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by NDlurker 26 days ago
Cool and reminds me of a project from like 15 years ago. Forgot what it was called but basically it was just people hiding thumb drives and finding them like a geocache. Fun idea but then I remember Stuxnet and I'm like nah.

Edit: found it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_dead_drop

Pirate box is mentioned on that page. I forgot about that. I used to carry around an old android phone running pirate box. Sometimes people would connect at a coffee shop and that's how I found out about the band Death Grips

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>Edit: found it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_dead_drop

I wanted these to exist so badly, it was a fun and quirky concept, but people kept bashing it online as the stupidest idea ever, and the few dead drops that existed in my city routinely got destroyed.

I also built my own PirateBox too, but the only thing that was ever uploaded to it was a creepshot of me and my PirateBox. Turns out when Public Wi-Fi exists, they're actively ignored.

Oh that is creepy. I went to coffee shops with mine because I figured those were the only places anyone would notice it and possibly connect. I had a few random pictures, chats, and a Death Grips video uploaded to mine.

The dead drop website had a map but I was never anywhere near any. That sucks that people destroyed them. It's a dangerous idea, but a cheap used laptop specifically for it could be fun, but yeah, not enough people would ever do that to make it worthwhile.

For dead drops, beyond worry about viruses there is also the concern about physical security so you don't fry your device/port. Randomly plugging in unknown USB devices just has way too many downsides.

USBkill, etc.

Micro SD may be safer, it’s hard to fit any large capacitors in there. Bulk cards are still not that expensive in smaller sizes.

Wifi captive portals with simple file sharing are probably the safest way to go. You could also locate it in a hard-to-reach place, or completely out of sight, to make it hard to destroy. My favorite idea is to fit a tiny ESP board inside an outlet box.