Re: [PLUG] Read only USB drive

[JP Vossen <jp@jpsdomain.org>]

On 10/05/2016 11:28 AM, George Zipperlen wrote:
> I'm looking for an in-hardware method to make a USB drive read-only.
> Either with a built in switch, or, via a small, inexpensive, USB
> 'sleeve' sitting  between the drive and the USB port.
>
> Use case (1): A larger equivalent to CD-ROM or DVD Write Once Read
> Many, for archival backup.
> Use case (2): bootable USB sticks
> Use case (3): A way to safely distribute data, even their own (!) to
> an end user who might inadvertently trash something, or be using an
> OS which messes with any file system attached to a USB port.

This probably does not answer all your use cases, and perhaps others on 
the list can shed more light, but I have found that the so-called 
"hybrid" ISOs I've "burned" to USB via dd are read only.  The USB stick 
itself is not but the file system on the stick *is* and while you can 
reformat the stick to make it writeable again or just dd a new ISO over 
top of it, I've not found a way to write one used in that way.  I should 
note I haven't tried either, I've just accidentally reminded myself of 
the fact when I've booted one then tried to update something.

See:
* https://www.debian.org/CD/live/ for examples
* 
http://superuser.com/questions/683210/how-do-i-determine-if-an-iso-is-a-hybrid
* http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php?title=Isohybrid


> Search on product sites like Microcenter.com led me nowhere.
> DuckDuckGo (Google) not particularly helpful, mostly junk and
> solutions in software.

DuckDuckGo is not Google, they have their own crawler 
(https://duck.co/help/results/sources).  As much as I really want to 
like them for being local and private, I just can't, because their 
results have simply never worked for me.  I use StartPage.com, which 
*is* Google, except proxied with all the Google Evilness removed.  And 
even THAT doesn't always work, and I sometimes have to actually use 
Google itself.


> I got a sense that USB sticks with a switch do
> (used to?) exist.  After a few tries, I have no idea what keywords
> would find the 'sleeve' I described, if such a thing exists. Most of
> the matches involved software protection dongles; the closest I could
> find was expensive forensics hardware, which confirms my belief that
> this is technically feasible.

Bergman's Amazon link to a forensics tool was this, and pretty cool, but 
not cheap.

Later,
JP
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