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Thread: autorun truecrypt mounted volume

  1. #1

    autorun truecrypt mounted volume

    hey guys

    i setup my USB drive with truecrypt and i also asked it to autorun truecrypt everytime i plug in my usb drive.

    i was wondering if it is possible to autorun the encrypted volume
    say i plug in my usb drive then it asked me for the password to the encrypted volume. i keyed in my password and it mounts the volume... i would like to ask the volume to autorun a program.... i tried including autorun.inf in the encrypted volume but it doesnt work that way... is there a way to create an autorun in that volume that actually works?

    cheers!

  2. #2
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Hi, whatever878787 please forgive me if I sound a bit dumb but it is early here and the caffeine hasn't kicked in yet.

    If we ignore Truecrypt for the time being, is your underlying question how to get something to autorun from a mounted USB HDD?

    Basically, autorun is designed for CD/DVD drives, and your system will check for this. There are USB drives that support autorun, but basically they have a partition on them that fools your system into thinking that it is a CD/DVD drive.

    http://www.udrw.com/en/index.php

    If you can confirm/clarify your requirement, I might be able to suggest a work around. For example, is this a portable drive that you want to work on a variety of machines? If so, will these be designated machines (like can I load some software onto them first)?




  3. #3
    just woke up here too...

    well i asked truecrypt to mount the volume as a removable drive and i m planning to use this portable drive on windows based machine although sometimes i might encounter mac (very rare) so for now i would just use that usb on windows machines... i would hope that there is a solution that doesnt require me to load software on to the machine but on the usb drive as i would be carrying this portable drive around and plugging it to other machines... i wouldnt feel nice to install some software on some friend's computer when i uses them...

  4. #4
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Ah! I understand your requirement now

    Basically, "autorun" is for CD/DVD drives only. The way some of these proprietary USB thumb drives work is to create a mount/boot partition that fools the system into thinking that it is a CD/DVD drive.

    This is not as easy as it may sound, as it is effectively a hidden partition. Currently, your USB drive tells the system that it is a removable storage device rather than a CD/DVD.

    There is software that will produce a "looks like" effect but it requires software to be loaded onto the client machine.

    Another approach might be to set the USB as the first boot device in the BIOS, but then you would need an operating system or at least enough of one to run a "live CD"

    I know that several people on this site have experimented with what you are suggesting, but so far no one has come up with a solution.

    Also bear in mind that in anything like a secure system, autorun will be disabled.

    I have not tried it but it might be possible to create a bootable CD that would then invoke the USB drive..............but that isn't really what you are asking?

    I guess the closest i can think of is to use a read/write/rewrite DVD. That would give you 4.7Gb, and you could update it.



  5. #5
    wait wait... my USB could run auto run scripts... maybe i should ******** this post a little clearer

    situation:
    say i have a usb drive with a truecrypt encrypted container say A.iso
    and in A.iso i have applications that is needed to run (say portable FF)

    now i plug in my usb drive and autorun.inf kicks in... it starts up truecrypt and asks for password to decrypt A.iso -> i key in my password, and A.iso is mounted on drive Z: as a removable drive (i have the option to mount it as a hdd)

    and now my question is that how can i autorun drive Z:

    hope this ******** some

  6. #6
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Hmmmm, I think that you will find that there is a hidden and protected partition that runs the Truecrypt login.

    If you think about it, it would not be much good if it were not so, as it would be trivial to interfere with it?..................or for malware to nuke it?

    I believe that this is how those thumb drives work as well (U3? etc.) There is a hidden, secure partition.

    To achieve what you are asking would require you to access and modify the Truecrypt startup partition, and I do not think that is as easy as it sounds, although I must admit that I do not know that much about the inner workings of Truecrypt.

    My suspicions are that your system "sees" the Truecrypt startup partition as a CD/DVD but mounts the encrypted container as a removable storage device or HDD.

    You might try a Google search for Truecrypt then search within results for "modify startup" and similar?


  7. #7
    AO Veteran NeuTron's Avatar
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    Im going to have to keep this reply brief, but I have experienced the same issue that you are dealing with. Personally, I work around it. Once my truecrypt volume mounts, I just click the program that I had wanted it to autorun. If you want to implement a workaround for this, you could just have the USB drive autorun a batch file. TrueCrypt can be run by commandline, so your batch file could mount the volume, and then run whatever program inside the volume you want. Sorry for the lack of explanantion, but I have to run. PM me if you'd like some assistance.

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