Two days ago I’ve shared with you a registry hack which will stop Windows from executing instructions found in autorun.inf. Good thing is your computer will never be infected by virus through the autorun.inf method. The downside of using this hack is that if you insert a CD or DVD with software on it, you have to explore it by hand to find the setup program and also the autorun.inf file will still remain at the root of the drive and could possibly infect other computer if it doesn’t have any protection against autorun.inf threats.
If you want Windows to continue processing autorun.inf file for CD or DVD and also want to protect your computer from USB flash drive autorun.inf. Here is a USB firewall software for Windows which is able to accomplish that.
Net Studio USB FireWall is a very smart application which protects you from all malicious programs which try to launch itself using autorun.inf through opening the drive from Windows Explorer. It will inform and warn you when such program exist in your USB storage.
When you get a warning after inserting a USB flash drive, you can click the SHOW AUTORUN.INF button to view what are the instructions in the autorun.inf file. If you don’t remember putting an autorun.inf file in the USB flash drive or don’t know how it got there, simply click the DELETE button from USB FireWall and it will clean it for you. The good thing about USB FireWall is that it doesn’t need any virus definition update because it is designed to detect autorun.inf file from USB storage drives.
This tool only monitors the USB device and ignores CD or DVD drives. This can pose a problem because the hacker can still use a hacked U3 smart drive which has the capability of emulating a CD drive to infect the computer with virus or steal sensitive data. USB FireWall is not THE perfect tool to protect your computer from USB autorun threats, but it does provide some level of protection, while still allowing autorun.inf file to be processed. Using USB FireWall has an advantage over the registry hack and that is to alert me when my USB contains autorun.inf so I don’t accidentally use my USB flash drive to infect other people’s computer with virus.
If you ask me which method I’d prefer to use to protect myself from autorun.inf threats, I’d go with the registry hack. It’s simple and don’t require any third party tools. What about you?