Re: [PLUG] Read only USB drive

[Christopher Barry <christopher.r.barry@gmail.com>]

On Wed, 5 Oct 2016 19:21:31 -0400
JP Vossen <jp@jpsdomain.org> wrote:

>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.

what are the automount options for that fs? readonly probably. what if
you tried a remount rw? would that allow writing or is the fs a static
structure in and of itself? 

>
>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.

It's rare that duckduckgo does not satisfy my query completely in the
first 5 records. it's my default in Opera 40 on sid, and android ff.
sometimes if i'm having a hard time finding something, i'll jump to
google to see, and it returns the exact same shit. I like and believe
in the idea behind ddg. I support it and use it. It's great. And,
it's right here in River City. Support the ecosystem. Google has just
lost it's overall luster to me. dunno.


>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
>--  -------------------------------------------------------------------
>JP Vossen, CISSP | http://www.jpsdomain.org/ | http://bashcookbook.com/
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-- 
Regards,
Christopher
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