Web-based Applications Not Yet a Gateway to the BIOS chip, But Flash Drives certainly are!

Results released by Core Security Technologies researchers, Alfredo Ortego and Anibal Sacco revealed that it is possible to flash malicious code containing a rootkit onto the BIOS chip, making the rootkit almost impossible to remove. It is no longer necessary for users to first type command-line instructions after a DOS reboot in order to obtain a BIOS update from a diskette. Updates can now be loaded via flash tools that run under windows.

In most cases BIOS versions come complete with flash tools enable them to download updates from devices such as USB flash drives. This is a quicker and simpler method of updating you BIOS as compared to the old method. Such technologies are obviously a great convenience and offer a user more functionality with less hassles, but there is a catch.

The catch is that as easy as it is to flash an update onto the BIOS chip, it is now just as easy to flash an infection onto the BIOS chip. The fact that there are certain types of tools that are also able to locate, read, manipulate, write or erase BIOS chips, does not make me feel any safer since cyber-criminals seem to working overtime these days.

All in all this means that not only can a hacker find a way to access the BIOS chip via DOS but also through a manipulated flash drives. A hacker just needs to install a malicious rootkit onto the flash then flash it onto the BIOS chip in practically the same way you would flash an update onto the chip. As proved by the Core Security Technologies researchers, once the BIOS chip has been infected with a sophisticated admin-level rootkit, repairing the damage is no easy task.

Referring to the above point, do the advantages of using flash tools exceed their disadvantages? is the ability to do a quick update worth losing your PC? At least, in the meantime, there is one thing standing in the way of opportunistic hackers and that is write-protection. Like i mentioned in my previous article most of today's BIOS have write-protect options set-up in their program and a few even come with password protection. So for now we are safe, but the question is for how long?