Comment by tcbawo

4 years ago

I understand the appeal of radical portability that a floppy-based OS gives you, but the fragility of floppy disk media is something I don't miss!

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tcbawo

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tablespoon  4 years ago

> I understand the appeal of radical portability that a floppy-based OS gives you, but the fragility of floppy disk media is something I don't miss!

I also like the idea that the media doesn't contain a computer that could be programmed to do something nefarious that you don't expect.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/heres-a-list-...

  • DaiPlusPlus  4 years ago

    > I also like the idea that the media doesn't contain a computer that could be programmed to do something nefarious that you don't expect.

    It's entirely possible for a floppy-disk to be an attack-vector.

    After all, viruses were a thing in DOS days and they spread via floppy disks: https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/definition/boot...

    But a modern Trojan-horse style computer-hidden-inside-an-innocuous-looking-peripheral in a floppy disk should be possible, considering what Sony fit into a floppy-disk's dimensions back in 2000: http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Sony_Mavica_FD95

    • tablespoon  4 years ago

      >> I also like the idea that the media doesn't contain a computer that could be programmed to do something nefarious that you don't expect.

      > It's entirely possible for a floppy-disk to be an attack-vector.

      Yeah, but media with embedded computers adds more vectors on top of those that exist in dumb media. I'm not claiming that dumb media is absolutely secure, just that it has fewer attack vectors.

      > But a modern Trojan-horse style computer-hidden-inside-an-innocuous-looking-peripheral in a floppy disk should be possible, considering what Sony fit into a floppy-disk's dimensions back in 2000: http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Sony_Mavica_FD95

      That's a novelty, though. I've never seen one of those, but that particular example could never be confused for a regular floppy disk, and I'm skeptical that a similar device that could be confused would even be possible to build.

      Floppies are super light. To sneak a CPU into one would require power (which would not be provided directly by the drive), storage electronics, and something to interface magnetically with the heads. I think all that (especially the power and interface) would likely be noticeably heavier. I've had something might had some of the components (https://www.macrumors.com/2017/02/01/coin-shutdown-services-...), but I doubt the magnetic interface was sufficient for a trojan floppy.

      But even if you could get the weight and balance right, inspecting whatever under the shutter would be a dead giveaway. And transparent floppies were a thing (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Transparent_floppy_d...) and using those would make it even harder to sneak electronics on board.

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