Timeline for Can an empty, but used, usb flash drive that has NO firmware within it be infected with malware?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
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| Oct 28, 2020 at 20:13 | answer | added | schroeder♦ | timeline score: 2 | |
| Oct 28, 2020 at 0:56 | answer | added | LvB | timeline score: 4 | |
| Oct 27, 2020 at 23:58 | comment | added | 888.999 | Anyone who does not believe what they told me - call sandisk and ask for paul in technical support. He will understand what you are saying. | |
| Oct 27, 2020 at 22:22 | comment | added | ThoriumBR | You cannot just connect the flash chips straight on the USB port and call it a day. Something must tell the computer that the device runs USB protocol (and it's not a charging cable), it's a mass storage device (not a webcam), is running USB 2 (not USB 5.2 update 123), things like that. And that something is the firmware. | |
| Oct 27, 2020 at 22:01 | history | edited | 888.999 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Oct 27, 2020 at 20:20 | comment | added | 888.999 | Not to belabor the point,but... just spoke (phone) to a 2nd Sandisk rep (30 minutes) who was extremely knowledgeable. Except for the "ixpand" flash drive, there is NOT any kind of firmware on their microsd's or usb flash drives. He explained that in place of firmware carrying out the processes, the device it is connected to does this, and that the sd/usb does not need firmware b/c of this. I asked about "non flashable" firmware, as Schroeder alluded to, and he said it does not have this either - no firmware of any kind. | |
| Oct 27, 2020 at 19:36 | comment | added | Coderxyz | Like others said, there has to be firmware. I am not too sure you can only write to firmware if it is empty, usually even security experts don't like to rule things out. If you buy your memory from a seller on Amazon etc.. it is risky regardless of what anybody tells you, if you go to a store such as Tesco etc.. then you'll be fine with new memory, There will probably be a way to flash the firmware but that is something I am unsure about. If there were no firmware, the computer would have no way of knowing it is even a flash drive, nevermind being able to use it. | |
| Oct 27, 2020 at 18:41 | comment | added | schroeder♦ | There has to be firmware. Something has to make sense of the stored bits to the OS that's reading them. Something has to tell the OS that there's a USB device and that it's a storage device. There is firmware. If you stick in a USB stick, and it shows up in File Explorer with a name; that's provided by the firmware on the stick. | |
| Oct 27, 2020 at 18:36 | comment | added | CriticalSYS | @888.999 I'm not an engineer at a USB-stick manufacturing company soldering components on PCBs for these tiny devices, however there are a lot of publicly accessible resources available on this for educational or informative purpose. | |
| Oct 27, 2020 at 18:22 | comment | added | schroeder♦ | Then the rep was lying, confused, or talking about something else. | |
| Oct 27, 2020 at 18:21 | comment | added | 888.999 | @CriticalSYS Ok. What electronic parts are you referring to? Thanks a bunch. | |
| Oct 27, 2020 at 18:21 | comment | added | 888.999 | @schroeder Well, he explicitly stated that none of their usb-flash drives and microsd-cards have any firmware at all. We had a long conversation about this. Honestly, I did not misunderstand. I pressed him on this issue over and over. I used the live-chat. You can check it out too. Thanks. | |
| Oct 27, 2020 at 18:19 | history | edited | 888.999 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Oct 27, 2020 at 18:18 | history | edited | schroeder♦ |
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| Oct 27, 2020 at 18:18 | comment | added | CriticalSYS | Technically every stick can be "infected" if electronic parts allow this, or hardware infected devices. | |
| Oct 27, 2020 at 18:18 | history | edited | 888.999 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Oct 27, 2020 at 18:17 | comment | added | schroeder♦ | I think you misunderstood the Sandisk rep. All USB drives have firmware. Not all firmware is writable. | |
| Oct 27, 2020 at 18:16 | review | First posts | |||
| Oct 27, 2020 at 21:05 | |||||
| Oct 27, 2020 at 18:14 | history | edited | 888.999 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Oct 27, 2020 at 18:10 | history | edited | 888.999 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Oct 27, 2020 at 18:08 | history | edited | 888.999 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Oct 27, 2020 at 18:08 | comment | added | schroeder♦ | Is there a USB drive without firmware? | |
| Oct 27, 2020 at 18:08 | history | asked | 888.999 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |