[kbarb]

I have various live CDs that I use to disinfect PCs, but I used to just take the drive out and attach it to my laptop, then run the AntiVirus/AntiMalware from there.

So what's the danger with that ?

For both regular harddrives and flash drives, is it only the Autorun that would cause the infection ? I mean, besides just foolishly clicking on something.

Or is there some other way that an infection could happen ?

Thanks,

Kent

[coastie65]

Hi and welcome to the forums. I don't seee any particular problem with removing a Hdd and scanning it from another Hdd. The only way an infection would spread would be to move an infected file from that Hdd to another Hdd. Same with flash drives. If you use a good utility such as www.malwarebytes.org for scanning, you should be fine.

[LiveBrianD]

Merely connecting the drive cannot infect you. Windows 7 disabled autorun by default for removable storage devices (like HDs), and later updates disabled it on Windows XP and Vista. It is only enabled by default for CDs now. As a result, the drive can be full of malware, but you will not be infected. BUT - if you click an EXE on the drive, you can be infected. (or any executable for that matter)

The other thing is that I've heard of malware that infects you when you extract it from a regular tool. BUT you opened the file...

So basically you're safe, as long as autorun is disabled and you don't foolishly click something.

[Tunz]

When you attach a drive like that, the virus has no means of activating itself because the operating system that it depends on to call it, is inactive. It is basically a sitting duck.

[kbarb]

So that debacle that happened at the Iranian nuclear sites - with the flash drives - was most likely an example of some malware designed to take advantage of Autorun ?
That is, unless some kind of social engineering was used to entice a user to click on something (?)

Thanks by the way for the advice and feedback.

Kent

[LiveBrianD]

Let's put it this way. You may have a box FULL of some poisonous gas, but unless you open the box, it won't do anything. Unless, that is, if people are trained to open every box recieved (aka autorun).

[coastie65]

kbarb, on 15 July 2011 - 10:27 PM, said:

So that debacle that happened at the Iranian nuclear sites - with the flash drives - was most likely an example of some malware designed to take advantage of Autorun ?
That is, unless some kind of social engineering was used to entice a user to click on something (?)

Thanks by the way for the advice and feedback.

Kent

Most likely, or possibly by other means. Speaking of flash drives, it is always a good idea to scan and or reformat a new flash drive before using it. Those things have been known to contain malware. I usually reformat them as the ones I have gooten have been formatted in FAT32 and I prefer to use NTFS formatting for most things.

[LincolnSpector]

I think what it comes down to is how experienced you are. A lot of people aren't comfortable with removing an HDD from a PC and putting it in another one.. I could also imagine someone who isn't that experienced putting it into a desktop and accidentally making it the boot drive. Or having Autorun on for some reason. Or opening an .exe off the slave drive.

Therefore, I would not in general recommend that people do this--with the caveat that if you are going to do it, be very, very careful.

One more thing: I personally find it easier to boot from a CD or flash drive for this sort of thing.

Lincoln