Environment
- App Control Agent: All Supported Versions
- App Control Console: All Supported Versions
Question
Why are mobile phones and other Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) or Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) devices not displaying in the Console?
Answer
- The Agent only tracks mounted volumes.
- Some phones, cameras, and other media devices use the Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) or Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) to transfer media files to/from the machine without ever mounting as a volume.
- When devices are connected in this way the Agent will not track these devices, and they will not show up on the App Control Console's Devices page.
Additional Notes
- Only Removable Devices shown in the Console > Assets > Devices can be Approved, Banned or blocked by App Control Rules.
- Fixed Devices are included in the Device Inventory, but they cannot be Approved, Banned or blocked by App Control Rules.
- App Control must rely on the information provided by a device to determine whether it is Fixed or Removable. There may be some cases where the information provided to the Agent by the device is incorrect.
- If possible, Carbon Black recommends connecting these devices in “USB Mass Storage” mode instead of “MTP/PTP transfer” mode. This should allow the device to report as Removable to the Agent and be properly managed within the Console.
- Files residing on Removable Devices that are not mounted as volumes cannot be executed on the host machine via this protocol, but files from the host machine can be transferred to/from these devices and will not report or block these writes, even if a File Creation Control Rule is in effect.
