Knowledge is the life of the mind
What is firmware?
In electronic systems and computing, firmware is “the combination of a hardware device, e.g. an integrated circuit, and computer instructions and data that reside as read only software on that device”. As a result, firmware usually cannot be modified during normal operation of the device.
Firmware is held in non-volatile memory devices such as ROM, EPROM, or flash memory. Changing the firmware of a device may rarely or never be done during its economic lifetime; some firmware memory devices are permanently installed and cannot be changed after manufacture.
It was never designed to be secure
Most of it is vulnerable for the same reasons the firmware the Equation Group targeted is vulnerable: it was never designed to be secure. Most hardware makers don’t cryptographically sign the firmware embedded in their systems nor include authentication features in their devices that can recognise signed firmware even if they did. Read more
There is more of an administrator level access to it and there is a key for that. It turns out that Apple never changes those, so you can just look up on the Texas Instruments site and find what those passwords are and use them.
An interview with Charlie Miller during the Hacker Halted conference about his presentation ‘Battery Firmware Hacking’.
These controllers can be hacked in a fairly straightforward manner
According to Miller, these controllers can be hacked in a fairly straightforward manner. By reprogramming the microcontroller’s firmware, a battery could report a much lower internal voltage or current, causing the charger to overcharge the battery. In Miller’s testing, he was only successfully able to turn a series of seven $130 MacBook Pro batteries into expensive bricks, but he told Ars that it may be possible to cause fire or even an explosion. Read more
How the NSA firmware hacking works and why it’s so unsettling
ONE OF THE most shocking parts of the recently discovered spying network Equation Group is its mysterious module designed to reprogram or reflash a computer hard drive’s firmware with malicious code. Read more
Faulty firmware in Lenovo batteries
Date: 26-02-2013
Source: Jason’s code blog
Hacking laptop batteries: A new security threat
Date: 04-08-2011
Source: Cnet
Apple left default passwords in batteries, making them vulnerable to hacks, explosion
Date: 29-07-2011
Source: Betanews
Apple Laptop Batteries Can Be Bricked, Firmware Hacked
Date: 22-07-2011
Source: Threatpost
Apple laptops vulnerable to hack that kills or corrupts batteries
Date: 22-07-2011
Source: Forbes
Battery Firmware Hacking
Date: 2011
Source: Accuvant
Derbycon 2011: Battery Firmware Hacking
Date: 2011
Source: Irongeek
PSP hacking guide: Pandora battery
Date: 31-01-2010
Source: Instructables
Battery Firmware Hacking: Inside the innards of a Smart Battery
Date: 27-07-2011
Source: Accuvant
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