com/ . you don't have to pay, plus most software repackaged there is open source, unlike most of the apps available through u3. if you want something to start your programs, look into pstart in the utilities section.

Posted at 3:06PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by nixphoeni

11. I saw this thing before on www.wiibay.nl that free auction site but that was a while ago

Posted at 3:06PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by beo w

12. Very interesting article, and that drive. woah! nice i want it :P

Posted at 3:06PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Shaun Campbell

13. Thanks for the U3 uninstall stuff folks!

Posted at 3:06PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by strider_mt2k

14. http://www.u3.com/uninstall for the uninstall straight from the (w)hor(s)e's mouth.

Posted at 3:06PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by carl.rodenbach

15. I have an older Jump Drive Secure 128 MB. Part of its software allows partitioning with a secure and public partitions. It also allows specifying a program to auto run. This bypasses my auto run dissable, and runs it anyways. Must be ran out of the driver, Nice! :D

Posted at 3:06PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by cpp.programmer

16. reallt nice thing, i like alot.

Posted at 3:06PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by xomgaxomg

17. I wish someone just came up with a hack where you could just put the U3 stuff on a drive, or am I missing something? Is there actually some hardware that allows U3 features?

Posted at 3:06PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by craig

18. I got to have the fun of playing with a co-worker's u3 thumbdrive when they first came out. Seems that it has to install software on the computer they are used on, which is a big no-no at most place one would want to use one (Work, library, photo printing machine, etc). When it couldn't install the software the drive refused to open. Needless to say it didn't take a lot of talking to get her to take it back and get a standard thumbdrive as all she wanted to do was haul files tween work & home.

Posted at 3:06PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Pan_theFrog

19. Here's the URL for the U3 uninstaller. You will have to reformat your stick afterwards. It worked fine for me. http://rapidshare.de/files/12773731/U3_Uninstaller.exe.html

Posted at 3:06PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Fermat

20. Here's the URL for the U3 uninstaller. You will have to reformat your stick afterwards. It worked fine for me. http://rapidshare.de/files/12773731/U3_Uninstaller.exe.html

Posted at 3:06PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Fermat

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