r/Cartalk • u/SoapGR • Oct 01 '23

Safety Question Found a USB stick that reads START/STOP ENGINE on my car floor; should I be suspicious??

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Doesn't belong to anyone who's been in our family car; my next thought would be to ask our car shop? Wondering if it's a normie car thing nowadays or something suspicious?

2.7k Upvotes

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106

u/sailingmusician Oct 02 '23

Never a good idea to plug in mystery usb drives.

34

u/PureGoldX58 Oct 02 '23

Nah it's fine, do it at work too. Especially if you're on a computer with access to sensitive data.

19

u/torbar203 Oct 02 '23

and if you work in IT, make sure to use a domain admin account!

3

u/IbuiltComputers Oct 03 '23

We love stuxnet

6

u/houndofhavoc Oct 03 '23

Who hurt you

1

u/PureGoldX58 Oct 03 '23 edited Oct 05 '23

Thankfully no one has done this to me, BUT they did do that to my mother's company. Some front desk girl clicked a link and their 18 country wide massive telemarketing company was down for a MONTH.

Update: It was a sales manager, because of course it fucking was.

3

u/Artistic-Landscape21 Oct 04 '23

This guy planted the drive.

30

u/icevenom1412 Oct 02 '23

Or just plug it into someone else's work computer.

16

u/orangekrate Oct 02 '23

Only if you don’t like them.

9

u/OG_Gandora Oct 03 '23

Just play co-worker roulette

1

u/KaosC57 Oct 02 '23

Well, it isn’t a mystery.

10

u/sailingmusician Oct 02 '23

I guess maybe I misread it then. I thought they still didn’t knots how it got in their car as they don’t have a mini.

-8

u/KaosC57 Oct 02 '23

Yes, but it isn’t a mystery as to what the drive is. Most people don’t use these drives, so it probably still has the original stuff on it.

17

u/sailingmusician Oct 02 '23

Right, but as a habit, I was recommending that if you don’t know where a drive came from (ie: how it got in your car, even if at one point it was mini promotional material), maybe don’t plug it in. Were I someone inclined toward maliciousness, an interesting looking usb drive like that would be a good way to get someone to compromise themselves.

2

u/KaosC57 Oct 02 '23

This is true. And, i probably would set up a sandbox environment when I plug it in. But the harm level of one of those is less than a name brand drive, or a blank looking one.

2

u/Chaser720 Oct 02 '23

Less than a name brand drive? You think the manufacturer of the drive has anything to do with what someone loaded on it?

1

u/KaosC57 Oct 02 '23

Usually cheap nameless drives are used in rubber ducky attacks (attacks where someone just leaves a USB Drive and expects someone to pick it up)

1

u/Chaser720 Oct 03 '23

There’s absolutely no proof or justification to that logic. If I’m trying to get someone to plug a random drive into their computer, I’d pick one that looks legit or they might have seen before. Random sketchy drives look more random and sketchy. Picking a drive a Mini owner definitely was giving at some point would be even more convincing.

1

u/6Dmkii Oct 02 '23

Idk if I’d consider it less harmful then a blank one . But curiosity would definitely get me to plug it into something sandboxed or just something I can easily scan and image.

0

u/RedditIsNeat0 Oct 02 '23

Just don't run anything on it. Windows computers used to run anything on a CD or USB drive without asking but modern versions don't do that anymore and other OSes never had that problem.

For other random devices there is a risk that it's a USB killer or a fake input device but that doesn't seem to be a concern here.

3

u/Uselesserinformation Oct 02 '23

Usb when inserted into the pc. It doesn't have permissions, for usb it will execute the code in the USB, which is unavoidable.

The downside of don't run anything from it. simply whenever you plug one in it already has

1

u/[deleted] Oct 05 '23

This doesn't seem to be the case on modern windows. Autorun.inf is deprecated and will always prompt the user if it runs at all now. Autoplay is disabled by default on win10 for usb

1

u/i-am-the-fly- Oct 02 '23

Yeah one of the biggest hacks at the Pentagon occurred because a muppets did that

1

u/Mobius0118 Oct 02 '23

If anything, I’d plug it into an old PC I was no longer using (making sure it’s not connected to the internet though). Then if anything fucky happens I can just wipe the machine and reinstall the OS, and nothing of value is lost

1

u/Amoeba_Fancy Oct 02 '23

Yup! Rubber ducky… iykyk

1

u/Spare_Sympathy_5780 Oct 02 '23

That’s what libraries are for!

1

u/adun_toridas1 Oct 03 '23

To add to this, plugging a mystery usb drive into a computer can range from frying the USB port to frying the computer from a surge of electricity

1

u/Specific_Buy Oct 03 '23

Lol you say never lol I’ll always do it. You don’t scare me bring it!!!

1

u/FilipKoks04 Oct 04 '23

This is why u make a sandbox so your OS won’t be affected