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New BIOS Virus Withstands HDD Wipes
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Computer viruses are nasty things. But the nasty just got nastier.
In many worst case scenarios, a hard drive wipe is the final solution to ridding a system of an infection. But the absolute worst case scenario is if a virus attacks the BIOS, making detection and cleaning an incredible challenge.
Viruses that target the BIOS aren’t new, but often they are specific to a type of hardware. Researchers have now demonstrated a new type of attack that could install a rootkit on the BIOS of common systems, making it very lethal and effective.
Anibal L. Sacco and Alfredo A. Ortego of Core Security Technologies released a presentation detailing the exploit of this “persistent BIOS infection.”
Through the use of a 100-line piece of code written in Python, a rootkit could be flashed into the BIOS and be run completely independent of the operating system.
"We tested the system on the most common types of Bios," said Ortega in a vunet story. "There is the possibility that newer types of Extensible Firmware Interface Bios may be resistant to the attack, but more testing is needed."
Flashing a system’s BIOS requires administrative control, but that could first be obtained through a more ‘innocent’ virus that could reside on the hard disk drive. Once an attacker has admin rights, the rootkit could be flashed onto the BIOS and would remain effective even if the original virus on the hard disk were removed. Even a complete format wouldn’t rid the system of the virus.
"You would need to reflash the Bios with a system that you know has not been tampered with," he said. "But if the rootkit is sophisticated enough it may be necessary to physically remove and replace the Bios chip."
There is defense against such an attack, however, as the researchers say that a password or physical lock against BIOS flashes could block the install of the rootkit.
"The best approach is preventing the virus from flashing onto the Bios," said Sacco. "You need to prevent flashing of the bios, even if it means pulling out jumper on motherboard."
Check out the original slideshow presentation by the researchers here (PDF).
Source : Tom's Hardware US
Ok.. so this Virus literally destroys the Bios chip if advanced enough..
EVERYONE! Quick! Buy stocks from the new company called "RYB (Replace your Bios) they will make Removable Bios chips from Mobo's, and they will be the Bios suppliers.. yup
...lol, guess what Conficker's April 1st update will bring. Bios flashing support :-\
One thing I notice is that it's written in Python. Interesting choice for a virus language.
Guess it's time to switch to efi.
I wish it were easier to find virus makers. That's the one case I could justify the old law of cutting off peoples hands. Of course, then he'll probably buy Dragon Naturally Speaking and keep making them. I guess the tongue would be the 2nd offense, lol.
...lol, guess what Conficker's April 1st update will bring. Bios flashing support :-\
shh you might put ideas into their heads =[
I'll just take out my hard drive, and place it in another computer! Data saved.
no.
then it would just spread to the next one...
the virus first is at the OS level and then flashes itself into the hardware/bios level... the original rootkit still is on the os level data... so you'd just spread it around if you did that
do you not understand that? you'd have to reflash a completely new bios to it and in the newer dual bios chips get an entirely new chip... AND reformat the HDD... only way to get rid of a nasty thing like this once it gets inside your system
April Fool's early?
Hmmm, we all like the convenience of a flashable bios - but I wonder if this will encourage motherboard manufacturers to make some old-fashioned read-only bios models in the business class of motherboards. (Personally, I think I'd like that option as a home power user.)
no. then it would just spread to the next one...the virus first is at the OS level and then flashes itself into the hardware/bios level... the original rootkit still is on the os level data... so you'd just spread it around if you did thatdo you not understand that? you'd have to reflash a completely new bios to it and in the newer dual bios chips get an entirely new chip... AND reformat the HDD... only way to get rid of a nasty thing like this once it gets inside your system
I didn't make it clear enough, sorry
you can put the hdd into another computer, then boot into dos with another hard drive, then retrieve data that way
is it not possible to set a password, entirely seperate from anything on the operating system to disallow any bios access? That would seem the simplest solution.
The virus is Skynet!
Some older mobos actually required a switch or jumper to be set before you could flash the BIOS. Clearly we have sacrificed security for convenience here..
Jumpers and DIP switches are your friends.
I foresee the end of the world...
bios viruses aren't new, they have existed for years.
I'm with spuddy, just have the bios require a password (not in the os) to allow it to be flashed. So, you go to your BIOS, enter the password (or set the option) which allows flashing for this boot time only and away you go (easy really)......
I'm pulling out my old Tandy 1000HX on April 1st.....
BIOS can't be reflashed....
OS can't be reflashed.....(on chip)
Internet access WILL be difficult tho.....
I like the Skynet comment....not far from the truth on many levels....
I hope this is just hype.. I don't want to replace my bios again...
This story is nothing new to me. Being a member of the Security Community, I've been aware of this for awhile now. These BIOS RootKits are referred to as BootKits. They infect the BIOS, load into memory and reside on the Hard Drive. So formatting the drive and doing a fresh install has no effect as it's in both the BIOS and resides in memory. Pulling the drive and booting from it in another system, you risk infecting the other system unless you first connect it as a secondary drive, then do a full scan so as to remove any trace of it from the drive first.
People with their oh so clever investing 'advice' makes me laugh. Go watch Wall Street movie or something.
A good anti-virus should also block any bios changes, and a good bios should bring a confirmation window.
This goes to show that they should really have not made BIOS flashable from OS. lol.
Great. I've been needing to buy a new motherboard and HDDs anyways.
This goes to show that they should really have not made BIOS flashable from OS. lol.
I agree. But this is what happens when people get lazy and don't want to spend 2 minutes away from their eyecandy-filled OS.
Man i remember the days when mcafee and norton were all hyped up on these and made special note of them in thier products back in the day.This comes as no surprise really, some cracks for OS's and some programs actually add stuff to your BIOS to full authentification programs, now its just making what was old new again.
Just have a motherboard with built in double bios where one there are two bios chips, one has the bios that is used while the other has a workable version of the bios that came with the computer. If the Bios chip is corrupted then the other chip flashes the other through a one way link. Problem solved
You can pretty much always short a jumper to restore the original BIOS... never seen a MB without this sort of feature.
judeh101, the virus will run when the disk is mounted by the OS... you might be able to mount it in non-windows OS though... like bootitng which would probably fix it.
When the virus infects the bios, what's stopping it from setting all the voltages to max and frying all your components before you have any time to react??
scary
When the virus infects the bios, what's stopping it from setting all the voltages to max and frying all your components before you have any time to react??scary
I think you'd need to know the stucture of the BIOS you are infecting to do this. Since they are all varied in some way it would require a big effort to do.