USB Password Protect Permissions Issue

Kasparov

I have recently purchased a high volume of password protected USB keys for a customer. The software used to password protect is called 'Flashpot'.

When used on a PC with local administrator rights it works fine, but this particular customer has security policies on all PC's and the local user only has 'User' rights, and the software won't work. The login button in Flashpot is greyed out.

I have heard this as a problem with a number of password protected USB's, Disgo etc. Does anyone have an idea of a work around, or know of password protect software that will allow local users without administrator rights to access?

I have already set the permissions on the USB to allow 'Everyone' have full access, to no avail.

Any help would be much appreciated,

Thanks,
Kasparov

jimmycrackcorm

Have you installed the software first with administrator rights and granted security access to the local users.

Came across this too:

"XP Pro has a local security policy setting to grant or restrict access to
removable devices. By default, XP Pro SP2 will not let "interactive users"
format or eject removable media, but you can change that in the Security
Options in Local Security Policy."

Kasparov

Hi Jimmy, thanks for the response.

The software is resident on the USB, so you don't need to install on the PC itself.

The USB key loads fine and is seen as a removable drive, so the installation of the device itself is ok.

When you run the small applet on the USB it has a small login button, which is greyed out if the local user doesn't have admin right.

It's just very basic password protection on the device as such.

Gryzor

i came across this at work some time ago....i had the same issue....i found the following local policy object needs to be changed...

open the group policy editor.."gpedit.msc", go to Windows Setting\Security Settings\Local Policy\Security options, theres a policy object in there called "Device:Allowed to format and Eject Removable Media". This is set to Administrators only by default in XP Pro. Change this if you can and you should be set.

basically what jimmycrackcorm posted..:D

Kasparov

Hi Gryzor,

Thanks for your post. I understand where yourself and Jimmycrackcorm are coming from, and do realise that you both gave me the same solution , but this doesn't sort my issue I'm afraid.

The USB key installs absolutely fine, finds it, installs it, mounts it as a removable drive, all ok.

While the policy change allows access to the USB device, it doesn't allow me to run the password protect software from the device properly, and subsiquently enter the password and work away.

The login button on the password protect software is greyed out.

FSL

Hi

The software checking the user rights is on the USB drive and no doubt only checks if the user is an administrator or not.

If your client requires the data on the USB drives to be protected in the event of loss then one solution would be to turn off the protection on the USB Drive and provide them with a simple copy utility which encrypts the files when putting them onto the USB Drive and decrypts them when copying them to the users machine.

This would actually give them greater security as there is bound to be a lot of people out there who know how to bypass or crack the USB drive password.

Kasparov

Thanks FSL, I think that may well be my only option at this stage alright.