System Exploitable With USB

Anonymous Coward writes "Vulnerabilities in USB drivers for Windows could allow an attacker to take control of locked workstations using a specially programmed Universal Serial Bus device." From the article: "The buffer-overflow flaw is in device drivers that Windows loads whenever USB devices are inserted into computers running Windows 32-bit operating systems, including Windows XP and Windows 2000, said Caleb Sima, chief technology officer and founder of SPI Dynamics."

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Data Execution Prevention (DEP) feature in SP2

[scupper]

From Microsoft.......
A detailed description of the Data Execution Prevention (DEP) feature in Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, and Windows Server 2003
Article ID: 875352

Last Review: May 10, 2005
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875352

SUMMARY
Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is a set of hardware and software technologies that perform additional checks on memory to help prevent malicious code from running on a system. In Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, DEP is enforced by hardware and by software.

The primary benefit of DEP is to help prevent code execution from data pages. Typically, code is not executed from the default heap and the stack. Hardware-enforced DEP detects code that is running from these locations and raises an exception when execution occurs. Software-enforced DEP can help prevent malicious code from taking advantage of exception-handling mechanisms in Windows.

Controlling block storage devices on USB buses

[scupper]

from Microsoft.......
Controlling block storage devices on USB buses What does controlling block storage devices on USB buses do?
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxp pro/maintain/sp2otech.mspx#EDAA

This feature provides the ability to set a registry key that will prevent write operations to USB block storage devices, such as memory sticks. When this registry key is enabled, the devices function only as read-only devices. You can implement this setting as part of a security strategy to prevent users from transporting data using these devices. Who does this feature apply to? Users who do not want data to be written from their computer to a USB storage device. IT professionals who want to implement organization controls over the use of USB block storage devices

What settings are added or changed in Windows XP Service Pack 2 Setting name Location Default value Possible values WriteProtect HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ CurrentControlSet\Control \StorageDevicePolicies DWORD=0 0 - Disabled 1 - Enabled

Re:Every time I bag out Microsoft

[afd8856]

I consider every government a crime against humanity, but I'm just too anarhistic. Of course, beyond the reply of the other poster, what can I do?