Solved How to prevent usb flash drive viruses?

[M1GU31]

I was wondering what I can do to prevent my usb flash drive from geting infected when i connect it to say school computers or a friends computer since I dont trust them as much. I searched a bit on google but would like to know what you guys do to prevent these malicious content from infecting your flash drive. Also what can I do to my pc to prevent it from getting infected from others flash drives? Just want some tips

 

[Golden]

Hi,

Try this:

ANTIMALWARE: Panda USB Vaccine - Download FREE - PANDA SECURITY

Regards,
Golden

 

[M1GU31]

thank you golden noticed that the aplication made a autorun file on the usb drive and I vaccinated the computer also. So with this my chances should be slimmer to catch infections? Will this application stop a infection from a flash drive that was not vaccinated, say a friends flash drive? Also noticed when I tried to vaccinate my flash drive that Avira stopped it so I had to disable it to vaccinate the flash drive.

 

[Golden]

Hi,

In the case of a friends un-vaccinated flash drive, turn off the auto-run feature on your PC like this. This prevents anything on the USB from automatically running - then scan the USB with your anti-malware product before opening it in Explorer.

Regards,
Golden

 

[M1GU31]

ok thank you for the information golden, feel a lot more safe now that i'm knowledgeable about this

 

[macgig]

so what prevents viruses from getting on the flash drive? does the program you mentioned stop it or does disabling auto run prevent it? or both?

 

[Alejandro85]

The quick and dirty method I use is just to create a folder on the root of the USB drive called "autorun.inf", so if a virus tries to create it, will fail. If the drive is NTFS, deny full control on everyone for extra security.

The disabling of autorun on the Windows settings only prevents to run a virus on an infected drive on that computer, but it will NOT prevent the USB to get infected in the first place. It's a good security measure to take if you're going to use pendrives from presumably unsafe computers.
No idea about the "vaccination" or what it exactly does.

 

[macgig]

that program created a file called AUTORUN.INF (all caps) on the flash drive... so do I need to create a folder too?

 

[cottonball]

Microsoft provides the following to disable AutoRun...

Download MicrosoftFixIt50471:
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9741395
Save to the Desktop

Right-click the downloaded file, and select: Install
In the Open File - Security Warning, allow the file to run.

In the MicrosoftFixIt prompt, check: I Agree
In the next pompt, you are notified a Restore Point is created
When done, a prompt appears with: Microsoft FixIt has been processed.
Close the prompt, and agree to restart the computer.

The above disables AutoRun on all kinds of drives: removable, fixed, network, CD-ROM, and those of unknown type. It worked on a computer running Windows 7 Home Premium (32-bit). No Gpedit.msc option.

Now, to confirm Microsoft did its job...

Please download SystemLook from one of the links below:
64-bit system:
http://jpshortstuff.247Fixes.com/SystemLook_x64.exe
32-bit System:
http://jpshortstuff.247fixes.com/SystemLook.exe






Save the file to the Desktop

• Double-click SystemLook.exe to run it.
• Copy the content of the following code box into the open area:

:reg 
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer\

• Click the Look button to start the scan.
• When finished, a Notepad window opens with the results of the scan.
  Please post the SystemLook.txt in your reply.

If all goes well, you should get a similar report:

SystemLook 30.07.11 by jpshortstuff

Log created at 20:30 on 28/04/2013 by Cottonball
Administrator - Elevation successful
========== reg ==========
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer\]
"NoDriveTypeAutoRun"= 0x00000000ff (255)

-= EOF =-

The entry "NoDriveTypeAutoRun"= 0x00000000ff (255) disables AutoRun on all kinds of drives.

To selectively disable specific drives, use a different value as described in...
How to selectively disable specific Autorun features:
How to disable the Autorun functionality in Windows


To enable AutoRun use MicrosoftFixIt50475:
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9743275

Enabling AutoRun re-introduces a risk to the system.
However, this is the User's choice.