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Guru3D.com » News » NSA Tucks Away Backdoors in HDD firmware

NSA Tucks Away Backdoors in HDD firmware

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 02/17/2015 10:12 AM | source: | 86 comment(s)
NSA Tucks Away Backdoors in HDD firmware

Kaspersky Labs exposed a breakthrough U.S. spying program, which taps into hard drives. According to Kaspersky, malicious software is hidden in the firmware, and launches every time a computer is turned on.

Disk drive firmware is viewed by spies and cybersecurity experts as the second-most valuable real estate on a PC for a hacker, second only to the BIOS code invoked automatically as a computer boots up.

"The hardware will be able to infect the computer over and over," lead Kaspersky researcher Costin Raiu said in an interview.

Though the leaders of the still-active espionage campaign could have taken control of thousands of PCs, giving them the ability to steal files or eavesdrop on anything they wanted, the spies were selective and only established full remote control over machines belonging to the most desirable foreign targets, according to Raiu. He said Kaspersky found only a few especially high-value computers with the hard-drive infections.

Kaspersky's reconstructions of the spying programs show that they could work in disk drives sold by more than a dozen companies, comprising essentially the entire market. They include Western Digital Corp, Seagate Technology Plc, Toshiba Corp, IBM, Micron Technology Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

Western Digital, Seagate and Micron said they had no knowledge of these spying programs. Toshiba and Samsung declined to comment. IBM did not respond to requests for comment.

Raiu said the authors of the spying programs must have had access to the proprietary source code that directs the actions of the hard drives. That code can serve as a roadmap to vulnerabilities, allowing those who study it to launch attacks much more easily.

"There is zero chance that someone could rewrite the [hard drive] operating system using public information," Raiu said.

Concerns about access to source code flared after a series of high-profile cyberattacks on Google Inc and other U.S. companies in 2009 that were blamed on China. Investigators have said they found evidence that the hackers gained access to source code from several big U.S. tech and defense companies.

It is not clear how the NSA may have obtained the hard drives' source code. Western Digital spokesman Steve Shattuck said the company "has not provided its source code to government agencies." The other hard drive makers would not say if they had shared their source code with the NSA.

Seagate spokesman Clive Over said it has "secure measures to prevent tampering or reverse engineering of its firmware and other technologies." Micron spokesman Daniel Francisco said the company took the security of its products seriously and "we are not aware of any instances of foreign code."

According to former intelligence operatives, the NSA has multiple ways of obtaining source code from tech companies, including asking directly and posing as a software developer. If a company wants to sell products to the Pentagon or another sensitive U.S. agency, the government can request a security audit to make sure the source code is safe.

"They don't admit it, but they do say, 'We're going to do an evaluation, we need the source code,'" said Vincent Liu, a partner at security consulting firm Bishop Fox and former NSA analyst. "It's usually the NSA doing the evaluation, and it's a pretty small leap to say they're going to keep that source code."

Kaspersky called the authors of the spying program "the Equation group," named after their embrace of complex encryption formulas.

The group used a variety of means to spread other spying programs, such as by compromising jihadist websites, infecting USB sticks and CDs, and developing a self-spreading computer worm called Fanny, Kasperky said.

Fanny was like Stuxnet in that it exploited two of the same undisclosed software flaws, known as "zero days," which strongly suggested collaboration by the authors, Raiu said. He added that it was "quite possible" that the Equation group used Fanny to scout out targets for Stuxnet in Iran and spread the virus.



NSA Tucks Away Backdoors in HDD firmware




« Intel 14nm Skylake desktop CPUs delayed to August · NSA Tucks Away Backdoors in HDD firmware · Vaio announces new Vaio Z-notebook »

18 pages 1 2 3 4 > »


Tripkebab
Senior Member



Posts: 144
Joined: 2011-01-30

#5015377 Posted on: 02/17/2015 11:31 AM
Well at least this explains the farting sounds comming from my HDD.

pbvider
Senior Member



Posts: 989
Joined: 2012-08-05

#5015431 Posted on: 02/17/2015 01:26 PM
Now we can all enjoy a little piece of american freedom!

WhiteLightning
Moderator



Posts: 29445
Joined: 2007-09-19

#5015436 Posted on: 02/17/2015 01:30 PM
OMFG, So why is this possible ? It goes on and on, anf no one actually does a thing against it.

stevevnicks
Senior Member



Posts: 1440
Joined: 2014-10-02

#5015444 Posted on: 02/17/2015 02:00 PM
i does not bother me i have fook all of interest to see, this whole spy stuff does not bother me in the least i have fook all to hide so why should i even be worried?

it always makes me wonder if those who are worried about it, are only worried because they up to no good?

way i see it (and its only how i look at it)

if your not up to anything bad not an issue

if you are using your PC for bad things then worry

WhiteLightning
Moderator



Posts: 29445
Joined: 2007-09-19

#5015446 Posted on: 02/17/2015 02:02 PM
It does not matter if you have nothing to hide or not.
privacy is privacy, and its not up to someone else to decide different suddenly.

Surely you can understand this ?

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