Full Disclosure mailing list archives

Re: Viral infection via Serial Cable


From: "J.A. Terranson" <measl () mfn org>
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 20:17:38 -0500 (CDT)



On Mon, 30 Aug 2004, Jean Gruneberg wrote:

So the question is, is a pc / machine connected to another pc via serial
cable only using specialised windows software to move data to the machine at
all vulnerable to viruses?  Can they transmit themselves across a serial
cable?

You are confusing the different layers.  There is no difference (to a
virus) between a fiber, a cat-5, a serial cable, etc.  These are all
layer-1 choices.

Moving up the stack, the answer to your question is a qualified "yes": if
the serial port is configured as a data transport which the virus can see,
then propagation across it is possible.  And, for the record, there are a
variety of serial-port based LANs.

Jean

-- 
Yours,

J.A. Terranson
sysadmin () mfn org
0xBD4A95BF

  "...justice is a duty towards those whom you love and those whom you do
  not.  And people's rights will not be harmed if the opponent speaks out
  about them."      Osama Bin Laden
        - - -

  "There aught to be limits to freedom!"    George Bush
        - - -

Which one scares you more?

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