Plug a HDD drive in (safely)

vargoo

My brothers 1Tera HDD, I want to put something on it with my computer.

Is their a safe way of doing that or is it a complete No No?

It's Viral etc status is unknown to me.

28064212

No. There are no reasonable defences against a BadUSB attack.

More practically speaking (assuming you're running windows), if you disable autoplay prior to plugging it in, you'll probably be fine

JoyPad

28064212 wrote: »

No. There are no reasonable defences against a BadUSB attack.

If you suspect something like this, you could use a cheap computer, e.g. Raspberry Pi, to inspect the HDD contents.

28064212

JoyPad wrote: »

If you suspect something like this, you could use a cheap computer, e.g. Raspberry Pi, to inspect the HDD contents.

Not good enough. You can't tell whether a USB device is compromised based on the contents of the drive. BadUSB attacks work by modifying the embedded firmware of the device, not the contents.

mordeith

What size is the file you want to transfer? If reasonable just upload to Drive or similar and transfer onto HDD from your brother's computer (which I assume the hdd is already connected to)

vargoo

28064212 wrote: »

No. There are no reasonable defences against a BadUSB attack.

More practically speaking (assuming you're running windows), if you disable autoplay prior to plugging it in, you'll probably be fine

Windows yes. Badusb is what im weary of alright.

I need to read how devices get infected.

vargoo

mordeith wrote: »

What size is the file you want to transfer? If reasonable just upload to Drive or similar and transfer onto HDD from your brother's computer (which I assume the hdd is already connected to)

Not an option unfortunately.

vargoo

JoyPad wrote: »

If you suspect something like this, you could use a cheap computer, e.g. Raspberry Pi, to inspect the HDD contents.

Badusb is in the firmware afaik, can't check for it.

Cant really be that widespread??

28064212

The only real way to prevent yourself from BadUSB is to never use USB. Or possibly learn to write your own USB firmware (but then how do you load it on to the device without exposing yourself to risk?).

In reality, the risk is fairly low, BadUSB attacks are relatively rare. If you're that concerned, just make sure you have an air-gapped backup in place

vargoo

28064212 wrote: »

The only real way to prevent yourself from BadUSB is to never use USB. Or possibly learn to write your own USB firmware (but then how do you load it on to the device without exposing yourself to risk?).

In reality, the risk is fairly low, BadUSB attacks are relatively rare. If you're that concerned, just make sure you have an air-gapped backup in place

Would you fire ahead - just disable autoplay?

28064212

vargoo wrote: »

Would you fire ahead - just disable autoplay?

Yes, provided:

• You have an air-gapped backup of all important data (which you should have regardless)
• You're not an active target (is your brother a computer security expert with a grudge? Are the CIA/Kremlin after your secrets?)

Obviously I wouldn't start running "notavirus.exe" files, but reading files (video, music, text etc.) is probably not going to cause any issues