I’d like to install/run Kicksecure from my “EAGET USB 3.2 Solid State Pen Drive” as described here. (Im not set on Kicksecure, just read about it on privacyguides; open for suggestions! I just want something … well secure and easy to use.

… However, my Windows PC does not recognize the USB with Debian as a bootable medium.

What I did:

  1. Download debian-live-12.5.0-amd64-xfce
  2. Flash it to USB with balenaEtcher
  3. Try to boot from it in all possible ways

I also tried other Linux distributions like Mint and Ubuntu … nothing gets recognized on that USB, expect Tails. After it recognizes it as UEFI OS and I select Harddisk Mode.

Tails is amazing, love it! But I just don’t really need Tor, and mostly I need to use an App that will simply not connect via the Tor network and cannot be configured to do so.

Thank you very much 😊

Edit: Not everything can boot on windows I guess. But in my case Ubuntu suddenly could after turning off the PC and remove it from its power source.

    • birdcatOP
      3·
      10 months ago

      seems to involve disabling secure boot, not happy with that. will cause more paranoia 😬

  • Ludrol@szmer.info
    6·
    10 months ago

    What PC do you have? Is it company’s PC with locked BIOS? Did you set the bootable flag on the usb partition? Can you test the capacity of the flash drive and verivy it’s not fake?

  • GolfNovemberUniform
    5·
    10 months ago

    I have a cheap USB drive that doesn’t work as a bootable medium too (except for Ubuntu and maybe some other specific distros). Though I suspect this issue apppeared after I dropped it from like 1.3 meters height. Anyways it can be a malfunction or your drive just doesn’t properly support it. What is your hardware though? Are you sure you need the UEFI mode and not the legacy BIOS mode?

      • Limonene@lemmy.world
        8·
        10 months ago

        You know that stuff that appears on the screen before the operating system? That is the computer’s firmware. Sometimes it shows a brief memory check, sometimes it has a silly error message like “No keyboard detected. Press F1 to continue.” Sometimes it’s just a big image of the motherboard’s manufacturer’s logo. That firmware exists independently of the operating system, and will run even if you don’t have any operating system installed.

        Most people refer to the firmware as the “BIOS”, but technically, BIOS refers to an API between the firmware and the operating system. About a decade ago, some people decided that “BIOS” was going to be replaced by “UEFI”, and operating systems would start having a new way to boot. What ended up happening is: the firmware on all recent computers supports both UEFI and BIOS interfaces (and everyone still calls it “BIOS”). Recent Windows versions seem to only boot in UEFI mode, but most Linux distros can boot in either UEFI or BIOS mode. The GRUB bootloader can also start itself up in either UEFI or BIOS mode.

        USB live operating systems are limited in size and may have less functionality than other operating systems, so maybe they are only able to boot in one method or another. Try looking around in the firmware (or “BIOS” if you prefer) to see if you can change the boot method to allow both UEFI and BIOS operating systems.

        It may help if you can take a picture of some of the firmware’s boot configuration menus.

          • GolfNovemberUniform
            4·
            10 months ago

            Don’t do that. Many malicious actors can put malware on Aliexpress tech products and sell it to get credit card information, create a botnet (similar to gaining remote access) or spy on you for the government

          • henfredemars@infosec.pubEnglish
            3·
            10 months ago

            Ali is known for shipping questionable products at times. I won’t tell you not to use them, but do understand that there’s some risk involved to get those lower prices.

        • GolfNovemberUniform
          2·
          10 months ago

          You don’t know how far people from poor countries can go to save money. Some of my relatives literally buy everything non-critical there

      • GolfNovemberUniform
        3·
        10 months ago
        1. How old is your computer’s motherboard?
        2. Aliexpress=questionable. You don’t need more facts. Getting something cheap always comes with a risk
  • henfredemars@infosec.pubEnglish
    3·
    10 months ago

    I question the legitimacy of Kicksecure because they have some strange design choices from their About page, but I digress. I understand that’s not your main concern at this time.

    Do you have a non-USB 3 drive available? I’ve seen some firmware have issues with the newer standards. Have you tried different ports?

