USB U3 - the device that lies.

U3 USB devices sound like a great idea - a device that will run particular software when you plug it into a computer.

How does it achieve this?

Wisely recognising that most companies disable autorun on USB storage devices, because of the security risks, the framers of the U3 standard chose to create a device format that comes as a USB storage device, but claims to be a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, so that it can auto-execute the U3 Launchpad, which is what opens all the various U3 applications.

So, if you want to stop automatic execution of applications on USB storage devices such as thumb-drives, you'll need to also disable autorun on CD/DVD drives as well.

Published Tuesday, January 30, 2007 10:03 PM by Alun Jones
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Comments

# re: USB U3 - the device that lies.

Those U3's are EVIL.  I hate usb devices that have that logo.

Wednesday, January 31, 2007 12:48 AM by bradley

# But whu trusts CD?

Surely after the Sony rootkit debacle, you will want to disable autorun on CD drives anyway. And I've seen anti-virus software triggered by CD-R disks make on an infected home computer.

What's wanted is the option to allow automatic running of your local good copy of a media player or web browser, but never execution of code from the disk.

Monday, February 05, 2007 7:21 AM by Andrew Yeomans

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