Pentium Computers Vulnerable to Attack?

["Fergie" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

Interesting -- Anyone else see this?

Via /.

[snip]

"One of the latest security scares is coming from security experts at CanSecWest/core '06 in the form of a possible 
hardware-specific attack. The attack is based on the built-in procedure that Pentium based chips use when they overheat.

> From the article: 'When the processor begins to overheat or encounters other conditions that could threaten the 
> motherboard, the computer interrupts its normal operation, momentarily freezes and stores its activity, said Loïc 
> Duflot, a computer security specialist for the French government's Secretary General for National Defense information 
> technology laboratory.

Cyberattackers can take over a computer by appropriating that safeguard to make the machine interrupt operations and 
enter System Management Mode, Duflot said. Attackers then enter the System Management RAM and replace the default 
emergency-response software with custom software that, when run, will give them full administrative privileges.'"

[snip]

http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardware/06/04/11/1655257.shtml

- ferg

--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg () netzero net or fergdawg () sbcglobal net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/


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