Mixing
Security Issues with Bootable Games
Clash Royale CLAN TAG#URR8PPP
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I'm not sure if this is the correct place to ask this question or Information Security, but here it goes.
Certain storage mediums can also be bootable, for example USB drives or CD/DVDs. These storage mediums can carry and potentially transfer malware and viruses to a target computer to be executed.
As sort of a followup to this question, were bootable discs, for example, bootable games, ever seen as a security risk for computers at that time? Or was the idea of a virus or malware being transferred when using bootable media implausible?
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asked 3 hours ago
BasementJoe
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up vote
1
down vote
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I'm not sure if this is the correct place to ask this question or Information Security, but here it goes.
Certain storage mediums can also be bootable, for example USB drives or CD/DVDs. These storage mediums can carry and potentially transfer malware and viruses to a target computer to be executed.
As sort of a followup to this question, were bootable discs, for example, bootable games, ever seen as a security risk for computers at that time? Or was the idea of a virus or malware being transferred when using bootable media implausible?
history software
asked 3 hours ago
BasementJoe
8817
New contributor
BasementJoe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |Â
up vote
1
down vote
favorite
up vote
1
down vote
favorite
I'm not sure if this is the correct place to ask this question or Information Security, but here it goes.
Certain storage mediums can also be bootable, for example USB drives or CD/DVDs. These storage mediums can carry and potentially transfer malware and viruses to a target computer to be executed.
As sort of a followup to this question, were bootable discs, for example, bootable games, ever seen as a security risk for computers at that time? Or was the idea of a virus or malware being transferred when using bootable media implausible?
history software
asked 3 hours ago
BasementJoe
8817
New contributor
BasementJoe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
I'm not sure if this is the correct place to ask this question or Information Security, but here it goes.
Certain storage mediums can also be bootable, for example USB drives or CD/DVDs. These storage mediums can carry and potentially transfer malware and viruses to a target computer to be executed.
As sort of a followup to this question, were bootable discs, for example, bootable games, ever seen as a security risk for computers at that time? Or was the idea of a virus or malware being transferred when using bootable media implausible?
history software
history software
asked 3 hours ago
BasementJoe
8817
New contributor
BasementJoe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 3 hours ago
BasementJoe
8817
New contributor
BasementJoe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 3 hours ago
BasementJoe
8817
New contributor
BasementJoe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 3 hours ago
BasementJoe
8817
asked 3 hours ago
BasementJoe
8817
8817
New contributor
BasementJoe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
BasementJoe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
BasementJoe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
up vote
3
down vote
accepted
Bootable media were in fact the primary means of spreading certain kinds of viruses, but self-booting games on write-protected media were safe because no software company would distribute games with viruses on them, and if the viruses weren't on the disks when manufactured they were unlikely to get there later unless someone's drive had the write-protect mechanism bypassed.
The normal means via which a virus would get onto a bootable disk would be by piggy-backing onto some other attempt to access the disk from an already-booted (and infested) system (since attempting to access a floppy when there was no reason for such access would have been quite noticeable). Most self-booting disks would be inserted into the system before it was powered on or booted, and removed before booting into anything else, and thus weren't terribly likely to get infected.
That having been said, the real security risk was having systems attempt to boot removable media by default. This increased startup time and was in pretty much every way inferior to defaulting from the removable media except when overridden.
answered 2 hours ago
supercat
5,521532
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up vote
2
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Absolutely. Boot sector viruses were very common, like the Michaelangelo virus, which infected both the boot sector on a floppy and the MBR on a hard drive. Fortunately, many install disks and bootable games were write-protected, but that was no guarantee that the disk wasn't infected: it's really easy to make a disk read-write again!
answered 2 hours ago
ErikF
841110
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2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
3
down vote
accepted
Bootable media were in fact the primary means of spreading certain kinds of viruses, but self-booting games on write-protected media were safe because no software company would distribute games with viruses on them, and if the viruses weren't on the disks when manufactured they were unlikely to get there later unless someone's drive had the write-protect mechanism bypassed.
The normal means via which a virus would get onto a bootable disk would be by piggy-backing onto some other attempt to access the disk from an already-booted (and infested) system (since attempting to access a floppy when there was no reason for such access would have been quite noticeable). Most self-booting disks would be inserted into the system before it was powered on or booted, and removed before booting into anything else, and thus weren't terribly likely to get infected.
