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I'm admin for one of my college PC with 3 other normal users . If possible I want to restrict other 3 normal users from using USB. I'm using Ubuntu 12.04 .

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2 Answers 2

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You can disable USB storage device in Ubuntu, where only root users can only enable it. Just press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open Terminal. When it opens, run the command below.

gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

enter image description here

When it opens add blacklist usb_storage as the last line, then with the command below open the rc.local file

gksudo gedit /etc/rc.local

When it opens, add modprobe -r usb_storage before the line exit 0

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Now go ahead and reboot your system.

To mount, open a Terminal and use the following command.

sudo modprobe usb_storage

To Unmount the USB device, just right click on the device in file manager, and choose safley remove, or Unmount device, and run 

sudo rmmod usb_storage

In Terminal.

Source: How to Disable and Enable USB Device

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    This disables USB storage system wide in a rather blunt fashion. This is really not the way to do it. Ubuntu uses group permissions for that (see my answer).
    – Paul Hänsch
    Oct 28, 2012 at 8:53
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    I also had to add blacklist uas on Ubuntu 18.04.1 to make this work.
    – Surya Teja Karra
    Nov 2, 2018 at 10:44
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To deny users permission to use USB storage, it should suffice to remove them from the group plugdev.

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  • See the link "how to disable and enable USB Device"
    – Mitch
    Oct 28, 2012 at 10:17
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    oh, i think modprobing around would be perfectly valid for disabeleing USB alltogether, which was the original question, admitted. But isn't the module usb_storage also only for usb volumes? Is i.e. a webcam disabled by removing usb_storage? (It stays operational with my method)
    – Paul Hänsch
    Oct 28, 2012 at 13:40
  • Oh.. and well the link you posted, it is one method, yes, but a dull one. And it completely ignores modern distributions with polkit setup etc.
    – Paul Hänsch
    Oct 28, 2012 at 13:44

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