Vulnerability Development: Re: Modern hw-killing virus feasible

[Bart <ti () OVERFLOW HRO NL>]

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

> -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
> Van: VULN-DEV List [mailto:VULN-DEV () SECURITYFOCUS COM]Namens Pavel
> Machek
> Verzonden: maandag 5 maart 2001 23:34
> Aan: VULN-DEV () SECURITYFOCUS COM
> Onderwerp: Modern hw-killing virus feasible
>
>
>  Hi!
>
>  Current DVD-regioning system provides *very* easy possibility for
>  virus to render hardware unusable. Current DVD-roms allow setting
>  DVD region for limited number of times.
>
>  Imagine virus, that switches DVD between japan-region and asia-region
>  as many times as it can. It would leave DVD locked either to japan or
>  asia, effectively making it unusable for european/us citizen.
>
>  Long time ago, rumors went that it is possible to kill harddrive by
>  software. Then, old monitors could be damaged by software by
>  missprograming them (but damage would take lot of time). Now DVDs
>  provide effective way for software making them unusable. Pretty sad.
>
>                                                                Pavel
>
> --
> I'm pavel () ucw cz  "In my country we have almost anarchy and I don't care."
> Panos Katsaloulis describing me w.r.t. patents at discuss () linmodems org