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Comment by taeric | Hacker News Reader

Seems the problem is basically one of "physical access to the machine is hard to secure against." Combining with "multi purpose computing device attached to your computer is dangerous."

Would it not be simple to offer up "non generic" USB port support? That is, the problem is that plugging a USB device could be plugging in a variety of things, which makes it tough. You have to assume that every stack on your machine is hardened against attack.

Instead, make it so that a user can designate that a port can only be used by mass storage devices or keyboards. A basic UI could be devised showing all of the ports and what is expected to be plugged in to them. If something different is actually plugged in, it is not allowed to connect.

That make sense? Something like this already exist?

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So, essentially a Specific Serial Buss? We'd be going back to pre-USB times, except without the advantage of differently shaped connectors.

Yes, except I'm saying to do it by software. Make sense? The port could take in anything. But there is no reason for it to expect anything. It should really only expect things I have indicated for it to expect.

I like this idea. It doesn't even have to be turned on by default, it could be an opt-in kernel module that doesn't load until you ask for it.

Wouldn't that just end up working like this?

1) User finds USB stick in parking lot

2) User takes USB stick back to desk and plugs it into workstation

3) Workstation throws up a dialog saying "Hey! I don't recognize that thing you just plugged in! Are you sure you want to let it connect?"

4) User blindly clicks "OK" on dialog without reading it while surfing porn in another window

The UI should instead say "The device plugged in is not a storage token" or some such. Even better if it lists what the device is claiming to be.

And, really, if we are concerned with people blindly clicking "OK", I'm not sure of what you can do.

In other words, use the same sort of sandbox + permissions model that iOS/Android apps live in. For example:

- "USB device 'Kensington 16GB' is trying to take over as your computer's keyboard. Allow?"

- "USB device 'Kensington 16GB' wants read access to your files. Allow?"

- "USB device 'Kensington 16GB' wants write access to your files. Allow?"

The latter two could be more specific about the source/target directories.

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