There is an increasing amount of malware which, like the dangerous Conficker worm, spreads via removable devices and drives such as memory sticks, MP3 players, digital cameras, etc. To do this, these malicious codes modify the AutoRun file on these devices. Panda USB Vaccine is a new free solution designed to protect against this threat.

Vaccine for computers:
This is a ‘vaccine' for computers to prevent any AutoRun file from running, regardless of whether the device (memory stick, CD, etc.) is infected or not.

Vaccine for USB devices:
This is a ‘vaccine' for removable USB devices, preventing the AutoRun file from becoming a source of infection. The tool disables this file so it cannot be read, modified or replaced by malicious code.

Panda Security has recently came up with a small portable tool that is able to “vaccine” your computer from virus that spreads through external USB drives. The computer vaccination prevents your computer from executing autorun.inf file and the USB drive vaccination creates a dummy autorun.inf file in your external usb drive so that virus can’t infect it.

The Panda USB Vaccine allows users to vaccinate their PCs in order to disable AutoRun completely so that no program from any USB/CD/DVD drive (regardless of whether they have been previously vaccinated or not) can auto-execute.

The Panda USB Vaccine also can be used on individual USB drives to disable its AUTORUN.INF file in order to prevent malware infections from spreading automatically. When applied on a USB drive, the vaccine permanently blocks the AUTORUN.INF file, preventing it from being read, created, deleted or modified.