USBGUARD
Vet your USB devices
Security is more than just a strong password. Shashank Sharma is always on the hunt for robust techniques to safeguard his data.
OUR EXPERT
Shashank Sharma is a trial lawyer in a Delhi and an avid Arch user. He’s always on the hunt for geeky memorabilia.
A security breach can come not only from the internet, but also USB devices. Furthermore, USB devices can also be used to remove your data. If you want to protect your machines from unknown USB devices, USBGuard is just the tool for you.
You’ll find the utility in the software repositories of popular distributions such as Ubuntu and Fedora, and can even install it on Arch, where USBGuard is available in the AUR. It only has a few small dependencies such as libsodium, which is a software library for encryption, decryption, signatures and password hashing. You’ll find a list of all the dependencies on the project’s website, along with instructions on compiling USBGuard from source, if it isn’t packaged for your distribution.
Secured USB access
USBGuard enables users to create rules to allow or block USB devices. This can be pen drives, and other devices that you can connect over USB such as your Kindle or printer. Depending on how you install the utility, you’ll either find a default configuration in the /etc/usbguard/rules.conf file, or you’ll have to manually create the rules file. USBGuard can be configured to allow all USB devices connected to the machine. So if you use a USB printer, or other devices that are connected to your machine, the default rules will enable you to continue working with such devices.