Here’s some good news for anyone who has been struck by auto-running malware from a USB stick in the past.
Microsoft has rolled-out an “important, non-security update” through Windows Update, changing the behaviour of Autorun when you plug a USB stick into your computer.
Not sure what Autorun is? It’s the technology which causes a program to start automatically when you insert a CD or USB stick into your Windows PC. You may have spotted the Autorun.inf files in the root directory of your USB sticks and on CDs in the past.
It may sound like a neat idea, but a lot of malware (The Conficker worm would be perhaps the most infamous example) has exploited the technology to infect computers via USB sticks in the past.
The more recent versions of Windows, like Windows Vista and Windows 7, have made changes to the way that Autorun operates and this has helped fight the spread of Autorun malware. But older versions of Windows, such as Windows XP, were still often at risk.
In fact, in a blog post published yesterday, Microsoft’s Holly Stewart presented statistics which suggested that “Windows XP users were nearly 10 times as likely to get infected by [Autorun malware] in comparison to Windows 7.”
Yesterday, Microsoft rolled out an update via its Windows Update infrastructure, to users running versions prior to Windows 7, which effectively prevents Autorun malware from automatically infecting computers without the user’s permission.
Note, however, that this isn’t the death of Autorun entirely. As Microsoft’s Adam Shostack explains on the MSRC blog, Autorun is still available for “shiny media” such as CDs and DVDs.
Hmm. I guess that will be welcome news for any misguided company which tries to emulate Sony’s disastrous scheme from 2005 where music CDs automatically installed a rootkit as part of their DRM copy protection.
All in all, though, Microsoft has done a good thing here. Autorun was never a necessary technology in my point of view, and its exploitation by malware made it a dangerous liability. Locking it in a windowless room, handing it a service revolver and appealing to its sense of decency is probably the best move that we can make.
