![Security Security](http://a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/security_64.png)
![Hardware Hardware](http://a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/hardware_64.png)
Rootkits Head for Your BIOS 287
Artem Tashkinov wrote to mention a SecurityFocus article which discusses a disturbing new threat to computer security: Rootkits that target a computer's BIOS. From the article: "One rootkit expert at the conference predicted that the technology will become a fundamental part of rootkits in the near future. 'It is going to be about one month before malware comes out to take advantage of this,' said Greg Hoglund, a rootkit expert and CEO of reverse engineering firm HBGary. 'This is so easy to do. You have widely available tools, free compilers for the ACPI language, and high-level languages to write the code in.'" Update: 01/27 14:28 GMT by Z : John Heasman wrote with a link to the slide presentation on this topic given at the Black Hat Conference (pdf).
Really? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Really? (Score:5, Informative)
Well there is UNIFLASH [uniflash.org] with source code. Then there are the likes of CBROM and AMIBCP to modify BIOS images and remove and add/enable drivers, functionality and boot screen graphics. Here [goe.net] and here [dstyles.de] are good places for info and tools.
Re:Really? (Score:4, Funny)
In the Good Old Days (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:In the Good Old Days (Score:3, Insightful)
What about EFI? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What about EFI? (Score:2)
That would be an ecumenical matter.
Re:What about EFI? (Score:4, Funny)
Unless of course your OS exposes the EFI configuration and drivers too...
[)
Re:What about EFI? (Score:2)
Re:What about EFI? (Score:4, Funny)
What about OpenFirmware in my Sun machines with the PROM read-only jumper set ON?
; )
Re:What about EFI? (Score:2)
Re:What about EFI? (Score:5, Insightful)
That's what about EFI.
Re:What about EFI? (Score:4, Funny)
Solution (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Solution (Score:5, Insightful)
Wait. Never mind. Joe Sixpack almost would never flashes a BIOS, because he still calls the tower "my hard drive."
Re:Solution (Score:3, Funny)
I still have to explain to my parents that the box beside the monitor is actually the computer. They think it's built into the monitor.
-Eric
Re:Solution (Score:5, Funny)
*ducks*
Re:Solution (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Solution (Score:2)
Re:Joe Fourpack would flash the bios if... (Score:3, Funny)
Note that Joe Fourpack is two short of a sixpack.
Re:Solution (Score:2)
Granted, a lot of mobos don't require changing a jumper to flash the BIOS, but it seems that some do (none that I've encountered, though).
Re:Solution (Score:2)
Re:Solution (Score:2)
-nB
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Solution (Score:3, Informative)
Every ASUS board I own has a jumper (and I have a lot of different model ASUS boards in use - over twenty anyway).
I don't know if all ASUS boards have BIOS jumpers, but all of mine do.
So now I guess I'll be putting those jumpers in non flash mode.
One more annoyance - but at least I got lucky that they all have the jumper.
They are all AMD boards (I don't use Intel,
Re:Solution (Score:3, Informative)
Other brands more common in hobbyist PC's (Abit, Asu
Simple Solution (Score:2, Interesting)
Just make damn sure that there are no (huge) bugs in the bios and burn it to a chip that can't be flashed. I admit that this is perfect for _everyone_ but I'd bet that 99% of computers never have the BIOS flashed so why make it writeable at all. The people that might want to flash their BIOS are probably also the sort of people that would pay a little more for an flashable version. Assuming you want a fairly generic BIOS that will work for a number of machine configurations make one with a tiny bit of writa
Re:Simple Solution (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Simple Solution (Score:5, Interesting)
In general, flash BIOS issues are poorly addressed in mainboards. They SHOULD have a write enable jumper, but they don't. Instead, there's usually some undocumented GPIO line that must be set high and a poorly documented southbridge register bit to set. In a single move they deftly prevent many from doing what they want with their own hardware and fail to protect everyone else.
Several chipsets have features to aid in recovery by swapping the top and secodn block in the address space when a jumper is set. The idea is that you never update the emergency block at all, and if an update goes wrong, you can recover with a jumper. I have yet to see a board that doesn't leave those pins disconnected.
They COULD place the emergency recovery sector in ROM, but they never do.
