reconsidering physical security: pod slurping

Abe Usher <[email protected]> Sun, 12 Jun 2005 23:35:18 -0400
Newsgroups gmane.comp.security.ntbugtraq
Message-ID <[email protected]>
pod slurping
------------

I've written a report that explores an idea that has been known by the
security community for decades: physical security is important to
information system security.

A year ago a report was published by the Gartner Group warning that
iPods <http://www.apple.com/ipod/> (and other multi-gigabyte portable
storage devices) pose a security risk for enterprises
<http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/07/06/HNipodsrisk_1.html>. I've
created an application (*slurp.exe*) that demonstrates this concept.
When the program is run from an iPod, it can __very__quickly__  copy
thousands of  interesting files* from a PC to an iPod.

The full article and proof-of-concept application are available at:
http://www.sharp-ideas.net

Cheers,
Abe Usher, CISSP

* Office documents, *.pdf,*.xml, *.dbf, *.log, *.dat, *.txt, *.csv,
*.htm, *.url, et cetera

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NTBugtraq Editor's Note:

Most viruses these days use spoofed email addresses. As such, using an Anti-Virus product which automatically notifies the perceived sender of a message it believes is infected may well cause more harm than good. Someone who did not actually send you a virus may receive the notification and scramble their support staff to find an infection which never existed in the first place. Suggest such notifications be disabled by whomever is responsible for your AV, or at least that the idea is considered.
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