Write-protected flash drive

[Alan]

After some thought about write-protected USB media, I came to a
forehead-slapping easy solution: Use SD cards in a USB reader. SD
cards (not mini- or microSD) usually have a write-protect (WP) switch
on the side. While I read somewhere about the SD spec saying WP was
optional, I don't think reader manufacturers have been building them
that way. The WP works very much like it did on the old 5.25" and 8"
floppy disks; the state of the notch determined whether the media was
writeable or not. Some SD cards have no notch at all, so can't be
write-protected. Others, particularly pre-imaged SD cards from the
likes of Disney, have WP notches but no slider; the cards are
permanently write-protected unless you put tape over the notch.

The reason I think WP is included in readers by default is that I'd
expect the likes of Disney to raise unholy terror on any vendor that
allowed writing to their write-protected products. You know, some
sort of terrorist pirate thing.....

On a related note, while putting together a bootable USB flash drive
with multiple ISOs, I had occasion to accidentally test why I wanted
the ability to WP the thing in the first place. With the media write-
protected, I booted it and selected an OS installer CD image (they're
all ISOs on the flash drive). I didn't realize that the installer
detected the flash drive as a hard drive but failed to detect the
actual hard drive in the computer. When I attempted to complete the
installation, it failed... because it couldn't write to the flash
drive where it was attempting to install the software.

Are notes from the bootable USB talk available online?

[Jared Bird]

There are any notes online, but all the links for the files as well as
a link to the hak5 episode is online at www.dc612.org.

-Jared