USB Funware

• GIF

  Funware

Inspiration

USB-type hacks are becoming more common and are dangerous to the unsuspecting victims. Our goal was to do a project that helps bring awareness to these crimes and make people more knowledgeable about the potential dangers of such hacks.

What it does

It is a USB that plugs in and gives the user an innocent-looking folder to click on. Little do they know that by clicking on the folder they have executed a program in the background. Our program runs little harmless things but takes the place of more serious situations people could be running into because of what they did.

How we built it

We took a USB stick and put a "payload" folder underneath that holds a .vbs-type file. This file then has a shortcut that leads outside of the payload and into the USB. This shortcut looks unsuspecting and is intended to show how easy it could be to trick innocent victims. The folder when clicked will execute the .vbs-type file and run the fake "malware" on their computer. We built this program using notepad and VBS code. At the end, the program will open our R Markdown website which holds information on how victims can protect themselves from future hacking attempts.

Challenges we ran into

The most challenging part of this project was getting the .vbs file to work correctly. Before this project I had not worked with this kind of code much before so it took a lot of trial and error. Working with such a file is especially difficult because depending on your operating system, the code can be easily changed and will therefore not work. Getting over this hurdle whilst learning what works on what OS was a big challenge to get through.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We now have not one but two USB's that are fun to play around with. Not only that but now with our new-found knowledge about how executables work exactly on computers, it will be fun in the future to mess around with these USBs and see what else we can do with them. Plus as two first-time Pick hackers, I think we have turned in a respectable project and we're both very proud of it.

What we learned

We learned how to code fairly well in VBS which was pretty hard to grasp at first, but slowly it became easier to understand the basic concepts. We also learned how to create an R Markdown website.

What's next for USB Funware

It will be fun in the future to experiment with more ways to engage people with our Funware. Including expanding upon our website, but also expanding upon our executables. With more time we could've made a more professional site with even more topics for people to engage in, whilst also making a more engaging "game" people could play as they are getting "hacked".

Built With

• rmarkdown
• usb
• vbs