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Dead Drops: what to do if you see a USB stick sticking out of a wall

theguardian.com

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Re: Dead Drops: what to do if you see a USB stick sticking out of a wall

#31

Post by speakeron »

will_brown wrote: post #25

The article mentions USB attacks/exploits...but even more dangerous would be child pornography,at least in the US such a crime does not require intent (as automatic as it gets in a criminal context) simply being in possession or even constructive possession would lead to a conviction and a lifetime registration on the sexual offender list.

>The article mentions USB attacks/exploits

I'm not sure that it does. The countermeasures mentioned are for protecting against good old file-based executable exploits. I don't think they even understand the concept of firmware exploits.

Re: Dead Drops: what to do if you see a USB stick sticking out of a wall

#33

Post by xenophonf »

MaximillianII wrote: post #7
freehunter wrote: post #5

A more surreptitious spy would have a piece of hardware that can manipulate a USB drive without needing a full laptop. Any small USB host would do, from an old MP3 player to a Sony PSP.

Tutorial? :)

Start here:

http://youtu.be/D8Im0_KUEf8

See also:

http://travisgoodspeed.blogspot.com/2012/07/emulating-usb-de...

http://travisgoodspeed.blogspot.com/2012/10/emulating-usb-df...

http://goodfet.sourceforge.net/hardware/facedancer21/

Re: Dead Drops: what to do if you see a USB stick sticking out of a wall

#35

Post by chewyfruitloop »

jacobwcarlson wrote: post #19
chewyfruitloop wrote: post #11

i'm pretty sure this is an old concept from the early usb storage days... (found this on archive.org from 2010 https://archive.org/details/Net_At_Night_175 ) wonder why its becoming a "thing" again

The article explicitly states that this project started in 2010.

fair cop....still wonder why its come back up again after so long

Re: Dead Drops: what to do if you see a USB stick sticking out of a wall

#37

Post by Lawtonfogle »

wyager wrote: post #30
onion2k wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's supposed to appear dangerous. The first time anything actually dangerous happened the user would immediately stop using them. Or worse, they'll end up in prison. Copying a random zip file of the Anarchist's Cookbook on to your PC will get you a few hours of questioning by the police and a caution not to be so stupid as to be a pretend spy again; why you downloaded an archive of several thousand child porn pictur…

> Copying a random zip file of the Anarchist's Cookbook on to your PC will get you a few hours of questioning Not in the US. I could download a hundred copies from every sketchy warez site on the internet without violating any laws.

Have not broken any laws does not provide any assured protection. And even the laws that are supposed to protect your rights have a long history of being broken, often with little punishment to the breaker.

Re: Dead Drops: what to do if you see a USB stick sticking out of a wall

#38

Post by ekianjo »

freehunter wrote: post #5

A more surreptitious spy would have a piece of hardware that can manipulate a USB drive without needing a full laptop. Any small USB host would do, from an old MP3 player to a Sony PSP.

An OpenPandora would do even better and recognize sticks in ext formats on top of NTFS and FAT.

Re: Dead Drops: what to do if you see a USB stick sticking out of a wall

#39

Post by pavel_lishin »

dr4g0n wrote: post #36

> If you spot a USB flash drive cemented into a wall or kerb, you may have stumbled across a Dead Drop, part of a global art project borrowing tricks from the world of espionage Or, you might have stumbled across 240VAC wired to a USB connector.

I wonder if that would be worse than carefully crafted malware.
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