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Using Memory Errors to Attack a Virtual Machine
gillus writes "A very cool scientific paper from Appel and Govindavajhala that explains how virtual machines like java or .Net can be exploited. How? Quite simple, bomb your DRAM chip with X-rays... or more simply with 50-watt spotlight, as the authors demonstrate. Definitively worth a read!"
Reports are sketchy at present, but we're being led to believe that it's easy to compromise a machine to which you have physical access!
Film at 11.
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
Now when I benchmark my computer using the punch-the-monkey java applet using a 50 watt spotlight, I'll have to be more careful!
Just overclock your tamper-resistant machine to the bleeding edge of running at maximum MHz you can get. Tweak the speed to the point that the body heat emitted by regular users will not overheat the CPU, but anyone approaching the machine with a 50 Watt bulb would fry the machine before gaining access to data.
:-)
However, now you get a denial of service attack, but hey, it's better than information disclosure or arbitrary code execution.
Oh great, it must be the Apocolypse or something. They actually posted a *link* to a *PowerPoint* document in a Slashdot article! Worse yet, no one seems concerned.
Furry cows moo and decompress.
(There are some things you just never forget from your high school physics lab)
It turns out that if you have physical access to a system, you can perform a pretty effective denial of service attack using a rather devious little bit of technology called a 'baseball bat'.
Fortunately for the attacker, few users are surprised these days when applications use hundreds of megabytes to accomplish trivial tasks.
Java: the COBOL of the new millenium.
Holy crap he signed an NDA! Mod him up more! He has more nothings to say!
If you can manage to sneak an Xray thing in your keychain. If you know where a slot machine's memory is.
God spoke to me
Surely the solution is obvious: make the posession of clip on lamps an offence under the DMCA, I cannot see why someone would want to posess such equipement unless it was to break into a computer and steal the latest music CDs....
At first I thought "why don't you just fire a gun instead of expensive x-rays". But once X-ray emitting devices becomes small enough, this could be a new spy gadget. Walk up to the metal detector in the airport. Point your pencil (with built in X-rays) to the scanner and zap it. Then walk right in.
Or, it can be used for lesser evil stuff as well. In the office. Find the cubicle with the guy that just hates computers. Every time you walk by him to get a cup of coffee, zap his computer with your device. Try to time it so he loses maximum amount of work. Then sit back and watch him go postal.
"New LEAD cases from lian li to protect your system from intuders" Just another thing to worry about when it comes to security.
How many websites would have an article that begins:
"A very cool scientific paper..."
Oh dear, we really are geeks, aren't we.
Read reviews of shopping cart software
I loaded the .ppt into my java port of Power point.
Then as soon as I turned on my 50 watt reading lamp to set the atmosphere, It all crashed ?
This is the last step I needed in my Java trojan I've been writing. Now all I need to do is go to everyone's house with my x-ray machine, and I'm in like Flint!
Good. Maybe all those kids with neon lights in their cases will have the same problem. I'm sure case modding was fun for awhile, but when every mod has to include the basic package of lights, fans, etc., it becomes too stock. Just like every '89 Civic I see with cut springs & an F1 wing. Yes, I am grumpy when I wake up.
Yea, doing this from remote would be a little harder.....
RING RING, "Hi, um my name is 'Bob', Im from 'The Internet Company'. We think there is a problem and we need you to help us here. Um, we need you to set your computer next to your microwave for a minute. Oh, no can do?...ok, um, you got like a 50 watt lamp you can stick next to your computer case? Ok, good, yea, do that. Oh yea, and go to this java web site.....yea, I can wait..."
I GUESS you could do some social engineering to get someone to comply. Seems like it would easier to sent out a couple hundred "I make this game, its my first. Hope you like." emails with BO in them to get one to bite.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!