Bytes In Disguise

Presented at DEF CON 28 (2020) Virtual, Aug. 9, 2020, 10:30 a.m. (30 minutes)

Non-Volatile Memory. EVERY computer has it, from the chip that stores your BIOS to the controller that runs your laptop trackpad and even your new fancy USB-C monitor. These small nooks of storage can be (ab)used by anyone to store data or code without causing any side effects and none would be the wiser. We will show you more than one example of how this is possible and walk through everything you need to know to do it, too. In this talk, we will describe how to hide persistence in these obscure memory chips using simple tools that we are releasing as open source. We will show multiple ways to accomplish this without detection. On the defensive front, we'll discuss what can be done to detect and lock down systems.

Presenters:

  • Jesse Michael / @jessemichael as Jesse Michael
    Jesse Michael is an experienced security researcher focused on vulnerability detection and mitigation who has worked at all layers of modern computing environments from exploiting worldwide corporate network infrastructure down to hunting vulnerabilities inside processors at the hardware design level. His primary areas of expertise include reverse engineering embedded firmware and exploit development. He has also presented research at DEF CON, Black Hat, PacSec, Hackito Ergo Sum, Ekoparty, and BSides Portland. @JesseMichael
  • Mickey Shkatov
    Mickey has been doing security research for almost a decade, one of his specialties is simplifying complex concepts and finding security flaws in unlikely places. He has seen some crazy things and lived to tell about them at security conferences all over the world, his past talks range from web pentesting to black badges and from hacking cars to BIOS firmware. @HackingThings

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