3 ms·
I can see some concerns over this, but at the same time hasn't the conventional wisdom always been that you can do anything given physical access to a machine?
by RodgerTheGreat 16y ago
I can see some concerns over this, but at the same time hasn't the conventional wisdom always been that you can do anything given physical access to a machine?
- BCM43 16y agoThe problem with this is that you can be tricked into giving access to it. I would not count plunging a display adapter into my computer giving someone "physical access" but in this case it would do.
- __david__ 16y agoVery true. It seems like a simple thing to loudly inform the user that a new PCI device was connected. But that would probably only help savvy people--everyone else would just click ok without reading the dialog. A real solution would be some sort of DMA whitelist provided by the OS driver.
- cma 16y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayPort http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayPort combined with windows auto-run would seem to already be an example of this in the wild.
- tomjen3 16y agoSure, but that assumes that you have: 1) As much time as you need, within reason. 2) Privacy complete the attack. Physical access should not mean getting close with a wire, it should mean opening the case and messing with the internals.
- ItarPeyo 16y agoYou don't have to mess with the internals, unless you want to put a bomb in someone's laptop. Reboot in single user mode, change password, do whatever you want.
- rhizome 16y agoPhysical access should not mean getting close with a wire, it should mean opening the case and messing with the internals. Your personal preferences are irrelevant to a concept that has been proven over centuries. Physical access is physical access, and I can get root while sitting at most unix-like OSes (including yours) without touching a nutdriver.