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Can somebody hunt down one of those motherboards maybe on eBay or in their own data centers and track down this malicious device? Putting together a test circu

Can somebody hunt down one of those motherboards maybe on eBay or in their own data centers and track down this malicious device? Putting together a test circuit that throws the BMC firmware down it and see if anything different comes out the other end should be a simple enough task.

bonestamp2 8y ago
I like the idea. But, since hardware attacks like the one proposed are usually fairly labor intensive and they really want them to remain undetected, chances are good that the altered boards were only shipped to specific high value targets. If it's true that Amazon and Apple discovered flawed ones, all of those would have been returned to Supermicro and likely destroyed for the most part. If Supermicro was aware of the problem and ethical, they likely would have contacted other customers who they suspect could have received altered boards and replaced those boards too. I'm not saying it would be impossible to get your hands on one, but if there's any truth to this hack, I think you'd have to buy a ton of boards before you ever came across an altered one.
- VectorLock 8y ago
  It doesn't seem like it would be all that labor intensive. Just change a part on the line, from what it described. I think if they were specifically targeting Apple & Amazon there would have to be someone complicit in Supermicro making sure that motherboards with the special part went to the right destinations. That seems more labor intensive than actually swapping the modified part.
  - bonestamp2 8y ago
    > I think if they were specifically targeting Apple & Amazon there would have to be someone complicit in Supermicro making sure that motherboards with the special part went to the right destinations. Fair enough, I guess it depends on their distribution model. When I order a macbook from apple.com, it ships from China. So, somebody there knows it's coming to me. Not that I'm a target, but I'd be surprised if they were shipping a container of servers to Supermicro and then to a customer. If Apple dropships one laptop, I assume Supermicro dropships containers. > That seems more labor intensive than actually swapping the modified part. Good point, assuming it was not labor intensive to modified part itself, then swapping them out on the line would be trivial.

bonestamp2 8y ago

I like the idea. But, since hardware attacks like the one proposed are usually fairly labor intensive and they really want them to remain undetected, chances are good that the altered boards were only shipped to specific high value targets. If it's true that Amazon and Apple discovered flawed ones, all of those would have been returned to Supermicro and likely destroyed for the most part. If Supermicro was aware of the problem and ethical, they likely would have contacted other customers who they suspect could have received altered boards and replaced those boards too. I'm not saying it would be impossible to get your hands on one, but if there's any truth to this hack, I think you'd have to buy a ton of boards before you ever came across an altered one.

VectorLock 8y ago
It doesn't seem like it would be all that labor intensive. Just change a part on the line, from what it described. I think if they were specifically targeting Apple & Amazon there would have to be someone complicit in Supermicro making sure that motherboards with the special part went to the right destinations. That seems more labor intensive than actually swapping the modified part.
- bonestamp2 8y ago
  > I think if they were specifically targeting Apple & Amazon there would have to be someone complicit in Supermicro making sure that motherboards with the special part went to the right destinations. Fair enough, I guess it depends on their distribution model. When I order a macbook from apple.com, it ships from China. So, somebody there knows it's coming to me. Not that I'm a target, but I'd be surprised if they were shipping a container of servers to Supermicro and then to a customer. If Apple dropships one laptop, I assume Supermicro dropships containers. > That seems more labor intensive than actually swapping the modified part. Good point, assuming it was not labor intensive to modified part itself, then swapping them out on the line would be trivial.