Try to clean your USB stick. Remove the worm and maybe use a cloth to remove the dirt.
this post was submitted on 13 May 2024
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Privacy
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I would use a microwave to kill any worms / eggs still remaining, just in case.
Rubbing alcohol should work in a pinch.
Better use a biologic solution. Put the usb outside with some seeds nearby to attract birds that should eat it
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Try C-band UV Lamp instead.
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I'll clean all USB sticks the house, just to be sure.
yea microwave all your sticks in your house at full power for 15 minutes.
Then mix bleach with ammonia
(Don't actually do this as it generates chorine gas which is quiet deadly and unpleasant)
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Here’s probably all the info you could ever need:
https://redcanary.com/blog/threat-intelligence/raspberry-robin/
Next, you need to get your systems scanned and cleaned. Malware bytes is likely enough, but I always recommend BitDefender. Their efficacy rates are always fantastic, and they have been leading the industry for several years now. Download the AV on a clean system, put on clean flash drive, and install that way.
Last, you’re gonna need to reset your passwords. Yes, I know that’s toxic af. But this is the reality and why we always need to be veeeery careful with what we do. This worm communicates with a c2 server which means it can update itself which makes detection hard, and it also means that, at one point it may have been spying on your activity (and it likely was if not continues to)
This stuff happens, don’t beat yourself up too much. Live and learn
Thank you for the link, it will help for sure!
I (not me but my family) always used just default Windows Defender but I heard good things about Malware bytes and BitDefender, I'll checked them out.
Bitdefender usually goes on sale too - check for coupon codes, don't pay full price. Plus you get like 5 devices with your license IIRC. Worth a shot
Oh it's paid... I would rather install Linux, I don't pay even for Windows.
if you're changing all your passwords and switching to Linux anyway consider using a free software local password manager like KeepassXC, I use it along with syncthing and it's great
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Windows defender along with a system hardener (like hard_configurator) can actually be quite insanely strong, especially since windows defender starts working and blocking stuff long before non-system apps, which can be a big boon. This approach is also free (if you have windows) which seems to fit your needs!
I'd start with a offline scan.
If possible wipe the drive from Linux and reinstall Windows. Be mindful of any files as documents and other files can sometimes hide things. Make sure you reset all passwords as well. Start with email passwords and then go up from there.
Would you love your USB if it was a worm?
What if it didn't exist? Would you still love your USB then?
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we've found the early bird.
Lisan al ghaieb!!!
Have you run a full scan using Windows Defender?
Can you confirm that the worm is actually running?
AV software may remove the installed worm from the system, but not from the drive.
Probably a good idea to reformat the USB drive
PS. if all else fails, nuke and pave (reinstall the computers in your household, including your linux machine)
You should do this offline, as in, quarantine the situation.
Windows defender also has an offline scan mode which may be of use here - hard to say, dunno if they ever dropped a rootkit or any other av-dodging/persistence mechanisms
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I'll also toss this hat into the ring - sysmon this is essentially a logging tool thats a bit better/nicer than the windows default, and categorizes all logs into very neat buckets that will make watching out for strange shit much much easier.
Sysmon is part of the sysinternals suite (vetted by the community + microsoft, which is sayin somethin lol) and you can make use this as the config file to use (Uses industry-standard MITRE Att&ck framework) which you can then use to correlate to more threats/malware authors/malware artifacts if you really wanna get your hands dirty/have some fun
To level set, Microsoft owns SysInternals, and has since 2006. None of it is “community vetted”, to me that implies FOSS or something.
Why would "community vetted" imply FOSS?
Microsoft has a massive community of users and sysinternals is highly regarded amongst amateur and professional users alike. The term "community vetted" makes perfect sense in this context.
Yeah, I use SysInternals stuff every day. Neither myself nor the community has vetted SysInternals tools any more than they have vetted outlook, teams, or word. Unless I’m misunderstanding the meaning of vetted.
Vetting in a program/application context as I understand it is that the code has been vetted, which can only be done by the community at large if the source code is provided. Just like with a person, vetting is doing an actual background check, where as vouching for someone is just one person telling a second person that a third person is chill or something.
The malware probably turned of defender. Try an offline scan
Actualy the malware somehow deleted windows defender and disabled automatic updates. I install MalwareBytes and run full scan and removed it.
Doesn’t virus total display a list of the AV software it triggered?
I generally use Malware Bytes on windows but I don’t know if it’s effective against that particular virus.
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And here I was under the impression that using USB storage for anything else than installing operating systems was a thing of the past.
Out of curiosity, what do you use to transfer files between computers?
Personally, most stuff is in cloud storage. For local stuff I use syncthing.
But for the average person, I'd expect using iCloud, Google Drive, Onedrive, or Dropbox and then creating a shareable link for the other person.
I also can't remember the last time I used a USB drive for anything other than installing an OS.
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SMB (NAS), Syncthing, FileBrowser, snapdrop.net, email and sometimes public cloud services...
Syncthing is used if it is not a one time transfer. LocalSend is mainly for one time transfer. LocalSend needs things to be in the same network. The same WiFi router is enough. Syncthing can send files over the internet also.
There are browser based alternatives like ShareDrop . These tools are not as reliable as Syncthing and LocalSend, especially when it comes to single large files (more than a few GBs), like ISOs.
For one time transfer over the internet, another handy tool is Croc . This one also suffers from the large file related issues.
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NVMe in a USB enclosure makes a pretty rad backup target a couple of times a week. The whole job is over and done in <2 minutes.
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All the time, right now copying 400 MB onto one as an eBook Calibre library backup.
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