write-protected usb flash drive

[Gary Aitken]

I'm having trouble locating what I want --
a physically write-protected flash drive.
My searches so far have come up empty.
Thought someone here would know of one if it exists.
I don't want or need additional encryption gimicks on it.
Anyone know of one? 32G or larger

Thanks,

Gary

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[Erich Dollansky]

Hi,

On Fri, 23 May 2014 18:26:44 -0600
Gary Aitken <fre...@dreamchaser.org> wrote:

> I'm having trouble locating what I want --
> a physically write-protected flash drive.
> My searches so far have come up empty.
> Thought someone here would know of one if it exists.
> I don't want or need additional encryption gimicks on it.
> Anyone know of one? 32G or larger
>

I have not seen one recently. The memory cards used in cameras still
have a write protection but you would need an adaptor to read them.

Erich

[Warren Block]

On Sat, 24 May 2014, Erich Dollansky wrote:

> Hi,
>
> On Fri, 23 May 2014 18:26:44 -0600
> Gary Aitken <fre...@dreamchaser.org> wrote:
>
>> I'm having trouble locating what I want --
>> a physically write-protected flash drive.
>> My searches so far have come up empty.
>> Thought someone here would know of one if it exists.
>> I don't want or need additional encryption gimicks on it.
>> Anyone know of one? 32G or larger
>>
> I have not seen one recently. The memory cards used in cameras still
> have a write protection but you would need an adaptor to read them.

The write protect switch on those cards is merely an input, effectively
saying "please don't write to this card". It does not actually disable
writing. There is replacement firmware for many Canon cameras that uses
that switch for another function (to enable or disable the replacement
firmware, as I recall).

[Warren Block]

On Fri, 23 May 2014, Gary Aitken wrote:

> I'm having trouble locating what I want --
> a physically write-protected flash drive.
> My searches so far have come up empty.
> Thought someone here would know of one if it exists.
> I don't want or need additional encryption gimicks on it.
> Anyone know of one? 32G or larger

USB, you mean? I found this:
http://www.fencepost.net/2010/03/usb-flash-drives-with-hardware-write-protection/

Newegg has some Kanguru drives with the write protect switch.

[Kurt Buff]

Something like this?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820709082

Kurt

On Fri, May 23, 2014 at 5:26 PM, Gary Aitken <fre...@dreamchaser.org> wrote:
> I'm having trouble locating what I want --
> a physically write-protected flash drive.
> My searches so far have come up empty.
> Thought someone here would know of one if it exists.
> I don't want or need additional encryption gimicks on it.
> Anyone know of one? 32G or larger
>

> Thanks,
>
> Gary

[David Noel]

On 5/23/14, Warren Block <wbl...@wonkity.com> wrote:

> On Fri, 23 May 2014, Gary Aitken wrote:
>> I'm having trouble locating what I want --
>> a physically write-protected flash drive.
>> My searches so far have come up empty.
>> Thought someone here would know of one if it exists.
>> I don't want or need additional encryption gimicks on it.
>> Anyone know of one? 32G or larger
>

> USB, you mean? I found this:
> http://www.fencepost.net/2010/03/usb-flash-drives-with-hardware-write-protection/
>
> Newegg has some Kanguru drives with the write protect switch.

I have several Kanguru's with write protect switches. They work great.

[Polytropon]

On Fri, 23 May 2014 18:26:44 -0600, Gary Aitken wrote:
> I'm having trouble locating what I want --
> a physically write-protected flash drive.
> My searches so far have come up empty.
> Thought someone here would know of one if it exists.
> I don't want or need additional encryption gimicks on it.
> Anyone know of one? 32G or larger

I have been using something similar, even though it's not _exactly_
what you're asking for. My "solution" (haha): Get a SD card with
the required capacity and initialize it as intended. Then use the
write protection slider. The card is now write protected. Then get
a USB card drive (usually in the shape of a regular USB stick, for
example a USK SD/MMC/MS-MMC USB 2.0 card drive) and put the card in.
Now you have a write-protected USB drive. :-)

There are two advantages:

a) In case of media failure, just replace the SD card.

b) In case of reader failure, just replace the drive.

