That's an interesting idea... but I also am not too familiar with Firmware manipulation on USB devices.

In the interim... here's what I AM looking at that seems promising- at least for using on XP machines:

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3513_7-6296529-1.html

ANd I quote:

The researchers found fault with the way Windows XP drivers handle USB autorun and USB raw sockets.

The Windows autorun feature of Plug and Play is interesting. By default, the Windows autorun driver works only with nonremovable media. However, the researchers played around with the idea and wondered whether they could create a faux USB device that would appear to Microsoft Windows to be a nonremovable DVD drive. Sure enough, they were able to do so by taking advantage of a flaw in which USB drivers handle raw sockets. Specifically, the researchers were able to fool Windows into thinking their faux USB device was a nonremovable drive by identifying themselves with the vendor ID and product ID for a known DVD drive.

With their faux USB device in hand, the researchers demonstrated how they could attach it to a Windows XP machine and force a Kernel Heap buffer overflow, which would then allow the machine to run their malicious code


Research continues....

DX