Researcher Details USB-Based Attack That Circumvents All Known Protective Security Measures
Security research Karsten Nohl of Berlin's SR Labs has revealed a flaw in USB devices that potentially allows hackers to evade all known security measures used by a computer. In a report by Wired, Nohl says his BadUSB exploit is "almost like a magic trick" because "you cannot tell where the virus came from."
The exploit takes advantage of a flaw that allows a hacker to tamper with the firmware that controls the functions of USB devices such as mice, thumb drives and keyboards.
Because BadUSB resides not in the flash memory storage of USB devices, but in the firmware that controls their basic functions, the attack code can remain hidden long after the contents of the device’s memory would appear to the average user to be deleted. And the two researchers say there’s no easy fix: The kind of compromise they’re demonstrating is nearly impossible to counter without banning the sharing of USB devices or filling your port with superglue.
“These problems can’t be patched,” says Nohl, who will join Lell in presenting the research at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas. “We’re exploiting the very way that USB is designed.”
Nohl, along with fellow SR Labs researcher Jakob Lell, will present additional details on this attack during a presentation at the annual Black Hat hacking conference, which will be held next week in Las Vegas. The title of his presentation is "Bad USB - On Accessories that Turn Evil."
Popular Stories
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
Apple is set to unveil iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, so the software update is a little over six weeks away from being announced. Below, we recap rumored features and changes planned for the iPhone with iOS 18. iOS 18 will reportedly be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, with new ChatGPT-inspired generative AI features, a more customizable Home Screen, and much more....
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...
Best Buy is discounting a collection of M3 MacBook Pro computers today, this time focusing on the 14-inch version of the laptop. Every deal in this sale requires you to have a My Best Buy Plus or Total membership, although non-members can still get solid second-best prices on these MacBook Pro models. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best Buy. When you click a link and make a...
Top Rated Comments
This is not 1980 anymore when people used to worry about viruses on floppy disks. If a person has physical access to your computer, it is a failing with the security in your building or home, not the technology.
Just use the same kind of restrictions you use personally and not let someone stick something in any of your ports or slots unless you want them to and know they are clean.
Wouldn't he leave this up to Chloe? ;)
Just suppose I stuck one of these nasty devices in my Mac. OK, it's fiendish, it's an empty gadget. And then its bad firmware kicks into life and tries to persuade my Mac that files are available. That file still has to make it onto my Mac and has to be an executable to do any harm.
I believe OS X's inbuilt defences against malicious files - wherever they come from - would not be circumvented by a gadget like this.
My PC on the other hand...