{"id":294,"date":"2009-03-12T12:11:08","date_gmt":"2009-03-12T04:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramfree17.net\/capsule\/?p=294"},"modified":"2009-03-12T12:11:08","modified_gmt":"2009-03-12T04:11:08","slug":"auto-run-virus-on-my-usb-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ramfree17.net\/capsule\/?p=294","title":{"rendered":"Auto-run virus on my USB drive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This morning I was copying some files in my USB drive and I found some peculiar files in the root directory: password_viewer.exe and autorun.inf. These are peculiar because I have embarked in a personal Use Linux-only policy in my home systems so I have no need for Windows auto-run feature and I hate that feature to the core so I disable them. I did some quick searching in the Internet and these are normally associated with the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.symantec.com\/security_response\/writeup.jsp?docid=2006-071111-0646-99\">w32.sillyfdc<\/a> worm.<\/p>\n<p>This got me thinking on where I would have contracted that virus as I am pretty paranoid when it comes to my devices. Then it hit me, I had some photos developed at Picture City Digital shop in Robinson&#8217;s Pioneer. Sure, I saw the attendant run a manual AVG scan on the contents of my thumb drive but apparently it was not enough because: (1) the scanner real-time file protection was not activated, and (2) I am not sure when was the last time they have updated their virus definitions.<\/p>\n<p>No big deal for me really because I was already prepared to have my drive infected as I only have the pictures to be developed in there. I think the scanning procedure done in the shop threw me back into a sense of complacency that I didn&#8217;t double check anymore if it was infected. The drive was used once more by my officemate on his Vista-loaded laptop but I am confident that he is as paranoid as me and his AVG was able to quarantine the infection automatically. He didn&#8217;t even notice it until I brought it up this morning.<\/p>\n<p>My take-away tips for this experience are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Convert to using linux as your primary system. Ok, I just have to put that in. \ud83d\ude42<\/li>\n<li>If using printing shop services for your digital pictures, put them in a read-only media like a CDRW or a SD-card with the write-lock enabled.<\/li>\n<li>If you are adamant in using Windows, <a href=\"2008\/06\/pesky-cdusb-auto-play\/\">turn-off the auto-play feature<\/a> altogether. Most of the time it is more trouble than useful.<\/li>\n<li>When using Windows, keep your anti-virus software and definitions up to date and turn-on the real-time file protection if you have a habit of inserting media used from untrusted places.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>ciao!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This morning I was copying some files in my USB drive and I found some peculiar files in the root directory: password_viewer.exe and autorun.inf. These are peculiar because I have embarked in a personal Use Linux-only policy in my home systems so I have no need for Windows auto-run feature and I hate that feature [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-floss","category-technology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramfree17.net\/capsule\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramfree17.net\/capsule\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramfree17.net\/capsule\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramfree17.net\/capsule\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramfree17.net\/capsule\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ramfree17.net\/capsule\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramfree17.net\/capsule\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramfree17.net\/capsule\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramfree17.net\/capsule\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}