USB Guardian is a free security program for the Windows operating system that can add the protection from threats that use removable devices as their attack vector. The program basically runs silently in the system background after installation. It will automatically scan USB flash drives that are connected to the computer system.

USB Guardian isolates autorun directives on the removable device. This blocks any program from being executed after connecting the device to the PC.

The security software then scans the autorun.inf file on the flash drive to find out if it references additional files that might be dangerous to the computer system. The executable files that are found will also be locked automatically.

The user is free to use the USB flash drive from that point on as usual. The locked files on the other hand are not accessible since they are still locked by USB Guardian. The user can use the program interface to unlock files in case they are harmless. It is furthermore possible to use the interface to delete the locked files and to configure program options like enabling the autostart of USB Guardian.

USB Guardian is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. The program tries to install a toolbar during installation. This toolbar is not required to run the program. The download of USB Guardian is provided at the developer’s website.

The easiest way to perform this operation is by using Drive Tools for Windows. The command line application comes as a 32-bit and 64-bit edition which should be compatible with most Windows operating systems including Microsoft’s latest operating system Windows 7.

Here is what the software program will do when executed by the user:

Removes from the device tree non present

• USB mass storage devices
• Disk devices
• CDROM devices
• Floppy devices
• Storage Volumes

and their linked registry items under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceClasses
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MountPoints2
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MountPoints2\CPC\Volume

The software comes with several switches. Adding -t to the program will for instance simulate the removal and display all the items that would be removed if the program would be executed by the user without the -t parameter.

-t test mode
-n no wait when finished
-u only USB mass storage devices
-d only Disk devices
-c only CDROM devices
-f only Floppy devices
-v only Storage Volume devices
-r only registry items

The switches can be used to remove all or only certain storage devices from the list of previously but not currently connected devices.

The program requires administrative privileges to run (except for test mode). The portable tool has a size of only 19 Kilobytes making it an ideal additional for an USB repair stick. It can be downloaded from the developer’s website over at Uwe-Sieber.de.

Existing rules can be modified or removed and new rules added. Supported are file and folders names plus the wildcard. It is theoretically possible to clean all files that are stored on USB flash drives by adding a *.* rule. This could be interesting for users who have to clean a lot of USB flash drives or want to work with empty drives on a specific computer system.

The software program will run hidden and cleanup connected USB flash drives automatically. These settings can be changed in the options of the program so that a confirmation is required before the data is deleted on connected USB flash drives.

USB Drive Fresher is a free software program for the Windows operating system. It is available for download at the developer’s website. Supported operating systems are Windows XP, Windows Vista and several other Microsoft operating system. It is likely that the program will also run under Windows 7.

Computer vaccination referring to disabling autorun completely from removable media like usb flash drives or optical drives like CDs or DVD drives. To enable the protection of the computer system from programs that are auto-executed if usb flash drives or CDs or DVDs are inserted into the computer drives.

A click on vaccinate computer will immediately disable autorun on the computer system. The USB drive vaccination option on the other hand will disable autorun from selected usb flash drives. The drives have to be connected to the computer system before the computer can be protected. Every connected usb flash drive will be listed in a pulldown menu. A click on vaccinate usb will prevent autorun from being executed from that usb flash drive.

It should be noted that it is not possible to undo the autorun protection of a selected usb flash drive in the computer system using the security software. Another limitation is that it will only work on usb flash drives that have been formatted with the FAT or FAT32 file system.

Panda Research USB Vaccine increases the security of a computer system in regards to usb flash drives and other media with autorun capabilities. The security software has been tested under Windows Vista, Windows XP and even Windows 2000. It will work on all

If you already have an USB flash drive and want to know how it compares you can test the speed of it with the free version of HD Tune which can benchmark USB drives as well. The free version will only test the read speed and access time but it should give a good impression of the capabilities of the device at hand.

To make the test accurate you should set the test speed to Accurate in the benchmark options. The last two steps are to select the USB flash drive from the pulldown menu at the top and to click on start to start the benchmark.

Those speed differences are really interesting. It’s probably a good idea to research USB flash drives extensively before buying one. What’s your experience with those drives ?

Here is a short explanation if you have never heard of autorun.inf files before: It contains information about files and processes that are automatically executed when a disk is inserted or double-clicked. Autorun is often confused with autoplay but they are not the same. Autorun is directly related to the autorun.inf file on the disk while autoplay automatically reacts to new devices or media, for example a music CD is automatically played in Windows when inserted.

Autorun Eater takes care of autorun.inf files before it can be executed on the system. This is done my actively monitoring the system in real time. It will automatically remove suspicious autorun.inf files and store them in a secure space in case of a false positive.

I know that some of you do not like to run a lot of programs in the background which is also my preferred way. It is possible to disable the autorun.inf system wide which is the only protection that works flawlessly. The common Registry keys NoDriveAutoRun and NoDriveTypeAutoRun do not eliminate the dangers of autorun.inf files. When properly configured they prevent that the autorun.inf file on USB devices gets executed automatically but it will still be executed when a user double-clicks the drive.

The only real autorun.inf protection which disables it completely is the following Registry setting. Just copy the following lines into a text document and name it auto.reg.

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\IniFileMapping\Autorun.inf]
@="@SYS:DoesNotExist"

Double-click that file and restart your computer afterwards. Autorun should now be disabled for all drives on your system.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor

The value START determines if USB drives are disabled or not, if the value is set to 4 USB drives are disabled, if it is set to 3 they are enabled.

source: intelliadmin