Disable usb mass storage

Question

I want to disable usb mass storage on Ubuntu desktop 10.04, 11.04 and 11.10.

As security policy to avoid data leakage. But in case of emergency there easy way getting usb mass storage back.

Solution

Blacklist the usb_storage module by adding blacklist usb_storage to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf.

To load the module manually, run sudo modprobe usb_storage.

Comments

[tomodachi]

This would stop working when installing kernel updates would install a new kernel with this module again

[thomasrutter]

It is generally not a good idea to do modifications to files within /usr or /lib for reasons like this. Always better to modify conf files in /etc where possible.