To make matters worse, the current trend is to solder the flash directly to the board. I suppose they save that all important penny by not using a socket.
They could have 2 flash chips and a jumper to toggle which one is enabled, but I've only seen a few blade servers that do that. (that sure would have helped those unbootable iMacs [slashdot.org]
Many newer flash chips have lock registers that once set write protect the corresponding sector, and a lock down bit that disables unlocking until power cycled. The BIOS COULD have an option (defaults to yes) for locking down the BIOS before calling the bootloader, but they don't.
There's absolutely no good reasons not to protect flash from unwanted updates AND provide absolute safety when you DO want to update.
Re:Simple Solution (Score:2)
They wern't broken units. The hardware functioned fine, the paths were there. They were just lacking the software support to enable it. So rather than retool their whole fabrication process just to have a model without S-Vid, it's easier to ship it without it enabled. Though I wish I would have known about that earlier. I had a D800 A01 and for the life of me I could never figure out why the S-Vid wasn'
Re:Simple Solution (Score:2)
Re:Simple Solution (Score:2)
You're wrong. The microcode is a rom on the processor that gives bitmasks to the entities in the processor. The microcode can be several lines for a single instruct
Further off-topic: Firmware upgrades. (Score:2)
Seriously, even your cellphone is complex enough to need bugfixes via firmware updates. Better testing would be nice, but until then, I'd prefer fixable bugs over unfixable ones.
However, nothing sucks worse than having a bug that you know can be fixed, and a manufacturer who's abandoned the product line. That's the argument for open firmware, where the users can support their own devices long after the commercial ince
Re:Solution (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Solution (Score:2)
Really, there is no reason why that can't default to "on"...Anyone who's going to need to flash a bios ought to be savvy enough to pull a jumper off a motherboard.
Thinkpads don't have jumpers (Score:2)
Re:Solution (Score:2)
Re:Solution (Score:2)
Not all people have passwords on their BIOS, but that'll teach em...
But switch would default to ON. (Score:2)
Re:Solution (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Solution (Score:2, Informative)
Gigabyte have had this for a few years now. They call it Dual Bios.
Dave
Re:Solution (Score:2)
These small things do add up to real money, and margins are so low that nobody will add anything unless it's a feature that makes sales (and no, "slightly better security measures for motherboard " are not something that Joe Sixpack will notice on the feature list).
Re:Solution (Score:2)
For everyone that builds his own computer, there are a hundred Dell's, so in any discussion of potential rootkit spreads and security situation of the whole networked population, you can just disregard anyone with self-built computers and premium motherboards (which could have the backup BIOS'es proposed in the post above), since their impact on the total situation is completely insignificant.
Re:Solution (Score:2)
write protect swith (Score:2, Insightful)
Disable writing to the BIOS? (Score:2)
I have always wondered why viruses didn't do this before-- virus rewriting tools are all over the place waiting to be bundled up with a worm for internet delivery.
BIOS viruses and Chernobyl revisited (Score:4, Interesting)
I have a scary scenario for y'all.
A virus that spreads over networks, stays quiet until a certain date/time GMT and then BOOM wipes the BIOS of hundreds of thousands of Windows boxes around the world in one fell swoop.
Can you spell "Black Screen of Death"?
Does anyone remember the Chernobyl virus? It worked on a good number of BIOSes, even though it was poorly written. Imagine if someone took the time to do it right.
Re:BIOS viruses and Chernobyl revisited (Score:2, Interesting)
We were lucky in that it didn't wipe the BIOS, just the FAT on the hard disk IIRC.
This isn't anything new . . .
Hoglund? (Score:5, Interesting)
In other words, anything this guy says or does is in my mind suspect .... he writes rootkits and other forms of "attacking software", so for all we know this asshole is getting ready to post example code to the net. It wouldn't be the first time.
Re:Hoglund? (Score:5, Informative)
He doesn't just write rootkits. He teaches seminars on how to write them. He's not a blackhat any more than the this guy [slashdot.org]. I guess that puts you on par with Oracle.
