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Curtis Nice photo
Czechia, Washington
1 Level
715 Review
57 Karma

Review on πŸ–₯️ Kanguru Solutions WP-KFT3-8G Kanguru Flashtrust Wp-KFT3 USB Drive - Black-Green Combo by Curtis Nice

Revainrating 4 out of 5

The woman loves it. And it solves a potential security problem.

I'm a computer scientist. Unless you work in IT security or research the problem this product is designed to solve, it won't seem like much to you. Unfortunately I believe it. When Knoll and Lell documented BadUSB, I got worried. But when Caudill and Wilson released the proof-of-concept code, I got really worried. My wife studies and works with some of the LOST security systems. These places are the perfect breeding ground for computer security infections like viruses. These don't scare me. Rootkits don't scare me. BadUSB scares me. Luckily, Kanguru found a solution. For some reason, cloud storage like DropBox isn't available to her at work. She really needs a flash drive. To fix the BadUSB issue (which no antivirus software will stop), my wife needed a flash drive with digitally signed firmware. One that only accepts firmware updates signed by the manufacturer. The ones I found first were great but also expensive. My wife did NOT need an encrypted solution (GPG works well for this and we both use Linux). We could go this route, since most hardware-encrypted USB sticks also contain signed firmware. Fortunately, this kangaroo is a much cheaper alternative. It fixes the vulnerability (however probable or improbable it may be) and works fine. Yes, it's expensive, but she had to exchange data from a flash drive in an educational environment, which is equivalent to working in an L4 biosafety environment (hot zone). BTW, if a techie is reading this, I agree with Ducklin and others that hardware blocking the firmware update process is a more elegant solution. And for more complex and expensive products, this approach also allows the use of open source mods and other mods. But for "disposable" products like flash drives, this seems excessive. I would prefer a stick whose manufacturer certifies that the firmware can never be flashed - if it fails I just smash it between two rocks and swap it out. it is with the newer one. However, manufacturing and design processes are often reused across product lines. "Hey, we have a full-fledged basic USB controller design, we're not changing it just to make flash drives read-only." The product resembles double gloves. You don't want to need it. You don't think you could need it. But if you're working with a Petri dish full of pathogens, do it anyway.

Pros
  • There's something to it
Cons
  • High price