Question

Lock U3 drive files and programs from being changed

Asked by: charlestasse

I use a U3 drive and Xoft to check and see if customers computers are infected. Avast, McAfee and other vendors have anti-virus applications for protecting infection on the USB, however these applications start after the USB drive is presented to the opperating system.

I am trying to find an application that will prevent any changes to the U3 drive files and applications but still allow the U3 Lauchpad and Xoft to run.

I know that there are flash drives out there that have a physical switch on them to lock them from changes, I am looking for a software solution that runs on the flash drive as it needs to be portable.

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Asked On
2009-09-27 at 10:18:46ID24765303
Tags

Flash Drive

,

USB

,

U3

,

Read Only

Topics

Hardware Components

,

IT Administration

,

Anti-Virus

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
6

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Answers

 

by: sirocco87Posted on 2009-09-27 at 11:29:55ID: 25434902

You can use the USB write protector: http://www.gaijin.at/dlusbwp.php

I don't know if your on-stick anti-virus apps will still work (they might have to write to the stick for updated definitions)

Hope that helps

 

by: BitsBytesandMorePosted on 2009-09-27 at 18:42:01ID: 25436325

According to Xsoftspy and ZDnet, you can configure the settings to start scanning as soon as the program loads (see in the link the screenshot).... It is actually marketed for computer repair technicians so they can repair and remove infections with it. I have never heard yet of U3 itself getting infected while the drive is being presented to the OS. Read this review article:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/mobile-gadgeteer/?p=76

My technicians and I use it on a daily basis just to keep the Sandisk U3 drive protected since I actually use MalwareBytes AntiMalware for the repairs..... I have never had the U3 drive get infected (and we see a lot of machines every day)...

 

by: charlestassePosted on 2009-09-28 at 03:49:04ID: 25438093

USB Write Protector is a PC based app that affects only the computer that is running this program, not the solution I am looking for

Yes Xoft can auto start from the U3 Lauch Pad, however one of the issues with U2 is that it also presents to Windows an additional Mass Storage Device that is unprotected until the USB Antivirus (Avast, McAfee) is fully loaded.

 

by: BitsBytesandMorePosted on 2009-09-28 at 06:40:50ID: 25439226

Charles....I understand what you mean....nevertheless, if you put a password on it, the system of the infected pc cannot even list the contents until the password is provided in the meantime the Xsoft has already started the scanning and protection features.

 

by: charlestassePosted on 2009-09-28 at 07:06:32ID: 25439422

Do you mean the Launchpad password or are you speaking of another program?

 

by: BitsBytesandMorePosted on 2009-09-28 at 07:29:27ID: 25439623

The big problem here is that the U3 launchpad behaves differently on different OS's and even on the same OS but different computers. On some systems it asks for permission to load the launchpad, on others it loads the launchpad on insertion of the flash drive (regardless of what you have previously set/configured it to do on insertion).

This behavior will also vary if you have a DVD RW or a CD RW and even then....In some cases where the customer has problems with the "LowerFilters" and "UpperFilters" in the registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

This said...in any case, once the flash drive is Write Protected with it's own launchpad application or other third party application it cannot be written to while the scan is in progress when it presents to Windows an additional Mass Storage Device unless the antivirus software has allowed this to happen.

U3 not work like in DOS + Windows where you can have the antivirus start it's protection on DOS while loading Windows since what is initializing the U3 application is actually Windows.....so unless they can come up with a way to initialize the U3 application to load in DOS instead of Windows this problem will be there and the theoretical possibility to get infected.

I from the days when they had DOS viruses and the only way to prevent the virus from infecting your antivirus software was to boot directly from the antivirus boot disk.

So if you really want to be confident your solution would be to use the USB Flash Drive as a boot device that would scan the computer directly (but you would be unable to use the U3 features until Windows is loaded). This would also be a problem on older computers not designed to be able to boot from a USB drive.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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