GPU Malware Can Also Affect Windows PCs, Possibly Macs

itwbennett writes: A team of anonymous developers who recently created a Linux rootkit that runs on graphics cards has released a new proof-of-concept malware program that does the same on Windows. A Mac OS X implementation is also in the works. The problem the developers are trying to highlight lies not with the operating systems, such as Windows or Linux, nor with the GPU (graphics processor unit) vendors, but rather with existing security tools, which aren't designed to scan the random access memory used by GPUs for malware code.

Comments

Re:using the OpenCL APIs is *noisy*

[Anonymous Coward]

They go that way because its there, obviously. Malware writers find the blindspot and that is a blindspot.

If the malware writers don't find that then the NSA hackers will. Remember the hard disk flash is used by that NSA malware not the hard disk? That may in turn have had help from the hard disk vendors, by providing the NSA with the code for their hard disks:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/66279485/NSA-hiding-Equation-spy-program-on-hard-drives

Or that the NSA phone spyware that installs/runs itself in the modem chip of the mobile phone, not the computer of the mobile phone. That is easier because there are fewer modem makers than mobile phone makers. Qualcom LTE being common among many handsets.

Or that spyware that runs inside the USB driver flash chip not the computer?

If you don't notice the activity on your CPU why would you notice it on your GPU?