    • birdcatOP
      1·
      10 months ago

      omg pls do digress! like i said, im reallly open to other distros.

      did try other ports.

      dont have another usb. i like this one cuz its fast and i dont want to buy a new one before being sure it will work.

      • henfredemars@infosec.pubEnglish
        5·
        10 months ago

        As someone who does do a lot of embedded work professionally, including custom kernel development and security research, I don’t think the developers of the distro really understand what they wish to accomplish. They don’t understand the technologies they are working with and how it fits into a good security posture. Let me cherry pick some examples from their website:

        Torified operating system (apt) upgrades

        Routing your upgrades through Tor seems really silly to me. Your packages are already authenticated using strong cryptography, and if you’re concerned about Debian core repositories signing packages with their keys just to target you in particular, use a mirror. There’s plenty of them. Debian maintainers won’t know what you’re downloading, and if you fear the maintainers as part of your threat model, then perhaps a Debian-based distribution that implicitly trusts those maintainers is the wrong choice.

        TCP Initial Sequence Numbers Randomization prevents TCP ISN-based CPU Information Leaks; see footnote.

        Okay… that seems rather contrived. They don’t cite any sources, and I’ve never heard of this being a security concern.

        Better encryption is achieved via preinstalled random number generators.

        Woah, “better” encryption! That’s a pretty extreme claim without establishing that there’s anything wrong with how Linux already generates random numbers, which has been extensively studied and attacked. I’d be way more shy of their tweaks introducing security bugs. Do not get creative with cryptography.

        I can’t take their work seriously, I’m sorry. It sounds like a lot of hope and not a whole lot of experience.

        • SteveTech@programming.devEnglish
          1·
          10 months ago

          TCP Initial Sequence Numbers Randomization prevents TCP ISN-based CPU Information Leaks;

          Seems to be related to this: https://github.com/Kicksecure/tirdad

          Although it looks like it’s literally just slightly possible to leak the load on the system. It’s hard to pull off, and isn’t precise enough to leak anything important.

        • birdcatOP
          1·
          10 months ago

          Appreciate it a lot, thanks. What Distro would you recommend running from a USB?

          Beside security concerns about stuff that I don’t understand, my only real needs are:

          • Kleopatra (to generate keys and passwords my Windows will never know about)
          • And this fucking App that will not connect to the internet on Tails.
          • henfredemars@infosec.pubEnglish
            3·
            10 months ago

            Security is really hard. The most vulnerable part of any computer system is you, the user. Even a 100% secure computer can still be attacked if you can fool the user into approving malicious activity.

            I struggle to recommend something specific, but I do recommend arming yourself with knowledge about security, what it means, and what you hope to achieve with it. Use things that have lots of eyes on them that get attention from security experts, such as popular distributions with good reputations. A vanilla Debian system, Ubuntu, or Linux Mint are going to be extremely secure out of the box, but even then I rather have a smart user in front of an unpatched Windows machine with no antivirus than an uneducated user on Tails.

            • birdcatOP
              2·
              10 months ago

              like i said, i tried mint, does not work from that stick, only tails works. what i want to achieve is not much:

              • create files that i cannot decrypt in my windows, even if i have the keys or the password, which i both dont have. (already done in tails)
              • run this one single app on a secure usb, so when my windows or phone have a virus/stolen/lost, this app is not there and not in danger.
              • henfredemars@infosec.pubEnglish
                3·
                10 months ago

                I’m sorry but I’m not sure how to help further because I don’t know enough about how tails booting is different from how Mint boots.

                • birdcatOP
                  3·
                  10 months ago

                  ok, appreciate your time and insight. thanks!

                • birdcatOP
                  2·
                  10 months ago

                  ah crazy, i made it work with Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS!

                  For some reason i had to unplug the PC before restarting. Then it got found as UEFI and could boot.

                  The full installation on the USB was a bit dirty, as i put the Live Ubuntu in a Virtual Machine and installed it from there. So i typed the full disk encryption and login passwords in Windows … but I wont be too paranoid about that one now 😅