Remotely destroy computers ?!?

[just_do_IT]

I only think its scary as the whole idea was spoken of.

I did in fact have a virus once that fubar'd my bios - back in the days of windows 98 so I dont know if that can still happen in todays computer world.

And Adam, need I remind you of that nifty little program that actually did erase a hard drive?

I dont believe it will ever happen - but ffs for some hot shot corporate world to even consider/discuss it

[Sephiroth]

Quote:

Originally posted by trminatr@Jun 18 2003, 07:22 PM
And Adam, need I remind you of that nifty little program that actually did erase a hard drive?

ummmm, you do actually, can't remember which one you're talking about, but, would it run under NT? the reason i said what i said about assembly is because if any compiled program tries to directly access a hard drive under nt / 2k / xp (try the dos version of norton disk doctor as an example), windows will popup a message saying x program is trying to directly access the hard disk, and you can either ignore it and let the program run or terminate it

[tubebuoy]

Quote:

Originally posted by Sephiroth+Jun 19 2003, 12:03 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Sephiroth @ Jun 19 2003, 12:03 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--tubebuoy@Jun 18 2003, 06:04 PM
1. I read about the RIAA research on this and yes, they're trying to develope MP3s that will wipe a hard drive. Then they let them loose on P2P systems.

in order for them to be able to destroy a hard drive through an mp3, all of the following would have to be true

1: the mp3's headers are correct, enough so that a player would recognize the header of the file as mp3, and play it, but also have a malformed header to exploit....

2: the player has to have a flaw to let an mp3 run code

3: zone is hands down the better coder than me, so i may be wrong, but, the only way they could destroy a drive while windows is running on it would be assembly, they would have to directly interact with it through assembly language and wipe it from there, which would cause the machine to reboot, obviously

that said, if there is a flaw in the player you're using, what's to keep other hackers from figuring that flaw that the RIAA's technology is using, and start spreading viruses that way? the flaw would be found in a day or two tops i'm sure, and the hole would have to be patched by whoever's software it was, else every script kiddie in the world is going to exploit it sooner or later [/b][/quote]
Like I said, the RIAA is spending $$$ on NEW technology. I'm sure whatever they come up with will be defeated by a simple filter but the BIG story is, a US senator is considering giving the RIAA permission to release these bugs through P2P systems.

What we have here is the software industry seeking permission to LEGALY spread viruses! I can't wait until some chump noob at the pentagon downs a new Metallica MP3 and wipes out all of our Nuclear Secrets!


}---

[billybob3]

It's ok people. The senator just got caught with unlicensed copyrighted software on his OWN webpage, and a link to an X-RATED website....

[Zone-MR]

Quote:

Originally posted by Sephiroth@Jun 19 2003, 12:03 AM
zone is hands down the better coder than me, so i may be wrong, but, the only way they could destroy a drive while windows is running on it would be assembly, they would have to directly interact with it through assembly language and wipe it from there, which would cause the machine to reboot, obviously

That depends if you mean destroy or erase. Two entirely different things. Any program can delete data providing it is run with administrator privellages. It needs to delete data file-by-file, which takes longer than simply overwriting the first few sectors, but its possible none the less.

What programming language its written in is irrelevant. All compilers first translate your code to assembly language, and then its encoded in a bytecode understandable by your proccessor. The thing is windows intercepts requests to access the hard drive directly. That can be gotten around by installing a custom driver that provides raw disk access functionallity (although not easy to do transparently on new windows versions). Not that its even neccessary to use raw sector access to delete data, the windows API includes functions to delete files etc.

Destroying a hard drive is much more complicated. There may be flaws in individual models, but there is no standard "self-destruct" command present in all harddrives . Some viruses attempted to write to the same sector over and over continiously until it got 'worn out', but thats a crude and very unpredictable method, and the hdd activity will get noticed weeks before it causes damage.

And the concept of an MP3 doing this is again ridiculous. There may have been vulnerabilites in MP3 frame parsing on some players, but they tend to get fixed very shortly after they are discovered, and a malicious MP3 probably wont affect more than a tiny fraction of PCs - not to mention as soon as its hyped up, everyone will patch their players or install an AV program, and itll be the end of the threat. Knowing the RIAA's technical skillz, their malicious MP3 is probably a "Really Good!1!1! - New nude pix britney!1!.mp3.EXE".

