Can operating system installation from USB cause reinfection

Question

I'm aware of bootkits and booting a device causes it, so if i'm reinstalling the OS and the stick i'm reinstalling from is compromised will it cause infection during installation itself?

The hard drive i'm installing to is set up as GPT i no MBR is definitely effected by a bootkit, i'm assuming the only way to avoid that would be a live cd for install as long as the long as the .iso itself isn't compromised or it isn't compromised while burning the dvd/cd.

Or a brand new clean USB tho plugging such a device into a compromised system to set it up for OS installation would likely just compromise it.

I'm assuming as long as the .iso isn't compromised burning it to dvd from a potentially infected machine should end without it been able to function as a bootkit would?

Thanks.

Answer 1

You don't need to go overboard... Any USB installation drive created on a clean computer is enough, you don't need to buy a new USB drive just for this.

Even a computer infected with a bootkit will not load this bootkit unless booted from the infected device. If you boot from another device, the bootkit is just data sitting on the disk.

There's BIOS infection too, but those are so rare that unless you are a journalist on an oppressive regime, or a person of special interest that an attacker would pour hundreds of thousands of dollars to compromise, you don't need to worry about. So don't worry about.