Apple Laptops Vulnerable To Battery Firmware Hack

Trailrunner7 writes "Security researcher Charlie Miller, widely known for his work on Mac OS X and Apple's iOS, has discovered an interesting method that enables him to completely disable the batteries on Apple laptops, making them permanently unusable, and perform a number of other unintended actions. The method, which involves accessing and sending instructions to the chip housed on smart batteries, could also be used for more malicious purposes down the road. Miller discovered the default passwords set on the battery at the factory to change the battery into unsealed mode and developed a method that let him permanently brick the battery as well as read and modify the entire firmware. 'You can read all the firmware, make changes to the code, do whatever you want. And those code changes will survive a reinstall of the OS, so you could imagine writing malware that could hide on the chip on the battery. You'd need a vulnerability in the OS or something that the battery could then attack, though,' Miller said."

Comments

This why you NEED battry packs that can b REMOVEed

[Joe_Dragon]

This why you NEED battry packs that can be Removed from the systems.

Windows PHONE has this. and there are people who may need the battery life that you can only get from swapping battery's.

Re:Why?

[DanTheStone]

They slowly kill off battery cells, one at a time, until your battery won't last more than a minute. When that happens you'll have to buy a new battery or (as this is Apple, and they're not friendly to battery replacement) a new computer.

OSX is the least secure OS in mainstream use

[drsmack1]

To argue anything different would be to argue that Bakersfield, CA is more secure than NYC because they have had no terrorists crash their planes into buildings there.

Linux is a fortress with only occasional breaches, Windows looks bad in comparison only because it is a user OS and is under an unrelenting attack.

To all the apple guys out there who tell people that macs are inherently more secure than PCs - shame on you. And if you are a mac user who takes exception to that last sentence, be a flagrant non-conformist and re-read it before you hit the reply button.

Frothing anger whilst you type some variation of "I never do that, how dare you flame ALL mac users" makes you look like a entirely different type of fool than the ones described.

That is all.