News Bits: MacBook Wireless Hijack Demo, Intel Centrino Driver Updates, XPS M1710 Tested with Core 2 Duo

Wireless MacBook Attack Demo at Black Hat 2006 Security Conference

At the Black Hat 2006 security briefings conference in Las Vegas two security researchers, otherwise known as professional hackers, will demonstrate a security flaw in wireless drivers for a MacBook that will allow them to take over the machine. This security flaw isn't "in the wild", meaning that it's never been used maliciously and bad hackers don't know how to exploit this flaw (yet). As such, Jon Ellch and David Mayno, the tworesearchers thatdiscovered this flaw, are demoing it via video and not live so that nobodyin the conference room can sniff out and deconstruct how the attack is done while it is demonstrated to the audience.

While they are demoing this flaw on a MacBook running the OSX (not Windows), it is also a weakness that might be found on Windows machines as well. Because wireless drivers are often developed rapidly and by both hardware and software manufacturers there tends to be a lot of security flaws and the point the researchers are trying to make is that this is a universal problem and nobody is immune. They're also quite obviously trying to (and successfully)annoy Mac users.

While there's not a big reason to be concerned about this wireless vulnerability of our notebooks at the moment, it might be just another reason to turn off your wireless card when not using it -- it would save battery life and possibly keep you more secure.

The Washington Post Security writer Brian Krebs has more information on this MacBook wireless security demo.

Lenovo Tops Q2 Shipments of Notebooks in China

According to Analysys International, Lenovo shipped the largest number of notebook PCs in China in Q2, with 34.1% of the total shipment volume. HP was a distant second, accounting for 11.0%, and Dell with 9.4%.

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Toshiba to Close Fab in Germany

Toshiba is planning to close down a fabrication facility in Germany, and will transfer all chip production to Japan. A German newspaper said that Toshiba would complete the shutdown in 2007.

The soon-to-be-closed fab facility currently produces various semiconductor components for the PC industry. The local governmnent is in talks with Toshiba to keep the fab open, since they usually employ a signifigant number of people. Toshiba has not commented on why it is closing the facility.

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Western Digital to Produce Higher Density Platters

Western Digital recently announced it will begin to produce new high-density platters for notebook and desktop applications by using new magnetic storage technologies.

The 2.5" Scorpio line of notebook hard drives are being manufactured to use the perpendicular magnetic recording method, which stores data vertically on the platter to increase the number of bits that can be written per square inch. The new platters will have up to an 80GB capacity each.

Western Digital is a bit late to start producing hard drives utilizing the new technology, considering Seagate Technology has been using it since late last year. There are no details yet on availability of drives with the new high-density platters.

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Intel Releases Centrino Security Updates

Intel has released security updates for its Centrino wireless chipset device drivers, as well as its PROSet management software. The security updates are designed to guard against a trio of serious security vulnerabilities.

Intel's announcement, including to links to patches and software tools can be found here.

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Dell XPS M1710 Tested with Core 2 Duo T7400 CPU

PC Perspective has tested the Dell XPS M1710 with a new Core 2 Duo (Merom) T7400 2.16GHz CPU. Compared to a Core Duo T2600 2.16GHz, there was a signifigant gain in performance in many of the tests. The Core 2 Duo in the XPS M1710 did not have many issues, and showed improvements where it counted. There has been no official word from Dell on availability of the Core 2 Duo in the XPS M1710.

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Pasted from "computershopper" (cos the link dont work):

intel has warned that out of date drivers for its wireless Centrino platform are plagued with serious security flaws.

The massive 129MB update fixes problems that Intel describes as having the potential to allow 'remote code execution and system control' and affects Intel 2200BG and 2915ABG PRO/Wireless Network Connection Hardware (w22n50.sys, w22n51.sys, w29n50.sys, w29n51.sys) with versions 8 and 9 of the driver.

The flaws centre on a memory corruption issue that arises when parsing certain frames, and a successful exploit would give the attacker kernel-level privileges.

The 129MB driver download is available from the Intel support website.

However, Intel suggests users update their systems from the OEM from whom they purchased their laptop. Intel only supplies generic drivers. It has the caveat: 'The software provided has not been verified by your laptop manufacturer as to compatibility or other operation.

'Intel or the laptop computer original equipment

It is not being distributed by Microsoft's update mechanisms either, such as automatic updates - and such a substantial file size would no doubt place an unjustifiable load on the servers.

End users are faced with the problem of first having to find out about the problem, and then locate a compatible download of the updated driver. Mikko HyppÃnen, Chief Research Officer at security company F-Secure said: 'I would estimate that 99 per cent of the vulnerable users won't hear that such an update is available. Even if they do, it's hard to get'.

Intel says it is not aware of any 'malicious use of the vulnerability' as yet. HyppÃnen, too, says there's no evidence of any exploit code currently available. However, device drivers may enjoy something of a renaissance in the virus underground in the near future.

In a few hours time, a presentation will be given by 'johnny cache' and David Maynor at the Black Hat USA 2006 Briefings and Training Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, on Device Drivers. It describes device drivers as 'a huge avenue of [untapped] exploitation', 'full of simple security programming errors'.

'Development of reliable off the shelf packet injection techniques combined with the excessive complexity of the 802.11 protocol creates a perfect combination for security researchers. Ever seen a laptop owned remotely because of a device driver? Want to?' reads the extract.



Looks like a relativly big problem considering the size of patch. i feel sorry for those who have a 56k connection.

Thank god i have amd 64.

 

Your link is about dual core versions of Itanium 2 server processor

Edit: never mind Chaz just posted a writeup about this http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=69106

 

so this doesn't concern my e1705 dell with Pro/Wireless 3945, right?

 

It doesn't look like this affects Intel 3945.

 

I'm sort of curious about the MacBook hack they demonstrated. At the start of the video, they show that they actually had to use a third party wireless PC Card. Does this mean that this vulnerability doesn't affect the built-in wireless of the MacBook? I am curious if it's still even a driver that would come on a MacBook, or if you'd have to install this driver along with the third party wireless card. I understand the motivation to use a MacBook for their demonstration (i.e. show up those "smug" Mac users about how insecure Macs actually are), but it seems like it's pretty specialized, given that most MacBook owners would probably not be using a third party wireless card.

EDIT: Just as a clarification, some other people have pointed out that it appears to be some sort of wireless USB card attached via the USB port.