Vulnerability Development mailing list archives

Re: Modern hw-killing virus feasible


From: Ma Gores <gores () iname com>
Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2001 20:57:01 -0800

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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