Re:Hoglund? (Score:2)
In my book, it's not a black hat issue. Black hats steal, destroy, and break laws. Game cheats mostly do not do this. What they do is create a tool for helping a user. Sure, this mess with game balance, as long as the game is based on the user having limited reaction ability etc. My view (as a programmer, former games programmer, former security consultant, former black hat, etc) is that that's basically t
Re:Hoglund? (Score:3, Interesting)
1. He wrote a program that helped people cheat in a game (Oh noes, what a evil black hatter) -3 brownie points
2. He helped uncover a commercial company's SPYING program to catch you cheating at said game which can also spy on you in all sorts of law-breaking ways (let's see blizzard try to pull this shit in england where they have REAL privacy laws) +300 points
Giving him a total of 297 brownie points. This actually makes him the equivalent of a girl scout.
Re:Hoglund? (Score:2)
Blizzard makes this program known through the licensing agreement. While that's not quite an obvious admission, this guy's not some valiant knight. He's an obnoxious twat that can't sell his cheat software anymore. Oh nos!
"at said game which can also spy on you in all sorts of law-breaking ways (let's see blizzard try to pull this shit in england where they have REAL privacy laws) +300 points"
It doesn't though, and Blizzard ha
Re:Hoglund? (Score:5, Insightful)
In other words, at no point is the actual title of any windows transmitted.
Let's review this situation:
It amazes me that such a transparent piece of bullshittery could have got as much press as it did, given that it's clearly a case of him trying to spite Blizzard after they shut down the money-making business of Wow!Sharp (it only went open source after they felt it had become useless). Ever since this sordid incident, Hoglund has been a dirty name to me and many others familiar with it, and I don't trust him at all.
Like I said, it wouldn't surprise me a bit if he released code showing how to hack the BIOS, just like he teaches people how to write rootkits despite them having (as far as I'm aware) no legitimate uses.
Long live security by obscurity. (Score:2)
How does he make a buck now (Score:2)
It makes me wonder.
If McAfee can cry wolf to get Mac users to subscribe, then I wouldn't be surprised if Hoglund accepted pay to write something like this.
Obligatory smug Mac user comment (Score:3, Funny)
* I first typed 'ownershit' by mistake - Thinking about it, this might actually be a more accurate word to describe the joys of being a PC user.
Re:Obligatory smug Mac user comment (Score:2)
There are layers or irony here [slashdot.org] I just can't begin to elucidate on.
Re:Obligatory smug Mac user comment (Score:2)
You mean Obligatory offtopic pro-mac (and doesn't understand the issues invloved) troll?
I've just switched to Macs after 17 years of PC ownership* (Dos, then Windows, then Linux). Boy, am I feeling smug right at this moment.
1) PC stands for 'Personal Computer' this is what your mac is.
2) Mac Bioses are flashable.
3) You were just as safe under linux (if not safer) then you are under a Mac.
* I first typed 'ownershit' by mistake - Thinking about it, this might actually be a more
Re:Obligatory smug Mac user comment (Score:2)
Why do (some) linux people feel the need to but(t) into any discussion with their pro-linux trolls?
Re:Obligatory smug Mac user comment (Score:4, Informative)
For that matter, it would be possible to write a cross-platform executable if the interface to ACPI is written in x86 assembly without dependence on any libraries (target the instruction set rather than the OS).
sigh... someone will proabably exploit programmable GPUs next.
Re:Obligatory smug Mac user comment (Score:2)
People can say that their OS does not rely on BIOS all they like. The fact is that there are some things which require the right b
Hard switch or external tool (Score:4, Interesting)
Maybe add a physical unit that you need to move by hand in order to change the BIOS or Flash memory.
Or, if you suspect your computer has already been compromised, use an online/flash drive/external detection tool (independent from the O/S and all software) can be run to find out if you computer has been infected. (It works for the Microsoft Security guys)
The tool would have to check the computer's flash, BIOS, and currently running programs and notify you if it is being blocked/disabled/changed...and then fix the problem or tell you what to do to fix it.
What will be interesting (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm wondering at the possibility this has been done before and not detected because no one looks there?
Re:What will be interesting (Score:3, Interesting)
Consumer level security is a game of pointing the people to the right while stealing their wallet from the left
Re:What will be interesting (Score:3, Interesting)
Awfully specific (Score:5, Funny)
That's an extremely specific prediction. I think we know who they should look at first when these rootkits show up...
