So it is a compromised ethernet adapter. Nobody question the ability of Chinese spies to plant such a thing, but the "Big Hack" story implies that this is used as a mass infiltration tool, which I still find very improbable and lacks any evidence.
New Evidence of Hacked Supermicro Hardware Found in U.S. Telecom
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Re: New Evidence of Hacked Supermicro Hardware Found in U.S. Telecom
#22So does it really matter if it's true or not? Isn't the sane response to assume it's all true and verify your system integrity?
Even if you find nothing you would then have a pile of strong evidence for the null case, eh?
Re: New Evidence of Hacked Supermicro Hardware Found in U.S. Telecom
#23They don’t say what the hack was and definitely do not say it was one of their pins. Probably some truth here, but as hard as they try, does not seem supportive of their “chinese pin” theory. Very suspicious that this is related, I’m guessing they’re trying to do anything to cover their asses.
That's my take as well. They quote many "experts" and report many incidents but they seem hard pressed to come with details and pictures. I can believe that these attacks occur but are they really at the scale implied by these stories? Why can they only report hearsay instead of showcasing even a single backdoored motherboard found in the wild? Haven't these experts taken pictures? Can we see them? Can we have some details on the components used?
This story is incredibly weird, nothing makes sense to me. I can't believe that Bloomberg would willingly report fake news. The fact that they decided to go with it even though Apple and others told them several time using unambiguous language that they were not aware of such an attack means that they must have really trusted their sources since they're effectively saying "Apple is blatantly lying about such a critical issue".
But then why would Apple be lying like that? Seems like it can only backfire for them when the truth is eventually exposed.
Nothing makes sense.
Re: New Evidence of Hacked Supermicro Hardware Found in U.S. Telecom
#24They don’t say what the hack was and definitely do not say it was one of their pins. Probably some truth here, but as hard as they try, does not seem supportive of their “chinese pin” theory. Very suspicious that this is related, I’m guessing they’re trying to do anything to cover their asses.
This seems different than the extra chip attack according to the article. "subsequent physical inspection revealed an implant built into the server’s Ethernet connector"
This feels like piling some more to cover up the weak premise of the previous article.
It doesn't mean it's false, it just means Bloomberg already cried wolf and couldn't show it. At this point it feels more like taking shots at Supermicro than professional reporting.
Re: New Evidence of Hacked Supermicro Hardware Found in U.S. Telecom
#25Finally a named source, but still no photos and the alleged hacked board is still not in the hands of a public security researcher. The "trojan ethernet connector" paragraph mentions similarity to an NSA implant, which appears to be this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_ANT_catalog#/media/File:NS... I'm now wondering if someone found an NSA implant and misreported it as Chinese. We're going to end up in the stupid…
>it's illegal to report an attack by US intelligence agencies
Could you expand more on that?
Re: New Evidence of Hacked Supermicro Hardware Found in U.S. Telecom
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sounds like the Ethernet connector module was not from the, ahem, correct manufacturer: “Appleboum said one key sign of the implant is that the manipulated Ethernet connector has metal sides instead of the usual plastic ones. The metal is necessary to diffuse heat from the chip hidden inside, which acts like a mini computer. "The module looks really innocent, high quality and 'original' but it was added as part of a…
I'm not sure I believe this one as much, just based on the part you quoted. I can see a chip manipulating the BMC/IPMI flash to make it do things it shouldn't. I don't see how an ethernet port could be modified to be interesting. They're typically after the magnetics, or contain the magnetics themselves, so the only source of power would be the activity LEDs, or something, or maybe we assume a custom PCB as well. You…
You could easily DoS obviously, but beyond that I agree that it seems tricky to do anything worthwhile.
Re: New Evidence of Hacked Supermicro Hardware Found in U.S. Telecom
#27That story is a bit odd, still -- normally behind the connector there is optionally magnetics, and at least a PHY... being able to integrate the magnetics in the connector exists allright, but adding the phy /as well/ must make it a marvel of integration regular manufacturers would dream of... especially at Gb speed! Also, you can't really 'piggyback' ethernet easily, for the same reasons; you would need TWO phy in t…
Elsewhere in this thread there is an actual link to an actual NSA device that does exactly this. I don't think it's in the realm of science fiction.
Re: New Evidence of Hacked Supermicro Hardware Found in U.S. Telecom
#28It seems like there are two possibilities to me:
1) Bloomberg has a number of sources that are mistaken/misinformed, but this is not necessarily a made-up story, or
2) Bloomberg is nearly correct (minus some technical details) but the US government is forcing these companies to respond as if the story is wrong - possibly because of diplomatic reasons.
What is the likelihood that #2 is correct?
(there are other alternatives, but I believe that the likelihood that this is 100% or at least majorly fabricated by Bloomberg is near enough to zero)
Re: New Evidence of Hacked Supermicro Hardware Found in U.S. Telecom
#29So does it really matter if it's true or not? Isn't the sane response to assume it's all true and verify your system integrity? Even if you find nothing you would then have a pile of strong evidence for the null case, eh?
You've got to be kidding. There's no way of validating anything about modern hardware, it's packed with independent systems running various firmware, software that's decades old, parts nobody can even identify unless you're the OEM. You can get to "that probably does this" level easily, but that doesn't tell you anything about its actual security or authenticity.
Re: New Evidence of Hacked Supermicro Hardware Found in U.S. Telecom
#30Finally a named source, but still no photos and the alleged hacked board is still not in the hands of a public security researcher. The "trojan ethernet connector" paragraph mentions similarity to an NSA implant, which appears to be this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_ANT_catalog#/media/File:NS... I'm now wondering if someone found an NSA implant and misreported it as Chinese. We're going to end up in the stupid…
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