http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9053818
By Gregg Keizer
December 20, 2007
Computerworld
The hacker who posted an exploit last week that threatened a large swath
of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s laptop lineup followed up yesterday with new
attack code that can "brick" nearly every HP laptop.
In a post to the milw0rm.com Web site Wednesday, a Polish security
researcher who used the alias "porkythepig" spelled out a pair of
vulnerabilities in an ActiveX control used by HP's Software Update, the
patch management program bundled with virtually every HP- and
Compaq-branded laptop.
According to porkythepig's post, the Software Update bugs let an
attacker corrupt Windows' kernel files, making the laptop unbootable, or
with a little more effort, allow hacks that would result in a PC hijack
or malware infection. In either case, a drive-by attack could be
conducted by feeding users an e-mail message with a link to a malicious
Web site.
"Every HP notebook machine containing the HP Software Updates
application is vulnerable," claimed porkythepig. "It is possible that
the vulnerable machine model list disclosed by the vendor as a
confirmation to the previous issue concerning HP laptops, [the] HP Info
Center case, will be similar in this case."
Last week, porkythepig disclosed multiple flaws in other software
included with HP's portables. When the company patched the
vulnerabilities a day later, it listed 83 affected laptops.
The scenario in which an attacker overwrites the kernel and thus
"bricks" the HP or Compaq notebook, was out of the ordinary, since most
hacks aim to snatch control of the machine or infect it with
identity-stealing malware. But the crippling attack, said porkythepig,
is actually the simpler of the two. "This attack vector doesn't require
any additional victim social engineering, because the system files are
always placed in the predictable locations," he said.
A drive-by attack that hopes to execute rogue code, however, requires
more work. To successfully exploit the ActiveX bug in Software Update
and compromise the computer, the hacker needs to know the location of
certain files.
The researcher said he had tested the exploit code on Windows 2000, XP,
Server 2003 and Vista, and that the vulnerabilities pose a risk to any
user with either Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) or IE7 on the PC. Nor will HP
be able to use the down-and-dirty fix it deployed last week, said
porkythepig. After he revealed several bugs in HP's Info Center a week
ago, HP issued an update that simply disabled the vulnerable software.
"Simple disabling of the vulnerable control by the vendor's patch, like
in the other HP software vulnerability case, HP Info, [could still]
result in the machine['s] software update system [being] compromised,
and would leave the user vulnerable to future security issues,"
porkythepig said in the milw0rm.com write-up.
HP did not reply to e-mailed requests for confirmation and comment.
Received on Fri Dec 21 01:19:22 2007