FW: Modern hw-killing virus feasible

[Russell Munday <rmunday () SYSCAP COM>]

I've heard of this before and believe it to be just that, a rumor. In order
for a monitor to implode, not explode as some people seem to think as the
CRT contains a vacuum, it would have to sustain some heavy physical damage.
Perhaps if there was a power surge through the actual power line, that may
set in effect a myriad of possibilities, implosion being one of them. I've
never heard of this happening, but I suppose it could happen. Could the
input signal lines be modified in a way to implode the monitor? The power
they tend to carry is low, and I can't see the possibility to adjust the
voltage to a higher level. You would need to adjust the transformer in the
PC and that can't be changed except by direct physical access. Speaking of
these hardware killing viruses, I once heard of a virus that could pop the
CPU out of it's socket. Yeah right!

Maybe one day there'll be a virus that can do some real hardware damage, but
I can't see it. Please bear in mind that while I do understand quite a bit
about electronics, I am not an Electrical Engineer and if any of my
statements are wrong please let me know along with an explanation of why it
can be done. Thank you.

Russell


-----Original Message-----
From: fejed [mailto:fejed () OPTUSHOME COM AU]
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2001 10:40 AM
To: VULN-DEV () SECURITYFOCUS COM
Subject: Re: Modern hw-killing virus feasible


Using severely incorrect modelines can cause some monitors to implode.

<roumor/>

----- Original Message -----
From: Ma Gores <gores () INAME COM>
To: <VULN-DEV () SECURITYFOCUS COM>
Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2001 8:57 PM
Subject: Re: Modern hw-killing virus feasible


> Quoting from someone, somewhere, else...
>
> "cih erased the software stored on the chip... it should be obvious from
> that that it is software damage, not hardware damage...
>
>  > But its damage is just as bad"
>
>
> Semantics, maybe.
>
> -------
> Magores
>
> At 07:57 PM 3/6/2001 +0100, you wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Doesn't seem anything really new. The CIH Virus
> >  http://vil.mcafee.com/dispVirus.asp?virus_k=10300&; ) written in 1998
did
> > something like what you are describing. On a set date it tried to flash
the
> > bios with garbage, making the infected pc unable to boot.
> >
> > Alot of hardware can probably be killed this way, as a lot of hardware
these
> > days have flashable eeprom's. The only problem is is that they have
various
> > ways of flashing the eeprom, thus making it (virtually) impossible for a
> > virus to have a generic (flash-)payload for a lot of hardware.
> >
> > Kind Regards,
> >
> > Bart


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