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So the whole thing about plugging something into your computer port (firewall, etc) to gain complete control like in the movies is true.
by henryw 16y ago
So the whole thing about plugging something into your computer port (firewall, etc) to gain complete control like in the movies is true.
- marshray 16y agoYes there are two pieces of uber-secret space alien technology Microsoft included in Windows at the behest of the NSA called "autorun" and "plug and play". Windows installs a Plug and Play device and its driver automatically. http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/pnp_driver_support.mspx http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/...
- barrkel 16y agoWell, there's a piece of Apple-championed technology, Firewire, which doesn't care what OS you're running because it has direct path to the DMA controller, and can read and write physical memory.
- epochwolf 16y agoThis is not true. OSX locks down the FireWire ports to protect system memory. I am not sure exactly how this works but I believe it's firmware/driver dependent and Windows usually lacks the drivers to force the firmware into a protected mode. FireWire having direct access to the system ram is not a requirement of the 1.0 spec, it's a stupid implemention decision by chip designers.
- barrkel 16y agoIt must have done it pretty recently then, because it's been vulnerable to this for a very long time.
- marshray 16y agoYeah, that applies to PCMCIA and Cardbus too. A USB attack device could probably also emulate a hardware CD-ROM. I wonder if they could emulate a crypto accelerator and actually use stock drivers with backdoored hardware?
- whatusername 16y agoYes. http://www.irongeek.com/i.php?page=security/programmable-hid-usb-keystroke-dongle http://www.irongeek.com/i.php?page=security/programmable-hid... Plug it in, makes the OS think it's a keyboard while the user thinks it's a USB stick.