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A comment on No one, not even the Secret Service, should randomly plug in a strange USB stick.

Re:No one, not even the Secret Service, should randomly plug... by verst on Monday April 08, 2019 @07:20PM (#19610123)
I have a mysterious USB stick I received as a thank you from a delegation of the Chinese department of Customs (中华人民共和国海关总署) after presenting to them in Palo Alto. The USB is branded with the Chinese Customs logo and their slogan.

I haven't dared plugging this in. First and foremost I'm afraid it isn't standards compliant and will somehow fry my motherboard, secondly I don't have a burner device and the necessary knowledge to determine if anything suspicious is happening.

So for now my USB stick and its decorative case in Chinese art style are purely for display.

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Re:No one, not even the Secret Service, should randomly plug... by depressed on Monday April 08, 2019 @07:39PM (#19610244)
On the "determine if anything suspicious is happening" front, you can configure Wireshark to capture USB packets and show you what is going over the wire.
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Re:No one, not even the Secret Service, should randomly plug... by verst on Monday April 08, 2019 @08:21PM (#19610479)
Oh nice! I've used Wireshark for TCP / UDP captures before but that's about it.

Maybe I can use a raspberry pi as burner device and check it out.

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Re:No one, not even the Secret Service, should randomly plug... by NikkiA on Monday April 08, 2019 @08:51PM (#19610627)
A pi zero would do the job and only risk about $5 to find out what's on the stick.
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Re:No one, not even the Secret Service, should randomly plug... by ovi256 on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @06:04AM (#19613150)
Nice idea. Start a service where people mail unknown USB devices to you and you email back a disk image.
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Re:No one, not even the Secret Service, should randomly plug... by justwalt on Monday April 08, 2019 @08:35PM (#19610548)
That sounds really interesting. You should post later if you go through with your plan!
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Re:No one, not even the Secret Service, should randomly plug... by pryce on Monday April 08, 2019 @09:52PM (#19611010)
Given what happens to USB sticks in my household (needed fairly often), you may still be at risk of a family member opening it and using it should they need one in a pinch.
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Re:No one, not even the Secret Service, should randomly plug... by verst on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @04:12AM (#19612705)
Fortunately I live alone and I can't remember the last time I used a USB drive. I have Gigabit Fiber so I transfer everything online.
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