Additional fun: If you use a SD->µSD adapter, you can also use a
micro-SD card. The adapter then provides the write protection slider.
The mentioned advantages still apply. :-)


--
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...

[Derek Ragona]

At 07:26 PM 5/23/2014, Gary Aitken wrote:
>I'm having trouble locating what I want --
>a physically write-protected flash drive.
>My searches so far have come up empty.
>Thought someone here would know of one if it exists.
>I don't want or need additional encryption gimicks on it.
>Anyone know of one? 32G or larger
>

>Thanks,
>
>Gary

>
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>freebsd-...@freebsd.org mailing list
>http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
>To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questi...@freebsd.org"
>

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http://www.kanguru.com/storage-accessories/kanguru-ss3.shtml



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[Gary Aitken]

On 05/24/14 00:01, Polytropon wrote:

> On Fri, 23 May 2014 18:26:44 -0600, Gary Aitken wrote:
>> I'm having trouble locating what I want --
>> a physically write-protected flash drive.
>> My searches so far have come up empty.
>> Thought someone here would know of one if it exists.
>> I don't want or need additional encryption gimicks on it.
>> Anyone know of one? 32G or larger
>

> I have been using something similar, even though it's not _exactly_
> what you're asking for. My "solution" (haha): Get a SD card with
> the required capacity and initialize it as intended. Then use the
> write protection slider. The card is now write protected. Then get
> a USB card drive (usually in the shape of a regular USB stick, for
> example a USK SD/MMC/MS-MMC USB 2.0 card drive) and put the card in.
> Now you have a write-protected USB drive. :-)
>
> There are two advantages:
>
> a) In case of media failure, just replace the SD card.
>
> b) In case of reader failure, just replace the drive.
>
> Additional fun: If you use a SD->µSD adapter, you can also use a
> micro-SD card. The adapter then provides the write protection slider.
> The mentioned advantages still apply. :-)

I like this option better than the Kanguru one,
mostly because the kanguru drives seem to not be very robust;
lots of failures reported.

I don't see why it wouldn't work, but have you tried formatting /
initializing SD cards from the USB adapter instead of a device like a
camera?

[Polytropon]

At least it's much _cheaper_ to replace just a SD card
in case of failure. For example, if you have an image
stored somewhere other than the card, you can simply
use dd to initialize a new card if the old one is
failing. I know it's not ultra-fast memory (in which
case a real SSD drive would probably be better), but
I've even tried using it as a bootable media for a
test system. It worked sufficiently well.

> I don't see why it wouldn't work, but have you tried formatting /
> initializing SD cards from the USB adapter instead of a device like a
> camera?

Yes, this works. When initializing it in the camera, a FAT
file system is applied. When the SD card is in the USB reader,
it can be initialized (as da0, for example) with any method
FreeBSD supports (at least I've tried newfs "dedicated" as
well as MBR partitioned and then newfs). Of course, a camera
won't read it anymore. :-)

--
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...

[Gary Aitken]

>>> I'm having trouble locating what I want -- a physically
>>> write-protected flash drive. My searches so far have come up
>>> empty. Thought someone here would know of one if it exists. I
>>> don't want or need additional encryption gimicks on it. Anyone
>>> know of one? 32G or larger
>>>

>> I have not seen one recently. The memory cards used in cameras
>> still have a write protection but you would need an adaptor to read
>> them.
>
> The write protect switch on those cards is merely an input,
> effectively saying "please don't write to this card". It does not
> actually disable writing. There is replacement firmware for many
> Canon cameras that uses that switch for another function (to enable
> or disable the replacement firmware, as I recall).

Dangit, I thought Polytropon's solution would enable me to get around
the poor reliability of the kanguru products.

Thanks for the pointer to the fencepost article.

Gary

[Polytropon]

On Sat, 24 May 2014 08:42:02 -0600, Gary Aitken wrote:
> >>> I'm having trouble locating what I want -- a physically
> >>> write-protected flash drive. My searches so far have come up
> >>> empty. Thought someone here would know of one if it exists. I
> >>> don't want or need additional encryption gimicks on it. Anyone
> >>> know of one? 32G or larger
> >>>
> >> I have not seen one recently. The memory cards used in cameras
> >> still have a write protection but you would need an adaptor to read
> >> them.
> >
> > The write protect switch on those cards is merely an input,
> > effectively saying "please don't write to this card". It does not
> > actually disable writing. There is replacement firmware for many
> > Canon cameras that uses that switch for another function (to enable
> > or disable the replacement firmware, as I recall).
>
> Dangit, I thought Polytropon's solution would enable me to get around
> the poor reliability of the kanguru products.

Urg... this is terrible! Who invents a write protection switch
that depends on software to "respect" it?! We definitely need
a write enable punch like what 5.25" floppies had. Or even
worse: "no ringee, no writee"... yes, I'm already old... ;-)

--
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...

[Polytropon]

On Sat, 24 May 2014 16:22:59 +0100, Arthur Chance wrote:
> OK, thought I'd better try my own advice rather than just handing it
> out. I put a microSD card out of an old phone into a SanDisk mSD -> SD
> adapter and plugged that into my SanDisk SD -> USB adapter, mounted it
> (FAT32 file system already on it) and wrote a file to it. Worked as
> you'd expect. I then unmounted and unplugged it, flipped the write
> protect switch and tried to remount. Result was
>
> mount_msdosfs: /dev/da5s1: Input/output error
>
> Mounting it read-only was fine. So, the write protect is honoured by at
> least some SD -> USB adapters.

This is already on file system level. It _should_ work the same
at upper layers, for example when using dd to write NULs to the
device with the write protection on - an error should (correctly)
occur in that case.

When a r/o mount is forced, the routines accessing that file
system cannot avoid the write protection. Still writes are
possible _aside of_ the file system which should be prevented
by the switch as well. It's probably a good idea to check that
too, e. g. put in the card with write protection on and then
try dd or newfs on it.

[Arthur Chance]

On 24/05/2014 15:22, Gary Aitken wrote:
> On 05/24/14 00:01, Polytropon wrote:

>> On Fri, 23 May 2014 18:26:44 -0600, Gary Aitken wrote:
>>> I'm having trouble locating what I want --
>>> a physically write-protected flash drive.
>>> My searches so far have come up empty.
>>> Thought someone here would know of one if it exists.
>>> I don't want or need additional encryption gimicks on it.
>>> Anyone know of one? 32G or larger
>>

>> I have been using something similar, even though it's not _exactly_
>> what you're asking for. My "solution" (haha): Get a SD card with
>> the required capacity and initialize it as intended. Then use the
>> write protection slider. The card is now write protected. Then get
>> a USB card drive (usually in the shape of a regular USB stick, for
>> example a USK SD/MMC/MS-MMC USB 2.0 card drive) and put the card in.
>> Now you have a write-protected USB drive. :-)
>>
>> There are two advantages:
>>
>> a) In case of media failure, just replace the SD card.
>>
>> b) In case of reader failure, just replace the drive.
>>
>> Additional fun: If you use a SD->µSD adapter, you can also use a
>> micro-SD card. The adapter then provides the write protection slider.
>> The mentioned advantages still apply. :-)
>
> I like this option better than the Kanguru one,
> mostly because the kanguru drives seem to not be very robust;
> lots of failures reported.
>

> I don't see why it wouldn't work, but have you tried formatting /
> initializing SD cards from the USB adapter instead of a device like a
> camera?

