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I found a bunch of old USB MP3 players that are knockoffs of the iPod Nano.

They have no logos on them. Some of them have a hold switch and on the computer it appears to offer write protection and read-only function.

I want to know how strong are those write protection switches. Are they truly hardware read only protection? I want to use those USB MP3 players to store antivirus softwares and clean computers.

How do I check if they are hardware or software write protection? Is there some commands I can use to try to disable the write protection and see if it works?

Jay Wise
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  • This question is much towards hardware or OS issues. – mootmoot Jul 21 '17 at 07:16
  • I'm confused: the devices have a hardware switch, and you want to know if the physical switch controls a hardware or software-level write-protection trigger? It would seem obvious that it's a hardware-level switch .... – schroeder Jul 21 '17 at 07:49
  • Well you know, SD cards also have switches, but those can be overwritten by software methods – Jay Wise Jul 21 '17 at 08:04
  • @JayWise no, I do not know - can you provide a source for the claim? – schroeder Jul 21 '17 at 09:17
  • @schroeder There is something I must miss in your answer, as the SD-Cards "read-only" switch is widely covered even here, on Security.SE (for instance [Is the SD card write protection hard-wired or optional?](https://security.stackexchange.com/q/53365/32746)) – WhiteWinterWolf Jul 21 '17 at 10:15
  • @JayWise The answer to this question largely depends on the device itself, so impossible to tell a definitive answer. A similar question has already been asked: [How reliable is a write protection switch on a USB flash drive?](https://security.stackexchange.com/q/4248/32746), it seems to imply this should be safe *"excepting a wholly insane implementation"*, which I would not ignore in the case of an unbranded IPod knockoff. So while better than no switch at all, don't blindly rely on it. – WhiteWinterWolf Jul 21 '17 at 10:20
  • @WhiteWinterWolf that is not a 'switch' but a tab, much like the notch in the old floppy disks. The reader physically interacts with it to determine if it should choose to write to it or not. USB ports have no such mechanism. – schroeder Jul 21 '17 at 10:27
  • @schroeder No, this wrong, the reader physically interacts with it to determine ***an informative status to send to the software***. Unlike floppies, it is at the software level (the operating system in the case of computers) that the decision to write or not (or mount in read-only or not) occurs, and not a the reader or firmware level. This is a major difference from a security point-of-view. A malicious software (in the case of computers) or a poorly written one (in the case of cheap camera for instance) can choose to completely ignore this SD-Card tab. – WhiteWinterWolf Jul 21 '17 at 10:33
  • @WhiteWinterWolf what is wrong? My comparison to floppies? In both cases, the 'reader' physically interacts with the media to determine the write status (hence my use of the term "much like") This is completely beside the point. The issue here is USBs, for which none of this applies, which is my point. – schroeder Jul 21 '17 at 11:12

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