What about infected BIOS..

[Owen]

No, it's possible and has already been done. If you like and can't find it yourself, I can spend a little time to look for the paper...

I would certainly be very interested in knowing how someone managed to violate so many well understood and accepted laws of physics

[Gaidheal]

Hate to break it to you sunshine, but quite apart from needing to learn about sarcasm, I said nothing either way about removing the EPROM and I'll bet I know a good deal more about the physics than you do. ;¬)

If you really want to turn it into and e-**** competition, we can do that but I'll be laughing at you all the way.

[Love4Boobies]

Unfortunately, I can't find the more interesting one, I'll prod you if I remember the paper's name. However, perhaps you should learn some physics yourself before yapping here cause you won't impress anyone otherwise. In the mean time, here's one on using infrared radiation to cause memory errors and use that for exploits in virtual machines (e.g., JVM). And no, that's not the only type of electromagnetic radiation you can use (use your textbook of preference).

[Combuster]

While radiation from space doesn't come with the required precision (yet), you can do a real lot without wasting the chip itself: https://har2009.org/program/events/132.en.html

[Owen]

While radiation from space doesn't come with the required precision

Is the killer. If Earth had no atmosphere.. you would need a perfectly (or absurdly near perfectly) collimated laser. Those things are very, very difficult.

However... Earth has an atmosphere. This turns up the difficulty several times. Not only does the laser now have to be extremely bright, you've also got atmospheric scattering and other losses to take into account, and the spread causing you to lose the required precision.

So, its not possible within the present boundaries of physics. It is pretty likely to stay that way.

[gravaera]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet

[Gaidheal]

That's very interesting, gravaera.

[AmA]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet

Lol. That seems more interesting than writing hobby OS.

Ferb, I know what we're going to do today!

[robackyap]

Its not like using an windows or linux,,,,

[Dimitri]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet

It is probably the first real targeted attack using a computer virus. I wonder how long till this becomes more common.

The people who developed it, not only had to know Windows, but Siemens PC software and PLC's, combined with a knowledge of the motors in use. This virus as is, is pretty neat, from stolen certificates, to a mixture of clearly different programmers work in the code itself. This wasn't something made in someones basement. Which makes me think, this will not be all that common in the future save for governments.

Dimitri

[VolTeK]

Ive lost a computer (still have it in the way it was 6 years ago, works but) to a virus that eaten away at the bios.
Computer will start up go to the compaq bios screen and frees after (i would estimate to be 2 seconds) even with key presses it will say "going to set up" but doesnt and freezes after the 2 seconds. Entire computer but the bios works fine. Im guessing a chip replacement is in order from a search.

[Brynet-Inc]

Ive lost a computer (still have it in the way it was 6 years ago, works but) to a virus that eaten away at the bios.
Computer will start up go to the compaq bios screen and frees after (i would estimate to be 2 seconds) even with key presses it will say "going to set up" but doesnt and freezes after the 2 seconds. Entire computer but the bios works fine. Im guessing a chip replacement is in order from a search.

EDIT: Removed 2015: Imageshack replaced all links with spam.

[VolTeK]

This town is big enough for the both of us



Its too bad if it isnt either.

[Solar]

here's one on using infrared radiation to cause memory errors...

No, that's a paper explaining how memory errors could be exploited, with a sidetrack on how memory errors could happen. Actually it does say a thing or two on how unlikely it is to "hit" the exploit without wasting the running JVM, or killing the whole computer outright. As for server uses, that's what ECC memory was invented for...

[Love4Boobies]

here's one on using infrared radiation to cause memory errors...

No, that's a paper explaining how memory errors could be exploited, with a sidetrack on how memory errors could happen. Actually it does say a thing or two on how unlikely it is to "hit" the exploit without wasting the running JVM, or killing the whole computer outright. As for server uses, that's what ECC memory was invented for...

here's one on using infrared radiation [see section 7] to cause memory errors and use that for exploits...

You left out the part in which I said exactly what you did and missed what I was pointing to (which is my fault because I didn't specifically say that).