It will never happen, and I am sure the RIAA is aware of this. The thing is they are winning a different battle - if rumours like this circulate, many computer novices will believe them. Somewhere out there there will be parents stopping their kids from trading MP3's because they read that it will destroy their PC. Somewhere there will be company managments who decide to crack down on sharing, because they are mislead they will lose property. These tactics are entirely psychological. They do not need to actually have any of this malicious capability - they just want people to believe they do.

[JacKDynne]

found on: *http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/168

Quote:

From the Booby Hatch
Senator Orrin Hatch says he wants to destroy music swappers' computers, but what he really means is that kids today have no respect for their elders.
By George Smith Jun 23 2003 01:13AM PT&nbsp;

"Powerful Senator Endorses Destroying Computers of Illegal Music Downloaders!" trumpeted the Associated Press last week.

What a tremendous headline! Orrin Hatch wants to smash the PCs of pirates.

Such opportunities present only occasionally in a journalism career. Impossible to predict, who would have guessed an old but very important poop would be so willing to go apoplectic and voice a desire for revenge on the scofflaw young.

Naturally, assorted minders immediately made excuses for the guy.

The senator was speaking metaphorically, he didn't really mean it, or -- best of all -- "we all take [his] views very seriously."

Yeah, yeah. What Hatch really meant was that kids have no respect for their elders and the RIAA, plus they don't pay for things. I hate kids -- they need to be taught a lesson. Whatsa matter with kids, today?

In the short term, I say cast Orrin Hatch in a remake of "Bye Bye Birdie."

But that might not happen, so someone should brief the Utah senator or his staffers on ways that computers could be destroyed remotely. These would all be mostly fabrications, but what's the harm in pandering to such an illustrious fool? Arming Senator Hatch with a raft of silly stories that satisfy his impulse to be a scourge of digital freeloaders seems right. It would give him more rope, maybe just enough to really hang himself the next time he pops off.

First up would be to resurrect the old canard that viruses or software acting remotely can manipulate PC power supplies. If they can do that, maybe they can start a fire or melt something critical! While this has never been done there's no reason a senator could not be convinced that new techniques make it possible. If computer programmers can make peer-to-peer networks, surely they can brew up malicious software to short circuit the PC permanently.
The "Toaster" virus was supposed to cause a high velocity ejection of a diskette.
There is no excuse for the violation of copyright, according to Senator Orrin, and if there's no way to convince kids to stop stealing music, then a hundred thousand computers must die.

The man's thinking like a computer vandal and to approach those numbers a new flavor of the CIH virus could be one tool.

CIH's payload included a routine to write a byte of data to the flash-writable BIOS. This made the machine unbootable until the BIOS chip was reprogrammed at the shop or replaced.

The CIH virus was real. But if it doesn't sound like a sure enough thing, the Senate's pirate punishment committee could be appraised of the more fantastic Blitzkrieg server.

The Blitzkrieg server, according to the trade magazine that originally hyped it, was "a new virus that automatically launches a lethal counter offensive against hackers... the digital equivalent of Star Wars technology" capable of knocking out the computer on the other end of the line by destroying its hardware and software.

That made it "a significant Internet breakthrough that could enhance electronic commerce" and protect data.

Although the Blitzkrieg server never lived up to its initial press, it's a story to warm the heart of those looking for ways to strike back at music-stealing children.

Another option is to escalate the attack to the physical well-being of the music pirate.

For this, Hatch could look into the technology of the Russian Virus 666. First mentioned in an article called "The Mind Has No Firewall" which appeared in the U.S. Army War College's scholarly magazine Parameters, virus 666 was said to be able to cause heart irregularities. It did this by altering every 25th frame of the visual display, putting the user into a trance that results in damage to the heart.

Since the senator claimed to be interested in more moderate solutions, the trance state could be shortened so that the user only was made nauseous.

And if even that seems too strong a measure, "Toaster" virus technology could be tried. The "Toaster" virus was supposed to cause a high velocity ejection of a diskette. While it would be a long shot, such a thing just might inflict a bruise on the pirate.

That would teach those kids -- with their awful clothes and rock 'n' roll -- some respect.

