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Researcher Details USB-Based Attack That Circumvents All Known Protective Security Measures
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I missed the part where he demonstrated on an actual Mac. Especially one with gatekeeper etc in place. Let's see it in action
I see no reason why this wouldn't work on a Mac. This is the exploit, not the payload.
There will probably be demos during their BlackHat presentation.
It could work like this. Just two ideas I had
1) The thumb drive looks empty but is rigged to make a file a appear under doe condition. It would be a normal looking file that would just pop up one day.
2) the bad USB thumb drive has a secret radio transmitter that sends whatever data you store on it some place. So if later you erase the data, it is to late.
1) The thumb drive looks empty but is rigged to make a file a appear under doe condition. It would be a normal looking file that would just pop up one day.
2) the bad USB thumb drive has a secret radio transmitter that sends whatever data you store on it some place. So if later you erase the data, it is to late.
The USB may be kept to bring in data to the system & it should be then checked at that point only to make sure what is real location of incoming data to your PC.
I guess this means USB is out and we will be using only thunderbolt for anything and everything starting with the elusive 12 retina macbook air!
Thunderbolt is even worse in this regard:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMA_attack
Do any companies develop machine specific port covers? I've tried searching but couldn't find anything.
You'd think for a Mac Mini for example that it'd be relatively easy for a company to produce a custom panel that fits over the Mac Mini's ports and prevents standard cables from being removed; this would also be handy for preventing cables from being pulled out accidentally (or maliciously). Then all you need are some dummy connectors, the locking plate keeps them in, making it impossible for someone to add a new USB device without removing the plate.
I'd love to get something like that just to ensure I can't accidentally tug a cable; while I'm generally very careful with my cable management to try to avoid this, it isn't as good as actual panel could be.
Anyway, more on target; I think this a bit blown out of proportion, okay so yeah, you could be vulnerable if someone unknowingly connects a USB stick or whatever with infected firmware into your machine, but surely the virus would need to have the right firmware for every device that it could potentially infect? That would be a huge amount of work, and if it broke the device then users would notice, so it'd have to be a seamless change.
Also, it's always been the case that if someone has physical access to your machine, then you're vulnerable; a USB stick with a bootable partition could let them install a malicious boot loader to steal your Filevault password, or change a user account's password to enable access etc.
You'd think for a Mac Mini for example that it'd be relatively easy for a company to produce a custom panel that fits over the Mac Mini's ports and prevents standard cables from being removed; this would also be handy for preventing cables from being pulled out accidentally (or maliciously). Then all you need are some dummy connectors, the locking plate keeps them in, making it impossible for someone to add a new USB device without removing the plate.
I'd love to get something like that just to ensure I can't accidentally tug a cable; while I'm generally very careful with my cable management to try to avoid this, it isn't as good as actual panel could be.
Anyway, more on target; I think this a bit blown out of proportion, okay so yeah, you could be vulnerable if someone unknowingly connects a USB stick or whatever with infected firmware into your machine, but surely the virus would need to have the right firmware for every device that it could potentially infect? That would be a huge amount of work, and if it broke the device then users would notice, so it'd have to be a seamless change.
Also, it's always been the case that if someone has physical access to your machine, then you're vulnerable; a USB stick with a bootable partition could let them install a malicious boot loader to steal your Filevault password, or change a user account's password to enable access etc.
They've found malware which transmits pin numbers etc. to crooks built into card readers in the factories, so it doesn't seem much of a leap to me.
I think I have the virus. After I read the article I immediately tried to unplug my USB hard drive from my Mac. But almost instantly, the USB cable reared up like a cobra ready to strike, made a strange noise, and replugged itself back into my Mac. I no longer even try to unplug it.
Well, show me an exploit of this type working on a Mac that doesn't involve the user typing in his password or turning off Gatekeeper, and I'll be impressed.
IF someone can demonstrate that an auto-typing USB keyboard mimic, or a USB network hijack, results in an OSX security compromise, that would be a prime candidate for Apple to add a safeguard against.
And that is the problem.
Target assumed that the programming in their credit card terminals was good from the factory, but the source code was compromised.
It is trivial for overseas factories to create forgeries of Kingston or SanDisk or Lexar flash cards, you see them every day on wholesale sites and eBay and your local flea market.
It's no great leap to envision a state-sponsored or a criminal operator paying the counterfeit manufacturers to include a backdoor virus into the firmware, and then spreading the commodity products far and wide.
What the hell is GateKeeper?
And I dunno. Seems to me they could piggyback code that could execute in tandem with a specific application (iTunes, perhaps) in response to a particular set of instructions or memory requests etc.
I know of another one: The soft spot between chair and keyboard, and of course, keyboard and mouse as entry points...
I think the only answer is that we all go to pen and paper immediately. And maybe even to stone tablets and Flintstones' birds with sharp beaks...
You could say that about the human race in general for anything, not just computer crimes. Look at them killing each other in the Middle East and the Eastern Ukraine right now. Over what? Power. Control over others. People can't just leave each other alone. They have to try and control what other people think and do and make laws to enforce such. It's ridiculous. If people would just respect each other and their right to think for themselves, form their own opinions and beliefs and respect their property we wouldn't even have to have locks on doors. The problem is people have this thing called "EGO" that says only they are important and no one but themselves and perhaps someone they care about are important at all and you can just step on everyone else like bugs. Until mankind rises above the "animal" stage (oddly I'm listening to "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" from Pink Floyd's Animals album right now), he'll always be nothing more than the proverbial underwear stains of the Universe. We haven't changed one iota in the past 10,000 years except technologically which we then use to just make more ways to rip people off and/or kill them. We're a real class act. No wonder we're left out in the armpit of the Milky Way by ourselves. We're the "Zoo" of this sector of the Galaxy.
But I can take over your pen when you're not looking and write some viral thing on your paper.
Yep. Though I hear no one talking about the spyware bots planted into new factory fresh USB devices by the NSA ....
We stopped using them when one our IT guys "found" an aggregator in a new USB stick. But we have learned how to play their game, too. War is war
We stopped using them when one our IT guys "found" an aggregator in a new USB stick. But we have learned how to play their game, too. War is war