Because people don’t every patch their BIOSes, it is extremely likely that the vast majority of systems in the wild are vulnerable to at least one known exploit. We made public the details of the new SMM “Incursion” vulnerabilities (CERT VU# 631788, reported Oct 29th), that can be found automatically from SMM dumps. We showed the “LightEater” SMM implant stealing GPG keys/passwords/decrypted messages from Tails on an MSI system. We also showed how an unskilled attacker can infect a BIOS with an off-the-shelf Dediprog programmer, by just pressing the start button.

Source: Research

These extreme hacks rise above the unending morass of everyday, humdrum hacks because of what they target or because they employ previously unknown, unused, or advanced methods. They push the limit of what we security pros previously thought possible, opening our eyes to new threats and systemic vulnerabilities, all while earning the begrudging respect of those who fight malicious hackers.

This is a look at the handful of hacks that have truly raised eyebrows in the security community in the past few years. Here’s to hoping that the good guys find the most dangerous exploits before the bad guys can use them against us.

Source: Be paranoid: 10 terrifying extreme hacks | InfoWorld