599 sats \ 4 replies \ @OriginalSize 16 Feb \ on: How to plug in a 'strange' USB device? security
Boot up the latest Tails and open from there. Copy and paste desired files from dirty drive to clean one.
If you're super-paranoid repeat with a different OS with different hardware (like OpenBSD on a Raspberry Pi) to copy from clean drive to a new, even cleaner one.
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50 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 16 Feb
Great answer. Not an expert but I would also feel better if the hardware device was not connected to any network when the drive is inserted. For sure not the Internet.
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10 sats \ 2 replies \ @elvismercury OP 16 Feb
The worry for this is if it's a device that poses a physical attack via a capacitor or something -- you've probably seen the videos of how they actually fry the circuity of the computer you plug them into.
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331 sats \ 1 reply \ @OriginalSize 17 Feb
Hmm, not an electrical engineer but maybe a USB hub? The capacitor thing seems far less likely than normie who's machine is silently infecting peripherals.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @elvismercury OP 17 Feb
That seems plausible to me, too -- any actual EEs care to weigh in if one of those weaponized electrical charge USB sticks would still kill your computer through a hub?
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