Full Disclosure mailing list archives
Re: Bootable Memorystick?
From: Über GuidoZ <uberguidoz () gmail com>
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 15:14:06 -0400
Agree with your answer - in fact, I've successfully booted the Live Knoppix version from a 1GB USB stick. Took some configuring, but runs beautifully once done. If you can get it to work, or worried it might, it has EVERYTHING to do with a security mailing list! Lets say I have physical access to a secured machine. I can't crack the password, nor can I hack into a user account, etc. No worries, I just pop in my memory and stick and pull the power plug. Turn the system back, boot to the memory stick, and voila! I can now navigate the file system and copy anything I want to save. (This includes the SAM accounts from a Windows box for later cracking.) I've even enabled full NTFS write support, as I currently use it for virus repair and troubleshooting. Plus, all my activity is completely undetectable, minus the computer being off or not logged in. These things happen frequently in larger environments... power surge for example. Also, many server systems are left in a logged-out state for security reasons, so it's possible it would never be detected, besides some server downtime. A problem also arises by these memory sticks with the "Autorun" feature enabled in Windows. Plug in a stick with a specially crafted autorun and you can copy files without even touching the keyboard or mouse. (I've seen a successfully written autorun copy the My Documents folder of the currently logged in user, the SAM accounts from the machine, and the IE favorites from the currently logged in user.) All just by plugging in the USB Stick. There are more possibilities as well, as imagination is the limit. Not going to say more as it's not good to give up all my secrets just yet. ;) ~G On Mon, 30 Aug 2004 15:32:38 +0200, Thorsten Peter <boba () unixag-zw fh-kl de> wrote:
why shouldnt you be able to boot to a memory stick? almost every vendor lists "bootable" as a feature of their sticks.....you simply need a board that is able to boot from USB device....that's it. regards Thorsten but i don't get what this question got to do with security mailing lists ;-) Samuel wrote:Has anyone already, or does anyone think it would be possible to boot to a memory-stick instead of a floppy? Ofcourse you would have to have an 8-in-1 card reader first, but once you have one of those, each card comes up as another drive, so seemingly you could boot to one of those drives. _______________________________________________ No banners. No pop-ups. No kidding. Make My Way your home on the Web - http://www.myway.com _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html_______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html
-- Peace. ~G _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html
Current thread:
- Bootable Memorystick? Samuel (Aug 30)
- RE: Bootable Memorystick? Sean Crawford (Aug 30)
- Re: Bootable Memorystick? Lan Guy (Aug 30)
- Re: Bootable Memorystick? Barrie Dempster (Aug 30)
- Re: Bootable Memorystick? KF_lists (Aug 30)
- Re: Bootable Memorystick? Thorsten Peter (Aug 30)
- Re: Bootable Memorystick? KF_lists (Aug 30)
- Re: Bootable Memorystick? Über GuidoZ (Aug 30)
- Re: Bootable Memorystick? Arnaud Jacques / Securiteinfo.com (Aug 30)
- Re: Bootable Memorystick? Über GuidoZ (Aug 30)
- RE: !SPAM! Re: Bootable Memorystick? Yaakov Yehudi (Aug 31)
- Re: !SPAM! Re: Bootable Memorystick? Über GuidoZ (Aug 31)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- RE: Bootable Memorystick? Todd Towles (Aug 30)