Date   : Sun, 01 Aug 2010 16:37:24 +0200
From   : rick@... (Rick Murray)
Subject: bbcdocs website problem

On 28/07/2010 05:18, Rick Murray wrote:

> The mom filter is like chinese whispers, so if that doesn't make a lot
> of sense, you're not alone. I guess I'll keep an eye on El Reg to see if
> I can find some actual info on this. ;-)
> I'm highly suspicious of the bit about affecting both Win AND the
> penguin. Though if this were true...

It would appear to be a vuln in PCMCIA...? The article is about three 
quarters (21m 06s) into the DigitalP podcast, available at:
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/worldservice/digitalp/digitalp_20100727-1032a.mp3

Does anybody have further information on this? I'm wondering how a vuln 
on a PCMCIA card can affect Windows, Apple, and Linux. Can't be a BIOS 
issue as most decent systems replace the BIOS with their own (better) 
code [remember the days when a 66MHz 486/DX couldn't keep up with a 
modem running at 9600bps when using BIOS calls? ;-) ). It could be a 
hardware issue, but surely each system has its own drivers? Compromising 
one shouldn't affect others.
To quote: "the attack is entirely automated, so... you just have to put 
inside the miniature card and wait like two second, figure it out, and 
the laptop is completely compromised" (21m 31s).

This, skipping over little details such as Windows being capable of 
natively running a Linux executable as well as it would be capable of 
running a BBC executable...


Mmmm... Can't find specifics on Google. Any ideas?


Best wishes,

Rick.

-- 
Rick Murray, eeePC901 & ADSL WiFI'd into it, all ETLAs!
BBC B: DNFS, 2 x 5.25" floppies, EPROM prog, Acorn TTX
E01S FileStore, A3000/A5000/RiscPC/various PCs/blahblah...