[ale] Sunday 05-22-05 6PM RUN-AS-ROOT CHALLENGE

[Geoffrey]

Michael B. Trausch wrote:
> Jim Popovitch wrote:
> 
>>That is just bogus.  There is no modern day hardware that software can
>>destroy.  Video refresh rates, bios, hard-drives, flash, NICs, etc. are
>>all pretty resilient.  It's quite funny that people keep "talking" about
>>these mysterious hardware hacks yet no one can show evidence of one.
>>Makes one wonder if they are in a business that necessitates scaring
>>people.  Alarmists I say!  
>>
> 
> Too bad there isn't a minimum required intelligence level to sign up to
> the list.
> 
> 	- flashable hardware is still flashable.  Sure, some of them
> 	  have worked around their issues, but does it make sense to
> 	  assume they all have?  Nope.

Michael is correct.  Further, you can flash bios with something other 
than the a bios update from the manufacturer.  Since this runs before 
even the OS is seen, you can completely disable a computer, for good. 
That is, without pulling the bios chip and reprogramming it.

There is other hardware that can be pretty much destroyed from that 
perspective as well, but I'll leave that as an exercise for the curious.

You've got to think outside the box.  Don't think of it as a computer, 
think of it as a programmable piece of hardware.

In a past life I had to interconnect various hardware (meters and such) 
to a computer so that the computer could self test itself.  It was quite 
interesting work, much of which is still valid today.  Thus, if you can 
modify a computer in a way so that you can measure various voltages, 
then you can also adjust those voltages.

Many new bios are able to display voltage levels and temperatures.  How 
is it that the bios has access to this information?

-- 
Until later, Geoffrey