Supermicro spy chips, the sequel: It happened, insists Bloomberg | Hacker News Reader

Supermicro spy chips, the sequel: It happened, insists Bloomberg

theregister.com

55 pointstankenmate16 comments

The new bloomberg story appears to have been buried on HN for some reason, maybe confusion for the old one.

presumably because HN doesn't like nonsense articles that make astounding claims with no proof, or even the tiniest sliver of supporting evidence.

It is easy to hide spy software in BMC part of modern day server. BMC is arm controller running in most of x86 server that support full linux stack with KVM and network connection functions mainly allow remove vnc and ipmi inventory of devices on the server.

   open source version of it here: 
        https://github.com/openbmc/openbmc

If the attack happen on BMC part of server, it is also very easy to detect it. Put the system in a network and start sniff the network connection on its bmc network port if you see any out going connection, one can start investigate it. Linux has a lot of tools to analyse random network connections.

I have no proof that BMC is indeed part of the spy ware. I just worked on BMC and know its capabilities.

> it is also very easy to detect it.

Not necessarily! At least on some hardware it would be pretty easy for the BMC to cause targeted packet-loss (e.g. by replacing microcode on network controllers).

So if I were a state level attacker, I would get data out by causing a tiny amount (1%) of packet loss based on a secret key-stream and the data I wanted to exfiltrate. (I'd use the sequence numbers to index into a rateless error correcting code or similar.)

Then I just need to be able to surveil a host you're communicating with for long enough to recover the data. This also strong privacy for the destination of the attack if the attack is ever discovered.

If you're just trying to exfiltrate secret keys or the results of complex queries (as the attacker->victim channel can be high bandwidth without being too suspect) then it could be exceptionally difficult to detect this.

I wonder if there's not another element to this story...

What if they didn't know what the chips did and were waiting for them to "make their move" and phone home or whatever.

No one has found any chips, let alone magic-phone-home ones. Bloomberg has never provided any kind of evidence to support any of their claims.

If they existed we would see the chips by now. They sell over $3 billion in hardware a year. I'm sure by now hundreds of individuals and companies have tried to find one and be the first with the teardown.

I suppose it depends on how targeted the attack was, right? What if the chips were only on a handful of boards, sent to only the major companies listed in the story?

I also find it hard to believe, I'm just trying to think of ways it could maybe be possible.

Don't buy any gadget online as it will be easy to be intercepted and replaced with the malware version. Live out of the grid as you can if you think these stalkers endangered your existence.

How ignorant of you to paint someone as paranoid when they question that state actors would want to spy on US businesses or interest when the precedent exists on several scales.

We put _so_ much trust to the government. Why you trust an entity that hide something from the public. We cannot let them have so much power, to dictate the public how to live, they are just another human being. They watch us with all the power we give to them, and then we loose control and let them behave as they like and we can't watch them in the end. They collect taxes but not competent to manage it and make people hard to living. Look, we are not cattles, we are human.

But isn't it notable that a major news publication is saying it actually happened in practice, not merely that it could?

I'll get you my little supermicros if its the last thing I do. -Bloomberg

That sort of vindictive obsession seems to pop up a lot in the media. I remember that time that Newsweek published photos of some old guy's house and declared to the world that he was the secret bitcoin billionaire Satoshi Nakamoto. His face is still all over the search results. Instead of backing off in the face of the growing ridiculing laughter at her stupidity, the reporter doubled down. She eventually shutup about it, presumable after Newsweek got tired of repeating "We stand behind our reporters".

Prove it, bitches!

These badass nerds create havoc. Gentlemen, we need to accelerate the open-source hardware initiatives to counter these elites. Back in 2010, I even think about an LCD that act like a two-way mirror. Now it's become reality. Your LCD is a camera in disguise. Chant the mantra, 'Only the paranoid survive..'.

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