Dell Ships Infected Motherboards 326
An anonymous reader writes "Computer maker Dell is warning that some of its server motherboards have been delivered to customers carrying an unwanted extra: computer malware. It could be confirmation that the 'hardware trojans' long posited by some security experts are indeed a real threat."
Bad Article (Score:5, Informative)
This malware code has been detected on the embedded server management firmware.
Firmware != Hardware It would have been impressive if it was a real hardware virus though e.g. some malicious chip that opens a backdoor on the network cards and allows remote code execution.
Re:Wow, Dell... (Score:2, Informative)
Can't really blame Dell.
In this world of outsourcing, and those who outsource the server fabrication themselves outsource other parts to other sub-contractors.
And Dell is not alone in doing this. Almost all the brand name computers (and almost all types of electronic gadgets) are one-way-or-another outsourced.
Re:What did you expect? (Score:2, Informative)
Basically the entire computer's assembled in a sweatshop by barely literate people who are being paid jack-shit to assemble a "rich-boy toy" for some perceived fat cat in the US who sleeps on piles of money.
I hope you take back the "barely literate people" part because it is untrue.
To say that is to think too highly of your own self.
Re:Bad Article (Score:4, Informative)
Re:"You can't blame Dell"? WTF!?! (Score:1, Informative)
Please stop bringing up the McDonalds coffee case if you don't know the facts, and if you did know the facts you wouldn't have brought it up. Granted, even if you fully believe the decade old media misrepresentations of the case, I fail to understand how it's remotely relevant here.
Re:To paraphrase Ghostbusters (Score:3, Informative)
1) More or less the same as any other trojan, but they're much nastier.
2) Yes, very much so.
3) Depends on what piece of firmware it is specifically, if say, the BIOS was what was infected then pretty much whatever the hell they want/want to do. Raw dumps of the HDD in the PC(or even just particular files depending on how advanced the trojan is) and an inside track for exploiting the entire network that the machine happens to be connected to, while remaining mostly invisible to anyone but a good/dedicated sysadmin.
Re:To paraphrase Ghostbusters (Score:5, Informative)
Although it could be as advanced as a router that's been taken over and allow full remote access to the intranet the PC has. That way all the complex theft software is external.
And ofcourse it could monitor activity & brick the motherboard if someone was trying to detect it.
Blown WAY out of proportion (Score:4, Informative)
Of course this is disturbing, but it's quite a leap to say a 'hardware trojan' is 'shipping with Dell Servers'. Once again, a good example why you should never blindly trust "anonymous posters' on Slashdot... RTFA yourself.
blindly trust anonymous posters ? (Score:1, Informative)
"The service phone call you received was in fact legitimate. As part of Dell's quality process, we have identified a potential issue with our service mother board stock, like the one you received for your PowerEdge R410", DELL-Matt replied on Jul 20 2010 10:31 AM link [dell.com]
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Imagine having to sit on discussion forums all day typing corporate bum-fluff©
Re:What did you expect? (Score:3, Informative)
The most obvious and the most wrong. We can never be better off as a nation by increasing the overall cost of the goods we purchase. Workers in certain industries can be better off because tariffs harm their more efficient foreign competition, but those workers are better off only at the expense of a) consumers who are forced to pay more for goods and b) other workers who are losing jobs because their employer's costs have increased. Classic example has been the steel tariffs: great for the steel industry workers but the unseen victims are the workers in every industry that now has to pay more for steel => charge more for products => lose customers and eventually cut down on jobs and pay for its workers. There are no serious economists advocating protectionism any more, that battle has been won by free trade proponents many decades ago. There are only occasional left wing loonies who think you can magically increase prosperity by legislation - really a form of broken window fallacy [wikipedia.org] (in this case breaking the window = artificially imposing extra costs on production by tariffs)
Just to clear things (Score:3, Informative)
Did anyone read the problem before replying, of course not - this is /. after all - so, from Dell ( just the important points ):
3. The W32.Spybot worm was discovered in flash storage on the motherboard during Dell testing. The malware does not reside in the firmware.
4. All industry-standard antivirus programs on the market today have the ability to identify and prevent the code from infecting the customer’s operating system.
5. Systems running non-Microsoft Windows operating systems cannot be affected.
Doesn't seem very serious, of course it's Windows only so, of course, you are running antivirus AND, of course, after motherboard swap don't put it to production without testing - which would catch it?
Anyway, still wondering even without antivirus - home come that people let their systems communicate over network with unauthorized traffic? Just going back 20+ years designing network systems, some even Windows, my systems never allowed any unauthorized traffic in or out - this of course sometimes needed even building your own comm. stacks, traps, hooks, proxies, whatever but also guaranteed that all traffic was legitimate! Saves a lot headache - of course all attempts were logged, alerted and, in case of outbound, the sources were isolated - automatically! So - even Windows can be built that way (with pain!), just wondering why some don't do that?
Re:What did you expect? (Score:3, Informative)
Several things can cause a country to be poor: Lack of natural minerals or water, political instability, inability to invest in infrastructure due to a number of reasons (political, laws that make investment a poor decision), etc.), no access to the ocean for transport (like Moldova) or simple location making it difficult to trade. War. Having a single source of income for the country (banana republics, for example.) Having neighbors that don't trade with you can be a problem (North Korea). Also having a system that has no middle class (Mexico) can lead to widespread poverty, even though Mexico has more natural resources than the USA, although literacy in Mexico isn't near other nations.
Being a part of the soviet union for years and having these issues (like Moldova) is certainly an issue. Moldova is between Ukraine and Romania, and is an excellent place to grow crops, but their whole economy is too dependent on agriculture, and they have to import machinery. They do have a pretty good (and old) wine industry, but it is small. Moldova mainly needs a few more decades to heal from being a SSR for so many years.
So yes, education is certainly a factor in poverty, but education doesn't "cure" poverty and is often not the primary reason for it.