Hello,

I just downloaded UBCD yesterday and the CD works excellent.

I have a question about security while being on the internet from within the UBCD environment. I am on a broadband (ADSL 6 mbps) connection and all of my PC's are behind a NAT router with built in firewall (ZyXel 650R-31). This router also functions as a DHCP server and when I booted UBCD I was instantly able to access the internet with Firefox.

Normally, when working under Win XP Prof. SP1, I also use a software firewall (ZoneAlarm) and antivirus-protection (NAV 2004) with Auto-Protect enabled, so full on access protection is always enabled.

What are the risks when you access the internet with UBCD? All of my drives and partitions are accessable within UBCD, so is there any risk that viruses or malware can infect my system? I realize that the OS functions from CD and RAM only, but is that enough to protect me from all the internet dangers?

There is a possibility that my question is caused by insufficient knowledge of UBCD. In that case, please forgive me, because I haven't had the time yet to figure it all out by myself and I'm very concerned about internet security, as IMHO everyone nowadays should be.

Thanks in advance!

Jan

If I'm reading your post correctly (forgive me I'm still waking up) the pc is already behind a firewall? You shouldn't have too many difficulties then - it should be protected for the little bit of time you are using the CD to test for problems.

Remember - this CD is created to help fix problems in Windows and not meant as an OS alternative.

As far as viruses being picked up - they should only end up in the RAM drive which is erased when you reboot the computer. However, I'm sure someone more knowledgable than me will step up and fully respond.

From what I have seen of the UBCD, it should not infect the system. Like what Arctic said, They would end up in the RAM drive or resident in RAM. Besides, you are behind a firewall with your NAT router. Nothing can scan your machine for OS Holes unless a machine on your network inside the router is infected.

I could see it getting infected if the virus was written as the sysroot being hard coded as C:\ drive or c:\windows (or winnt) instead of the normal variable of %systemroot% or %systemdrive% as most apps and viruses are written for. The variable that would be seen in a virgin UBCD creation would translate %systemdrive% or %systemroot% as x:\ or x:\windows respectively and neither of those can be written to so thus you would be safe for a variable written virus.

To sum up the thecno bable, you are 90% safe from viruses using UBCD. You are even more safe since you are behind a router. Just don't use UBCD to download pr0n or other warez related things. User your primary OS with AV and FW and you will be fine.

You wouldn't be infected as the virus would still need to right something to the registry to run it. You would only have the files on the C drive in this scenario. The other option is that if a virus place a file in your start up dir on C drive hard coded then when you booted your PC it could possibly infect your PC.

As the files in UBCD are the same in Windows and prone to the same vulnerabilities I don't believe because of the environment change they will react the same.

Thanks for the response guys!

As I understand it, the risk is pretty much limited because of the router. Nevertheless it may be possible for malware to infect the system in the case of hardcoded paths like C:\ or C:\Windows\ etc., although most malware doesn't seem to be coded that way.

I think the best way to deal with it is disconnecting the PC from the internet when there is no direct need for a connection. In most cases updating the definitionfiles of the AV application will be the only reason to establish an internetconnection and that shouldn't take too long. Just to be on the safe side, I will disconnect afterwards.

Jan