using ubuntu to clean pronny-infected thumb stick

[kobudo]

Hey all, dumb question for those who know stuff:

I have a thumb drive that picked up an Autorun.AC worm (win32/pronny) from another person's PC, and my question is this: if I stick the removable media into my Ubuntu desktop and delete the autorun.inf and the bait .exe files associated with the worm, will my thumb drive be safe for windows computers again? Are there any other areas to check (master boot record [?], etc) with a worm like this?

[MidnightGrey]

Run a virus scan over your USB just to be safe.

If your thumb drive isnt too big, copy your files to a temp folder, format the USB, and then replace your files / virus scan the new USB.

[HermanAB]

Howdy,

Just delete the file. Linux is basically honest. It shows you everything that is in the file system and it allows you to manage anything that is in the file system. So, delete it. If it then shows you nothing, then there really is nothing.

I know that is rather hard to fathom for a long term abused Windows user, but it really is that simple.

[user_of_gnomes]

You can run clamav on the usb key after deleting the files. or beforehand.

[newb85]

Ubuntu does have hidden files (the filenames start with a "."), but it's different from Windows. They're only hidden for convenience, and can easily be viewed by hitting Ctrl+H in Nautilus (the default file browser in Ubuntu). I don't think you can have that kind of hidden files on a flash drive from Windows, though.

[kobudo]

Thanks, all! Solved!

Oh, and if any other new people come across this thread with a similar issue, the terminal command to scan the drive is:

clamscan -r /media/your_thumb_drives_name

[user_of_gnomes]

don't forget sudo clamfresh as well to update the database.

[Grenage]

If you don't have access to clam (or simply don't trust it), you can simply wipe the drive and the boot record.

[sudodus]

If you don't have access to clam (or simply don't trust it), you can simply wipe the drive and the boot record.

+1

You can use a shell-scipt to help wiping the intended target USB pendrive and nothing else. See Howto make USB boot drives