Re:Awfully specific (Score:2)
one-button functionality is to blame (Score:4, Insightful)
There are two contradicting principles here.
Many home users want that second kind of functionality. Partly because they don't want to bother with the details, partly because they are mentally challenged. They really like to be able to update the Computer's BIOS as easy as visiting a web site or running any kind of program. Unfortunately, this is what they get. And so do we.
Re:one-button functionality is to blame (Score:2)
Re:Poor design is to blame (Score:2)
If you want to mess with your computers internals that's fine by me, but don't go crying that IT'S TOO HARD!!! Get the expertise, it's freely available on teh intarweb, and do a proper job. If you can't do it, that proves that it's a valuable skill and you should pay someone else to do it for you.
(I know, responding to an AC is a sign of madness, like talking to trees)
Re:one-button functionality is to blame (Score:2)
One an offer of much more interesting time than you planned for, or more likely,
a threat of arrest for obscene behaviour
Re:one-button functionality is to blame (Score:2)
My point is that all this kit is totally consumer grade stuff... although I agree that likely the "average" user would need to get someone "professional" (in quotes, because I need to include PC World employees!) to do this, not least
Took long enough (Score:5, Interesting)
Real malware doesn't let itself be known. It sits in the background to aid the people watching you.
Re:Took long enough (Score:2)
Check out "Ancoratech", a company whose pitch is to put DRM in the BIOS. At one point they were talking to AMI about including an "identity management" feature in AMI BIOSes. Essentially, a poor man's Trusted Computing.
I get really scared when I think about the proposed BIOSes with system rescue facilities including a network stack. Imagine malware in the BIOS with network access.
Re:Took long enough (Score:2)
It's truly enlightening when you realize that your computer, most likely, is compromised in some form or another. It changes your point of view for everything that you do on the 'net.
You Young Whippersnappers! (Score:5, Insightful)
Grandad Admin.
In all seriousness, I am surprised at the lack of malicious viruses today. In yesteryears, viruses wiped out data, wiped out file allocation tables, wiped out Bioses, wiped out PCs. In comparison, todays "malware" seems rather tame or even benign.
Re:You Young Whippersnappers! (Score:4, Insightful)
Computer viruses today are hardly an annoyance to their "victims", only to the rest of the world.
Re:You Young Whippersnappers! (Score:5, Insightful)
No, today's malware got serious. Used to be it was kids proving how 133t they were, now it is professionals implanting spyware and rootkits to make spam zombies, both of which are highly profitable. Destroying a machine earns you zero dollars, owning it makes the cash register go DING!
What scares the shit outta me, and should scare everyone else with a clue, is the thought of terrorism via the Internet. Imagine the damage a well heeled outfit could inflict.
Follow me here for a minute. Source code for Windows is out there. Obviously source for Linux, BSD and now Solaris is out there. It isn't just motherboards that have a flash chip. Almost every DVD/CD drive has one and many hard drives even load firmware from flash. Now lets imagine a well funded effort to locate a day zero exploit in two or more popular platforms. And remember, Windows and PC Linux aren't the only ones. Add in Linksys access points, Cisco IOS, etc. While one team works the exploit problem others work on a propagation engine that won't suffer from the crippling flaws seen in previous attempts and a deadly payload. Plant a kaboom in the BIOS instantly, so if the machine is rebooted it, along with the drives, goes bye bye. Then attempt to infect other hosts for 24-48 hours before triggering a reboot into death.
If done correctly it could destroy outright 10-25% (or even more) of the client's on the Internet and a good percentage of the servers, access points and other infrastructure. This alone would probably be enough to tank the world economy, but the real effect would be a widespread FEAR of reconnecting to the Internet. Kiss Google, Amazon, Dell, etc goodbye if that happened.
Re:You Young Whippersnappers! (Score:3, Interesting)
Like natural biological pathogens, they have evolved over time to avoid killing their host outright. However, I agree with you, in spite of the billions in productivity loosses in recent years, it COULD be a whole lot worse.