Wearing my paranoid sysadmin hat: given that the write protect switch on
SD cards is purely advisory, it would be a good idea to check that the
SD to USB adapter actually honours the advice. I.e. try to write to it
with write protect on.

[Slight pause.]

OK, thought I'd better try my own advice rather than just handing it
out. I put a microSD card out of an old phone into a SanDisk mSD -> SD
adapter and plugged that into my SanDisk SD -> USB adapter, mounted it
(FAT32 file system already on it) and wrote a file to it. Worked as
you'd expect. I then unmounted and unplugged it, flipped the write
protect switch and tried to remount. Result was

mount_msdosfs: /dev/da5s1: Input/output error

Mounting it read-only was fine. So, the write protect is honoured by at

least some SD -> USB adapters. Looks like Polytropn's idea is the way to
go if you want write protectable USB flash drives. The one I've got is a
SanDisk MicroMate Reader, it's USB 2.0 and can handle cards up to 32GB,
so it's just on the edge of what you need. I'd guess there's probably a
USB 3.0 version around by now.

As for formatting SD cards via a USB adapter, I've done that quite
often. So far I've written disk images using dd (for RPi), used
newfs_msdos for both FAT16 and FAT32 and plain newfs for UFS2
filesystems, all without problem.

[Arthur Chance]

On 24/05/2014 16:41, Polytropon wrote:
> On Sat, 24 May 2014 16:22:59 +0100, Arthur Chance wrote:

>> OK, thought I'd better try my own advice rather than just handing it
>> out. I put a microSD card out of an old phone into a SanDisk mSD -> SD
>> adapter and plugged that into my SanDisk SD -> USB adapter, mounted it
>> (FAT32 file system already on it) and wrote a file to it. Worked as
>> you'd expect. I then unmounted and unplugged it, flipped the write
>> protect switch and tried to remount. Result was
>>
>> mount_msdosfs: /dev/da5s1: Input/output error
>>
>> Mounting it read-only was fine. So, the write protect is honoured by at
>> least some SD -> USB adapters.
>

> This is already on file system level. It _should_ work the same
> at upper layers, for example when using dd to write NULs to the
> device with the write protection on - an error should (correctly)
> occur in that case.
>
> When a r/o mount is forced, the routines accessing that file
> system cannot avoid the write protection. Still writes are
> possible _aside of_ the file system which should be prevented

> by the switch as well. It's probably a good idea to check that

> too, e. g. put in the card with write protection on and then
> try dd or newfs on it.

Good point. I had presumed that the writable mount failed because it
tries to update the superblock, but making sure at the disk driver level
is sensible. With write protect enabled on the card:

fileserver:1# tail /var/log/messages
May 24 16:50:28 fileserver kernel: ugen3.7: <SanDisk> at usbus3
May 24 16:50:28 fileserver kernel: umass2: <SanDisk SDDR-113, class 0/0,
rev 2.00/94.12, addr 7> on usbus3
May 24 16:50:28 fileserver kernel: umass2: SCSI over Bulk-Only; quirks
= 0x4100
May 24 16:50:28 fileserver kernel: umass2:12:2:-1: Attached to scbus12
May 24 16:50:28 fileserver kernel: da5 at umass-sim2 bus 2 scbus12
target 0 lun 0
May 24 16:50:28 fileserver kernel: da5: <SanDisk SDDR-113 9412>
Removable Direct Access SCSI-0 device
May 24 16:50:28 fileserver kernel: da5: Serial Number 000000009412
May 24 16:50:28 fileserver kernel: da5: 40.000MB/s transfers
May 24 16:50:28 fileserver kernel: da5: 3768MB (7716864 512 byte
sectors: 255H 63S/T 480C)
May 24 16:50:28 fileserver kernel: da5: quirks=0x2<NO_6_BYTE>

fileserver:1# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/da5 bs=4k count=1
dd: /dev/da5: Input/output error
1+0 records in
0+0 records out
0 bytes transferred in 2.353360 secs (0 bytes/sec)

Yes, it works at the disk driver level.

