Windows 7: Researcher Creates Proof-of-concept Malware That Infects BIOS, NIC

A Guy · 30 Jul 2012

Quote:

Security researcher Jonathan Brossard created a proof-of-concept hardware backdoor called Rakshasa that replaces a computer's BIOS (Basic Input Output System) and can compromise the operating system at boot time without leaving traces on the hard drive.

Quote:

Rakshasa replaces the motherboard BIOS, but can also infect the PCI firmware of other peripheral devices like network cards or CD-ROMs, in order to achieve a high degree of redundancy.

Source

A Guy

Urthboundmisfit · 31 Jul 2012

Lovely.

lkgriffith · 31 Jul 2012

As I have long thought, the ONLY secure computer system is one that is turned off, disconnected from any network, disassembled into its component parts, and then reduced to atomic dust. Even then the atomic dust could be reconstituted into a computer and become infected. Hence, the only really secure computer is one that remains as atomic dust. Unfortunately, such a computer is not very useful but it IS secure.

I suspect there will always be a trade off between security and utility. Isn't that the way nearly everything is? After all, even being alive is ultimately fatal. No one gets out of life alive. So accept reality, accept the risks, make the best of it, and get on with living and computing. Entropy will win in the end but have fun fighting it as long as you can. That fight is as good as it gets.

Windows 7: Researcher Creates Proof-of-concept Malware That Infects BIOS, NIC

Researcher Creates Proof-of-concept Malware That Infects BIOS, NIC problems?