Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Networking
You know all that network hardware that runs quietly 24 hours a day in server rooms around the world? What if black-hats could exploit remote firmware flashing utilities to take over -- or completely destroy -- vulnerable gear? Though still theoretical, PDOS -- permanent denial-of-service -- attacks will be demonstrated by researchers from HP Security Labs at the EUSecWest security conference in London this week. "Phlashing", as it's being referred to, focuses on exploiting network-enabled firmware updates, making use of a fuzzing tool that tricks hardware into flashing anything from back