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Remember that story a few months ago about how some government agency had replaced all its keyboards and mice in response to a malware infestation? A lot of fo
by rst 13y ago
Remember that story a few months ago about how some government agency had replaced all its keyboards and mice in response to a malware infestation? A lot of folks (including some here) took this as Yet Another Show of Government Cluelessness. I found myself wondering instead if there was a world in which folks advised by government security experts (i.e., you-know-who) would have a good reason to do something like this and not say why.
There is. It's a world in which their opponents had a zero-day against the Windows USB driver, and a way into the government's supply chain. And in which you-know-who wants to play the same game themselves against opponents elsewhere.
- wiml 13y agoThey don't need a way into the government's supply chain if the keyboards and mice have processors whose firmware is updatable over USB. Which is not exactly rare. PoC: http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/08/01/1658258/apple-keyboard-firmware-hack-demonstrated http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/08/01/1658258/apple-keyboard...