/JD

[billybob3]

Quote:

Originally posted by JacKDynne@Jun 25 2003, 08:01 AM
found on: *http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/168

Quote:

From the Booby Hatch
Senator Orrin Hatch says he wants to destroy music swappers' computers, but what he really means is that kids today have no respect for their elders.
By George Smith Jun 23 2003 01:13AM PT*

"Powerful Senator Endorses Destroying Computers of Illegal Music Downloaders!" trumpeted the Associated Press last week.

What a tremendous headline! Orrin Hatch wants to smash the PCs of pirates.

Such opportunities present only occasionally in a journalism career. Impossible to predict, who would have guessed an old but very important poop would be so willing to go apoplectic and voice a desire for revenge on the scofflaw young.

Naturally, assorted minders immediately made excuses for the guy.

The senator was speaking metaphorically, he didn't really mean it, or -- best of all -- "we all take [his] views very seriously."

Yeah, yeah. What Hatch really meant was that kids have no respect for their elders and the RIAA, plus they don't pay for things. I hate kids -- they need to be taught a lesson. Whatsa matter with kids, today?

In the short term, I say cast Orrin Hatch in a remake of "Bye Bye Birdie."

But that might not happen, so someone should brief the Utah senator or his staffers on ways that computers could be destroyed remotely. These would all be mostly fabrications, but what's the harm in pandering to such an illustrious fool? Arming Senator Hatch with a raft of silly stories that satisfy his impulse to be a scourge of digital freeloaders seems right. It would give him more rope, maybe just enough to really hang himself the next time he pops off.

First up would be to resurrect the old canard that viruses or software acting remotely can manipulate PC power supplies. If they can do that, maybe they can start a fire or melt something critical! While this has never been done there's no reason a senator could not be convinced that new techniques make it possible. If computer programmers can make peer-to-peer networks, surely they can brew up malicious software to short circuit the PC permanently.
The "Toaster" virus was supposed to cause a high velocity ejection of a diskette.
There is no excuse for the violation of copyright, according to Senator Orrin, and if there's no way to convince kids to stop stealing music, then a hundred thousand computers must die.

The man's thinking like a computer vandal and to approach those numbers a new flavor of the CIH virus could be one tool.

CIH's payload included a routine to write a byte of data to the flash-writable BIOS. This made the machine unbootable until the BIOS chip was reprogrammed at the shop or replaced.

The CIH virus was real. But if it doesn't sound like a sure enough thing, the Senate's pirate punishment committee could be appraised of the more fantastic Blitzkrieg server.

The Blitzkrieg server, according to the trade magazine that originally hyped it, was "a new virus that automatically launches a lethal counter offensive against hackers... the digital equivalent of Star Wars technology" capable of knocking out the computer on the other end of the line by destroying its hardware and software.

That made it "a significant Internet breakthrough that could enhance electronic commerce" and protect data.

Although the Blitzkrieg server never lived up to its initial press, it's a story to warm the heart of those looking for ways to strike back at music-stealing children.

Another option is to escalate the attack to the physical well-being of the music pirate.

For this, Hatch could look into the technology of the Russian Virus 666. First mentioned in an article called "The Mind Has No Firewall" which appeared in the U.S. Army War College's scholarly magazine Parameters, virus 666 was said to be able to cause heart irregularities. It did this by altering every 25th frame of the visual display, putting the user into a trance that results in damage to the heart.

Since the senator claimed to be interested in more moderate solutions, the trance state could be shortened so that the user only was made nauseous.

And if even that seems too strong a measure, "Toaster" virus technology could be tried. The "Toaster" virus was supposed to cause a high velocity ejection of a diskette. While it would be a long shot, such a thing just might inflict a bruise on the pirate.

That would teach those kids -- with their awful clothes and rock 'n' roll -- some respect.

/JD

Ya, those damn kids...

[Nichotin]

Quote:

Originally posted by mikeh420@Jun 18 2003, 08:56 PM
Maybe if they put out some decent product, people will pay money for it. They're not losing money because of piracy, but because their products mostly SUCK! Music is a blend of style and substance, unfortunately lately all we've been seeing is style.

Their very own mainstream music is going to hell because people have discovered other artists via p2p. And only cheapass pop music is owned by the RIAA.