Hardware-based Cyber Threats

During the last decade, cyber-security experts have been trying to mitigate attacks against computer networks and software. After the internet, the proliferation of thousands of virus, worms and trojans became easier, which then required enhancements for Operating Systems, browsers and anti-virus software in order to keep their users safe. However, what happens when the threat comes from the hardware? The Operating System trusts entirely in the hardware to perform its operations. If the hardware has been taken, it becomes much harder to regain control of the system. This paper describes eight different approaches to hardware attacks against software. It also demonstrates how to perform an attack using a USB device patched to behave like a generic HID Input Device, in order to insert malicious code in the system.