I’ve just been searching through the web trying to find a better alternative to USB Disk Security of Zbshareware. In my search, I found this: http://www.usb-guardian.com/
I tried the software and am very pleased with it. Support, however, seems to be non-existent, at least now. And it may have become an abandonware instead. Still, with the lack of reviews and testing from others, I can’t quite verify the effectiveness of it. What do you guys think? I’m actually using it now. So far, in this short time, it’s consumed only 670 Kb (yes, KB) of resources, sits quietly, boots fast, easy to configure, comes with a help file, and does what it says it does. But I do question it’s effectivity. It can delete the contents of a flash drive, but it doesn’t make any “passes” on it, thus, the deleted files can still recover. To test it, I inserted as USB Flash Disk 2.0 infected with the RECYCLER virus. It detected the autorun and locked every file listed in the autorun. I then had the option to remove the autorun and the files associated with it. So far, that’s the only test I have made.
So what do you think? Is it a keeper? Or are there any other alternatives? ???
USBVirusScan will launch any program you provide as a command line parameter each time a USB stick is inserted. I use it to start a full virus scan on the inserted USB drive: USBVirusScan | Didier Stevens
I don’t know about Usb-guardian… But I really do not trust abandonwares…
I got overwhelmed by USBVirusScan. Not really adept at commandlines. :-[ Autorun Eater would seem kinda pointless if the user accidentally executes the infection. USB Guardian prevents this from happening by locking the suspicious files.
I tried Flash Disinfector just now. It warned me that the screen will go blank and that this was only normal. I didn’t expect it would forcefully close all other running applications. :o So I lost two paragraphs of my essay. I’ll keep it though. Might come in handy.
In comparison though, USB Guardian does both of Autorun Eater and Flash Disinfector’s functions.
Autorun Eater: Realtime protection, removes autorun.inf before it runs
Flash Disinfector: automatic disinfection, removes autorun.inf
USB Guardian: realtime protection, removes autorun.inf (locks first before asking to delete), locks suspicious files, deletes suspicious files, opens the disk safely and automatically. The downside on USB Guardian is that, since programs like Pand’s USB Vaccine are becoming more and more popular, USB Guardian will be rendered useless if it were to encounter a disk without an autorun.inf.
There are dozens of such softwares, and all of them are only partially effective (most often against autorun.inf modifications and vbs scripts).
But we should not forget that prevention is always better then disinfection, and it is quite simple when speaking of usb devices, only needing to mod the registry as to deny both automatic execution and autorun.inf execution.
I also have a protection software on my usb sticks as some of them have more or less confidential data (there are also dozens of them, i presently use Folder Lock): the protection of data if you lose your sticks also manages a secure folder on this stick, keeping what’s inside to be contaminated, and even, under some settings, totally denying the stick access to anyone and anything if you don’t open the said folder with the appropriate password.
True. But I can’t modify the registry of other people’s computers. I have tested USB Guardian. I decided to keep it. My take on this?
If the usb does not have an autorun.inf in it, I doubt the virus would run. So if it doesn’t, then I’m good with that. I know of no one who clicks some file they had no idea was there before these days since many people now are becoming more aware of viruses.
If it does have an autorun.inf, USB Guardian locks it and the files that have included themselves in it. This would prevent it from running or accidentally be accessed/launched by the user.
Others like USB Disk Security which relies on heuristics(?) scanning I found to be oftentimes inconsistent with its detections and/or misses a number of them.
The others can clean only specific viruses. I’m gonna need something that doesn’t require much updates yet could last for some considerable time.
Although it is an abandonware, in my ten days of testing, it doesn’t do anything else except what it said it’ll do. So I guess I can put some level of trust to it. It’s proven itself five times, too.
USB Guardian is active again. The download site now directs to rackspacecloud.com (formerly) from cnet, and the new version is 1.7.0.0; no longer 1.3.0.0.
I realized that it made a good combination along with USB Disk Security. Seems that most of the new viruses spreading via USB has gotten tougher to remove, it is good to know that even though Disk Security, can’t delete it, the USB Guardian would keep it locked to prevent access to it; thus, preventing the autorun and any chance of accidental access. ;D
spainach_12, my fears is that it consider any autorun as infected/problematic and try to remove them all. Although it could be a security risk, I have autorun options enabled for CD/USB drives. I will test in my virtual machine before… :
From what I’ve seen, almost all security programs blocks the autorun. If you know of any (program) that doesn’t consider autorun malicious, would you mind sharing? USB Guardian locks the files associated with it and prevents access to the autorun. Although you may simply unlock it with a simple click.
A very dangerous behavior, as no security software has an extensive database of all potential threats, unless it also involves heuristic detection, and still, it relies on models.
In these conditions, anyone could write an autorun in a device linking to a home made script or, better to avoid detection, a home made executable.
I don’t see, excepting gaining a few seconds, the point of allowing autorun to start such a device.
Ok. You can think on that and just disable the autorun feature.
But besides everyone says about the “major infection source” being USB, I’ve not got a virus from USB stickies in last 7 years using avast…
Behavior shields, heuristic analysis and generic signatures try to get it.
Ok, if nothing is perfect, better is to block everything.
Just I’m a kind of user that wants to keep “using” the computer resources…
Oh, open Explorer, clicking the files… It’s just seconds… but very convenient
Well, sometimes I do need the autorun. I turn off USB Guardian and USB Disk Security when I know the usb I’ll be using is clean. Otherwise, I leave it be. And besides, it has an option to let alone the CD autorun which I really need.
It’s mainly for the people here (in our house) who’re not sure which are viruses and which are not.
Ah yes. My girlfriend have avast. But I was hoping you could give me something out of the “basic antivirus” and more of an “add-on” program like USB Guardian. In my pc, the maximum memory I’ve seen it used is 968 kb so far and fast to start. With 224 MB of memory, i don’t want to slow it down any more than it is now.
Let your USB drive plugged and run Autorun Eater or Flash Disinfector. They would create hidden folders named autorun.inf in each partition and every USB drive plugged in when you ran it. These folders protect your drives from future infection. After that, reboot your computer.
Will the autorun before it work? Because if not then they’ll be no different than USB Guardian. In fact, I would prefer USB Guardian since it doesn’t delete the autorun automatically or the files associated with it. Just locks them. And I can unlock them if I know it’s not malicious. About Autorun Eater, I would not consider using it. Because in one of my posts, I told of a virus that infects via USB and seemed to constantly update itself by renaming or maybe it has a lot of copies with different names. The only common element in the name is the x times the number of times it was attempted to be deleted maxing out to three. Now this virus still ran even with Autorun Eater installed, but failed to do so with USB Guardian. And this is why I told the forums about USB Guardian. It seemed to do better than others.
I have tested USB Guardian. I decided to keep it. My take on this?
And you wouldn’t mind sharing with us your thoughts about it, would you?