BadUSB - On Accessories that Turn Evil, by Karsten Nohl + Jakob Lell

Oliver Pinter oliver.pntr at gmail.com
Mon Oct 6 20:01:21 UTC 2014


fwd to HardenedBSD Developers

On 10/6/14, Julian H. Stacey <jhs at berklix.com> wrote:
> Hi freebsd-usb at freebsd.org, 		(I suggest replies to usb@)
> cc: freebsd-security at freebsd.org	FYI
>
> Ref. article on BadUSB pan OS (non FreeBSD specific) security loophole
> 	http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29475566
> Dated  6 October 2014 Last updated at 15:29 GMT
>
> I found https://github.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=BadUSB
>
> Then viewed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuruzFqMgIw
> 	( Which BTW plays nicely inc. sound on FreeBSD-9.2-RELEASE
> 	+ firefox without any flash installed (certainly no
> 	ports/graphics/gnash)
>
> A fascinating video by Lecturers Karsten Nohl & Jacob Lell at Black Hat
> USA 2014, Run time 44:30 )
>   (PS for non native English spekers on this global list, dont worry if
>   you find Jacob's accent hard, Karsten resumes for last 3rd, listen on :-)
>
> It seems USB controllers (8041 or so based) can first masquerade
> one device, then pause & masquerade another device type.  This is
> an OS independent security list. Lecturers includes both demo of
> an MS to Linux contamination, & consideration of other scenarios.
> A predominant USB controller manufacturer in Taipei was not happy.
>
> The lecturers didn't discuss MS or Linux or Android smart phone
> protection schemes (except to allude to the danger of someone saying
> "Can I plug in my smart phone to your PC to charge it ?".
>
> It can't be ignored as a smart phone exploit: the demo wasn't with a
> smart phone but a `dumb' stick.
>
> One can't get some protection by checking for sernum connecting, as devd
> shows:
> - my USB to PS2 adapter (vendor=0x04b4 product=0x8081) emits sernum=""
> - my real USB "Havit" keyboard (vendor=0x1241 product=0x1203) emits
> sernum=""
>
> For FreeBSD,
>   I guess for serious security, every new device that is connected
>   & recognised by /sbin/devd should in future be personaly authorised
>   by a human !  One can no longer trust what reports itself to be
>   eg a keyboard to actually Be a keyboard, etc.
>
>   /usr/src/etc/devd/*.conf & my own .conf do Not meet that awkward
>   security requirement... yet. I guess we'll need a couple of hooks
>   that support Yes/No, one from cli & one for within X11.
>
> There's no security warning section in
> 	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_memory
>
> Cheers,
> Julian
> --
> Julian Stacey, BSD Linux Unix'78 C Sys Eng Consultant Munich
> http://berklix.com
>  Indent previous with "> ".  Interleave reply paragraphs like a play
> script.
>  Send plain text, not quoted-printable, HTML, base64, or
> multipart/alternative.
> 		ShellShock - http://www.berklix.com/~jhs/bash/
> _______________________________________________
> freebsd-security at freebsd.org mailing list
> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-security
> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-security-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"
>


More information about the freebsd-usb mailing list