And why not read the media? [LWN.net]

And why not read the media?

Posted Nov 16, 2006 21:11 UTC (Thu) by ballombe (subscriber, #9523)
In reply to: And why not read the media? by eru
Parent article: November: the month of kernel bugs

If you plug an USB stick found on the street, a file system
vulnerability is the least of your worry. The USB stick can
be a device with whatever hidden functionality (exploding when
first plugged, transmit any bit passing throught via wifi to an
attacker, etc.).

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And why not read the media?

Posted Nov 17, 2006 8:54 UTC (Fri) by eru (subscriber, #2753) [Link]

The USB stick can be a device with whatever hidden functionality (exploding when first plugged, transmit any bit passing throught via wifi to an attacker, etc.).

A good point. It actually applies to any modern solid-state media, like the various kinds of memory cards used in cameras and such, because they too are active (the system feeds elecricity in them that can run a processor etc.). So is the only kind of safe media the passive ones like tapes, diskettes and CD:s that spin in the drive and are read magnetically or optically? (And even these are not safe if file system code is buggy).