Security Researcher Adds Spy Chip to IT Equipment for Just $200

Malware scanners can protect your devices from malicious software, but what about malicious hardware? Implanting covert spy chips could give a bad actor unlimited access to your data, which is why Bloomberg Business’ SuperMicro report last year was so worrying. No evidence has surfaced to support those claims, but sneaking spy chips into hardware isn’t impossible, In fact, one security researcher says he’s figured out a way to do it for about $200 in his basement.
In the Bloomberg story, sources claimed that Chinese state-sponsored hackers had secretly added small chips to SuperMicro’s server motherboards. These boards were later used in Apple and Amazon servers. The chips were allegedly tiny, no larger than a grain of rice. So, it was understandable they had snuck in under the radar. However, every company named in the story has denied it, and external reviews of SuperMicro boards found no such chips.
We know intelligence agencies like the NSA routinely insert spy chips into devices during transit, and security researcher Monta Elkins claims to have developed a version of that technique with off-the-shelf hardware. All Elkins needed was a $150 air-soldering tool, a $40 microscope, and some tiny programmable chips used in personal electronics projects.
Elkins approach uses an ATtiny85 chip salvaged from Digispark Arduino boards, each of which costs around $2. The chips have a total surface area of about 5mm, more than small enough to go unnoticed on a circuit board. You can see the chip indicated below, but Elkins says he could have made it even more stealthy if he hadn’t wanted to show the chip placement to fellow hackers.

As a proof of concept, Elkins created code for the chip that allowed him to interface with the administrator settings on a Cisco ASA 5505 firewall. Elkins says he chose that model because it was the cheapest one he could find on eBay, but the attack should work on all similar systems. When the compromised board boots up, the chip triggers the firewall’s password recovery feature and creates a new administrator account. An attacker could use that account to monitor network activity and steal data.
Elkins plans to reveal all the details of his project at the upcoming CS3sthlm security conference, but he’s not trying to prove Bloomberg’s report is accurate. Instead, he wants everyone to realize implanting spy hardware is trivially easy regardless of whether that report was true. It only cost him $200 to devise a strategy to do it, and a state-sponsored hacker with access to chip fabrication could make much more stealthy custom designs for a few thousand dollars.
Top image credit: Getty Images
Continue reading

Google CEO Promises to Investigate Exit of Top AI Researcher
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has waded into the furor surrounding the termination of AI ethicist Dr. Timnit Gebru, but his memo may not help the situation much.

Security Researcher: ‘solarwinds123’ Password Left Firm Vulnerable in 2019
SolarWinds, the company at the center of the massive hack that hit US government agencies and corporations, doesn't exactly use cutting-edge password techniques.

Researchers Develop Whitest Paint Ever to Combat Climate Change
Aside from being a neat technical feat, the team believes the new white paint could help address climate change by saving loads of power.

Researchers: 2.5 Billion Tyrannosaurus Rexes Walked the Earth
A new analysis from the University of California Berkeley estimates that there were about 20,000 adult Tyrannosaurs at any given time during the Cretaceous period. Add that up over millions of years, and there could easily have been 2.5 billion of these dinosaurs in total.