Gary, if you want bigger/faster than my adapter, there's a USB3.0
version of my adapter available, look for the SanDisk Extreme PRO®
SDHC™/SDXC™ UHS-II Card Reader/Writer, aka the SanDisk SDDR-329. You'll
need to check it honours the write protect switch of course.

[Warren Block]

On Sat, 24 May 2014, Polytropon wrote:

> On Sat, 24 May 2014 16:22:59 +0100, Arthur Chance wrote:
>> OK, thought I'd better try my own advice rather than just handing it
>> out. I put a microSD card out of an old phone into a SanDisk mSD -> SD
>> adapter and plugged that into my SanDisk SD -> USB adapter, mounted it
>> (FAT32 file system already on it) and wrote a file to it. Worked as
>> you'd expect. I then unmounted and unplugged it, flipped the write
>> protect switch and tried to remount. Result was
>>
>> mount_msdosfs: /dev/da5s1: Input/output error
>>
>> Mounting it read-only was fine. So, the write protect is honoured by at
>> least some SD -> USB adapters.
>
> This is already on file system level. It _should_ work the same
> at upper layers, for example when using dd to write NULs to the
> device with the write protection on - an error should (correctly)
> occur in that case.
>
> When a r/o mount is forced, the routines accessing that file
> system cannot avoid the write protection. Still writes are
> possible _aside of_ the file system which should be prevented
> by the switch as well. It's probably a good idea to check that
> too, e. g. put in the card with write protection on and then
> try dd or newfs on it.

These are worthwhile tests, but remember that they are done in an
environment where everything is playing by the rules and trying to do
the right thing. The drivers will try to support the write-protect
switch.

Malicious software could use custom or patched drivers to ignore the
settings of the switch or anything else.

The card reader microcontroller might be responsible for the write
protect, which would make it much safer than just being honored by
higher-level drivers.

[Arthur Chance]

I'm not sure how one could easily test that.

I will note that when I tried using dd to write to a write protected
card the IO indication light on the USB adapter blinked, which I presume
meant the write attempt wasn't thwarted at the driver level, but I'd
have to plough through at least the umass and cam code to even start to
get some degree of certainty on that.

[Polytropon]

This is, on FreeBSD for example, things work as they are
supposed to work.

> > Malicious software could use custom or patched drivers to ignore the
> > settings of the switch or anything else.

This is especially problematic in closed-source products
where no real indication of operating system and driver
functionality can be obtained. "Trial & error" is the
only way here, and even then you can't be fully sure.

> > The card reader microcontroller might be responsible for the write
> > protect, which would make it much safer than just being honored by
> > higher-level drivers.
>
> I'm not sure how one could easily test that.

It seems there are too many "moving parts" involved here. :-(

> I will note that when I tried using dd to write to a write protected
> card the IO indication light on the USB adapter blinked, which I presume
> meant the write attempt wasn't thwarted at the driver level, but I'd
> have to plough through at least the umass and cam code to even start to
> get some degree of certainty on that.

A good idea! Think about "camcontrol format" for example.

--
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...

[Ian Smith]

In freebsd-questions Digest, Vol 520, Issue 7, Message: 2
On 24 May 2014 08:22:15 -0600 Gary Aitken <fre...@dreamchaser.org>

> On 05/24/14 00:01, Polytropon wrote:
> > On Fri, 23 May 2014 18:26:44 -0600, Gary Aitken wrote:
> >> I'm having trouble locating what I want --
> >> a physically write-protected flash drive.
> >> My searches so far have come up empty.
> >> Thought someone here would know of one if it exists.
> >> I don't want or need additional encryption gimicks on it.
> >> Anyone know of one? 32G or larger

[..]
> > Additional fun: If you use a SD->?SD adapter, you can also use a

> > micro-SD card. The adapter then provides the write protection slider.
> > The mentioned advantages still apply. :-)
>
> I like this option better than the Kanguru one,
> mostly because the kanguru drives seem to not be very robust;
> lots of failures reported.

