Autorun is a feature of the Windows operating system that will open a certain file or a run a certain program automatically as soon as a removable media (CD-ROM, DVD, USB, floppy drive, etc.) is inserted. If the removable media contains malicious content, it could also be executed using the autorun feature.
Industry best practices are to turn off the autorun feature on all computers used on your network. Microsoft has recently released updated information correcting an earlier error on how to properly turn off this autorun feature.
It should be noted that worms/viruses have been discovered spreading through the autorun feature of windows.
Recommendations:
We recommend the following actions:
- Refer to the most recent Microsoft Knowledge Base article to turn off autorun.
- Do not use removable media from un-trusted sources.
References:
Microsoft:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;953252
NIST:
http://csrc.nist.gov/itsec/Draft-SP800-68r1.pdf
Center for Internet Security:
http://www.cisecurity.org/tools2/windows/CIS_Win2003_DC_Benchmark_v2.0.pdf