USBKill is anti-forensic software distributed via GitHub, written in Python for the BSD, Linux and OS X operating systems. It is designed to serve as a kill switch if the computer on which it is installed should fall under the control of individuals or entities the owner or operator does not wish it to.It is free software, available under the GNU General Public License.

The program's developer, who goes by the online name Hephaest0s, created it in response to the circumstances of the arrest of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, during which U.S. federal agents were able to get access to incriminating evidence on his laptop without needing his cooperation by copying data from its flash drive after distracting him.It maintains a whitelist of devices allowed to connect to the computer's USB ports; if a device not on that whitelist connects, it can take actions ranging from merely returning to the lock screen to encrypting the hard drive, or even deleting all the data on it. However, it can also be used as part of a computer security regimen to prevent the surreptitious installation of malware or spyware or the clandestine duplication of files, according to its creator.

Some reasons to use this tool:

• In case the police or other thugs come busting in (or steal your laptop from you when you are at a public library, as happened to Ross). The police commonly uses a « mouse jiggler » to keep the screensaver and sleep mode from activating.
• You don’t want someone to add or copy documents to or from your computer via USB.
• You want to improve the security of your (encrypted) home or corporate server (e.g. Your Raspberry).

Supported command line arguments (partially for devs):

• -h or --help: show help message, exit.
• --version: show version of the program, exit.
• --no-shut-down: if a malicious change on the USB ports is detected, execute all the (destructive) commands you defined in settings.ini, but don’t turn off the computer.
• --cs: Copy program folder settings.ini to /etc/usbkill/settings.ini

Specifications

Industry :

General