OSEC

Neohapsis is currently accepting applications for employment. For more information, please visit our website www.neohapsis.com or email hr@neohapsis.com
 
RE: Hacking USB Thumbdrives, Thumprint authentication

From: Gavin S (s7726yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Jan 27 2004 - 11:26:25 CST


I just have to say I think I would miss my dongle more.

Gavin S.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jon McClintock [mailto:jammerweak.org]
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2004 10:31 AM
To: m e
Cc: vuln-devsecurityfocus.com
Subject: Re: Hacking USB Thumbdrives, Thumprint authentication

On Sun, Jan 25, 2004 at 05:30:44AM -0000, m e wrote:
> http://www.thumbdrive.com/prd_info.htm
>
> Or any thumbprint biometric hacking.

A couple of points (note that I've not actually used/seen one of these
devices):

- Nowhere on the site does it mention encryption. So yes, you could
  probably crack the case and access the flash directly, most likely
  using off-the-shelf electronics test equipment.
- As mentioned by previous posters, current fingerprint biometrics are far
from
  secure.
- From a practical standpoint, it's much easier to loose one of these
  than to loose a laptop, and it's much easier to notice a missing laptop
  than a missing dongle.
- Concentrating all of your secret data into one, easy-to-loose package
  seems riskier to me than having it interspersed amongst the background
  noise of a typical OS install.

-Jon