Imagine the problems if one of the many worms spread a little more slowly (to avoid alerting the network admin), and then wiped BIOS on a given day far enough in the future to have time to spread, but not so far that it gets detected and cleaned off. Whole companies (even large ones)
Re:You Young Whippersnappers! (Score:3, Insightful)
An owned PC is worth more to an attacker than a destroyed machine. (I'm talking about "large numbers" here, not pointed efforts to take a site/machine down.)
I'm surprised there are *any* large-scale malicious viruses anymore... Only because "ownership" means cash to the person who can deliver the botnets. And, for identity thieves, a crashed machine doesn't serve up personal information.
Follow the money.
Re:You Young Whippersnappers! (Score:2, Interesting)
Temporary workaround? (Score:4, Interesting)
If the board uses one of the larger DIP style EEPROM BIOS chips, wouldn't it be simple to identify the write lines (from the manufacturer's data sheet)? You could then pull the chip, and 'flag' the associated pins (bend them out, so they no longer enter the socket) and re-insert the chip.
A little tricky maybe, but better than nothing for now..
Re:Temporary workaround? (Score:2)
This needs to be beaten into the hardware makers' heads: Make the thing write-protected by default, or you'll have some incredible problems down the line.
Watch Out!! (Score:3, Insightful)
Good thing I don't use the BIOS's code anyway (Score:2)
Of course this is on FreeBSD. Linux has the capability to override the BIOS's ACPI code as well. Unfortunately Windows doesn't -- or more accurately only the checked (debug) builds of Windows do. I can change the annoying S4 behavior of my laptop, but my friend who runs Windows on the same
Re:Good thing I don't use the BIOS's code anyway (Score:3, Interesting)
If you look in the user's manual there are screenshots of the BIOS configuration page showing the temperatures... that must've been a development screenshot because it was never made available to consumers.
FUD and beware of UFOs (Score:2, Interesting)
This posting is clearly spreading it. This is part of a calculated attempt to fear computer users into accepting Trusted Platform Modules which currently exist as UFOs on the new Intel iMacs. When I say UFOs I mean Undocumented Functioning Object. It's installed on my motherboard. It's true that the TCG has made much of the documentation about their modus operandi and even Apple has some OLD documentation about this, the real agenda here is spreading Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt about their platforms in the
The Sony BIOS (Score:3, Funny)
This is why companies are looking to the TPM (Score:2)
move along. (Score:3, Interesting)
And what, exactly, would a rootkit or virus want with the BIOS? Does a BIOS even have enough "extra room" to accomodate either? How about platform-independent versions? That's just an idiotic claim if I've ever seen one.
Just sounds to me like this John Heasman is your average "computer security expert" trying to stir up issues and catch some rays in the media spotlight thanks to some worthless but impressive-sounding (to idiots) premise. He needs to go back and finish his MSCE so he can do something useful with his life.
Re:move along. (Score:2)
I love how... (Score:2)
"We can write a backdoor for Windows that will elevate privilege, and turn around and use the code on Linux."
Problem is, we have to actually exploit and infiltrate the system itself to be able to access the BIOS. Of course having root access to a system one can compromise the system's firmware, given that the the BIOS is not write-protected. Similar virii existed in the '80's, but IIRC they would simply nuke the BIOS to prevent the system fro
Re:From TFA (Score:2)
Re:password protect (Score:2)
Re:password protect (Score:2)
Depends on the BIOS, I assume.
I imagine every /.er has run into the person who saw a news story on TV about hackers and thinks a BIOS password is somehow going to protect them. Meanwhile they have a handful of viruses running because Norton AV 2001 expired and they keep closing the warning window.
Re:Bad for new PCs, Good for old ones! (Score:2)
Re:Bad for new PCs, Good for old ones! (Score:2)
Memory protection'n'stuff? (Score:2)
Shouldn't operating system be able to block BIOS updates?
Re:root access needed? (Score:3, Informative)
The BIOS or Basic Input Output System is a series of low level instructions to help set up the basic functionality of hardware and initialize the bootstrap process. As this device is typically created in hardware in a CMOS (Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) based firmware usually called EEPROM (Electrically Eraseable Programmable Read Only Memory) you need a low level EEPROM programming utility to access and write to this firmware. As BIOS is after POST (Power On Self Test) the first device initializ