Gary, you've mentioned this several times. Can you provide some links
to reports of failures or unreliability of the kangaru drives?

I thought they looked pretty attractive by both specs and price: AU$64
for a 32GB USB3 stick with way faster than average read/write speeds
plus the _rea_l write protect switch, I was about ready to lash out,
except that newegg are presently out of stock.

cheers, Ian

PS I'm still slightly miffed that an American company is not only using
our best-known national animal for its logo, but spells it the same way
as a minorly famous Aussie cult band of the '70s and '80s .. moreover a
band who would, I assure you, have had nothing to do with your DHS! :)

[Gary Aitken]

> > I like this option better than the Kanguru one,
> > mostly because the kanguru drives seem to not be very robust;
> > lots of failures reported.
>
> Gary, you've mentioned this several times. Can you provide some links
> to reports of failures or unreliability of the kangaru drives?

Reviews on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Kanguru-Flash-Physical-Protect-switch/product-reviews/B008OGNM8E/ref=dpx_acr_rat_t2_txt?showViewpoints=1

I saw a similar mix of good plus failures two other places, but I can't come up
with them at the moment. All of them indicated either failure out-of-the-box or
after a few months.

> PS I'm still slightly miffed that an American company is not only using
> our best-known national animal for its logo, but spells it the same way
> as a minorly famous Aussie cult band of the '70s and '80s .. moreover a
> band who would, I assure you, have had nothing to do with your DHS! :)

Doesn't the whole world already know Americans under 45 can't spell?
No one I respect wants much to do with DHS either. Or the CIA.
They need to have a choke-chain put on and pulled tight. Plus a shock collar.

Gary

[Ian Smith]

On Sun, 25 May 2014 13:31:30 -0600, Gary Aitken wrote:
> > > I like this option better than the Kanguru one,
> > > mostly because the kanguru drives seem to not be very robust;
> > > lots of failures reported.
> >
> > Gary, you've mentioned this several times. Can you provide some links
> > to reports of failures or unreliability of the kangaru drives?
>
> Reviews on Amazon:
> http://www.amazon.com/Kanguru-Flash-Physical-Protect-switch/product-reviews/B008OGNM8E/ref=dpx_acr_rat_t2_txt?showViewpoints=1
>
> I saw a similar mix of good plus failures two other places, but I can't come up
> with them at the moment. All of them indicated either failure out-of-the-box or
> after a few months.

In a few cases. On the URL you gave for the 16GB units, one of the
failures was after putting it through the wash! I tend not to launder
electronic equipment, myself. And still, 4 out of 5 isn't too bad.

For the 32GB SS3 part reviews are more favourable, 4.5 from 6 reviews:
http://www.amazon.com/Kanguru-Solutions-Flash-Write-Protect-KF3WP-32G/product-reviews/B008OGNMEI/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_summary/190-0260220-1047753?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=byRankDescendinghttp://www.amazon.com/Kanguru-Solutions-Flash-Write-Protect-KF3WP-32G/product-reviews/B008OGNMEI/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_summary/190-0260220-1047753?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=byRankDescending
And again, one person apparently expected it to survive a wash cycle.

I'll wait and watch, and will look for a local supplier re warranty,
though on form the price might be near double ..

> > PS I'm still slightly miffed that an American company is not only using
> > our best-known national animal for its logo, but spells it the same way
> > as a minorly famous Aussie cult band of the '70s and '80s .. moreover a
> > band who would, I assure you, have had nothing to do with your DHS! :)
>
> Doesn't the whole world already know Americans under 45 can't spell?
> No one I respect wants much to do with DHS either. Or the CIA.
> They need to have a choke-chain put on and pulled tight. Plus a shock collar.

Now, who's that knocking at your door? :)

cheers, Ian