That having been said, the real security risk was having systems attempt to boot removable media by default. This increased startup time and was in pretty much every way inferior to defaulting from the removable media except when overridden.
answered 2 hours ago
supercat
5,521532
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
accepted
Bootable media were in fact the primary means of spreading certain kinds of viruses, but self-booting games on write-protected media were safe because no software company would distribute games with viruses on them, and if the viruses weren't on the disks when manufactured they were unlikely to get there later unless someone's drive had the write-protect mechanism bypassed.
The normal means via which a virus would get onto a bootable disk would be by piggy-backing onto some other attempt to access the disk from an already-booted (and infested) system (since attempting to access a floppy when there was no reason for such access would have been quite noticeable). Most self-booting disks would be inserted into the system before it was powered on or booted, and removed before booting into anything else, and thus weren't terribly likely to get infected.
That having been said, the real security risk was having systems attempt to boot removable media by default. This increased startup time and was in pretty much every way inferior to defaulting from the removable media except when overridden.
answered 2 hours ago
supercat
5,521532
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
accepted
up vote
3
down vote
accepted
Bootable media were in fact the primary means of spreading certain kinds of viruses, but self-booting games on write-protected media were safe because no software company would distribute games with viruses on them, and if the viruses weren't on the disks when manufactured they were unlikely to get there later unless someone's drive had the write-protect mechanism bypassed.
The normal means via which a virus would get onto a bootable disk would be by piggy-backing onto some other attempt to access the disk from an already-booted (and infested) system (since attempting to access a floppy when there was no reason for such access would have been quite noticeable). Most self-booting disks would be inserted into the system before it was powered on or booted, and removed before booting into anything else, and thus weren't terribly likely to get infected.
That having been said, the real security risk was having systems attempt to boot removable media by default. This increased startup time and was in pretty much every way inferior to defaulting from the removable media except when overridden.
answered 2 hours ago
supercat
5,521532
Bootable media were in fact the primary means of spreading certain kinds of viruses, but self-booting games on write-protected media were safe because no software company would distribute games with viruses on them, and if the viruses weren't on the disks when manufactured they were unlikely to get there later unless someone's drive had the write-protect mechanism bypassed.
The normal means via which a virus would get onto a bootable disk would be by piggy-backing onto some other attempt to access the disk from an already-booted (and infested) system (since attempting to access a floppy when there was no reason for such access would have been quite noticeable). Most self-booting disks would be inserted into the system before it was powered on or booted, and removed before booting into anything else, and thus weren't terribly likely to get infected.
That having been said, the real security risk was having systems attempt to boot removable media by default. This increased startup time and was in pretty much every way inferior to defaulting from the removable media except when overridden.
answered 2 hours ago
supercat
5,521532
answered 2 hours ago
supercat
5,521532
answered 2 hours ago
supercat
5,521532
answered 2 hours ago
supercat
5,521532
5,521532
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
up vote
2
down vote
Absolutely. Boot sector viruses were very common, like the Michaelangelo virus, which infected both the boot sector on a floppy and the MBR on a hard drive. Fortunately, many install disks and bootable games were write-protected, but that was no guarantee that the disk wasn't infected: it's really easy to make a disk read-write again!
answered 2 hours ago
ErikF
841110
add a comment |Â
up vote
2
down vote
Absolutely. Boot sector viruses were very common, like the Michaelangelo virus, which infected both the boot sector on a floppy and the MBR on a hard drive. Fortunately, many install disks and bootable games were write-protected, but that was no guarantee that the disk wasn't infected: it's really easy to make a disk read-write again!
answered 2 hours ago
ErikF
841110
add a comment |Â
up vote
2
down vote
up vote
2
down vote
Absolutely. Boot sector viruses were very common, like the Michaelangelo virus, which infected both the boot sector on a floppy and the MBR on a hard drive. Fortunately, many install disks and bootable games were write-protected, but that was no guarantee that the disk wasn't infected: it's really easy to make a disk read-write again!
answered 2 hours ago
ErikF
841110
Absolutely. Boot sector viruses were very common, like the Michaelangelo virus, which infected both the boot sector on a floppy and the MBR on a hard drive. Fortunately, many install disks and bootable games were write-protected, but that was no guarantee that the disk wasn't infected: it's really easy to make a disk read-write again!
answered 2 hours ago
ErikF
841110
answered 2 hours ago
ErikF
841110
answered 2 hours ago
ErikF
841110
answered 2 hours ago
ErikF
841110
841110
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
BasementJoe is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
BasementJoe is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
BasementJoe is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
BasementJoe is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
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