[Cryptography] You can't trust any of your hardware

[Jerry Leichter]

http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/07/this-thumbdrive-hacks-computers-badusb-exploit-makes-devices-turn-evil/
The full talk/paper don't seem to be available yet, but they (a) figured out how to write malware that attacks a system via something plugged into its USB port (no, it doesn't depend on AUTORUN); (b) flipped that around and figured out how to replace the firmware on a USB device from the host.  I wouldn't have thought (b) was possible - after all, how many firmware updates for USB devices have you ever seen? - but I guess it's handy at the end of manufacturing, and gets left open because ... who would ever think of attacking it?

On further reflection, though, I realized that the only thing new here is that they actually went and built a full-cycle virus.  All the rest was done a couple of years ago:  Apple published an update for its (USB) keyboards - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4010 - and someone reverse-engineered it and figured out how to upload any code they liked - https://www.blackhat.com/presentations/bh-usa-09/CHEN/BHUSA09-Chen-RevAppleFirm-PAPER.pdf

The fun never ends....
                                                        -- Jerry



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