Older systems are still vulnerable to old exploits, and if you are a user of an older system who does not want to upgrade to a newer version of the operating system you may want to get familiar with this article.

Not long ago this has been a popular way to lure victims into desperate predicaments, victims would receive free USBs from some source claiming that they have won it as a prize from some loyalty program or random participation in some lottery.

Or simply the culprit would leave USB in a public place for someone to find it and use it unaware of the danger.

USBs could be set to autorun executables, scripts, or files supporting macros when the user decides to see what those files are.

This danger is mitigated since Windows 8, and since Windows 7  autoplay has been turned off by default, but Windows 7 and older still can be affected if the user turns on autoplay.

It is really easy to create hidden files and to average user presented it as a normal device, as some random lost USB.

Look just at our example, we have created an autorun.inf file and set it to be hidden with the rest of our malicious files, we also have added a shiny icon to lure users.

We could easily create an icon to look like an image, or make a self-executable file (SFX) and run our faul programs when the user clicks on the file camouflaged with a false extension. Users in most cases won't even read file type or examine the USB files at all.

The best practice is to make a complete format of the USB or to first run it on the test unit designated for demolition.