Cable Modems and Viruses

[powahusr]

Theoretically, can a Cable Modem be affected by a virus or some kind of malware and pose some potential problem? Cable Modems have firmware and are periodically upgraded from the Cable Company or otherwise Broadband provider. Just as a PC's BIOS can be "Flashed" or "Upgraded", so can a Cable Modem. It is known that viruses are capable of perpetrating a PC's BIOS, so is it possible for a virus to affect a Cable Modem in a similar fashion?

Thanks

 

[jimbopalmer]

yes, if Bill Gate's programmers ever starts writing code for Cable modems, we should move to DSL.

How many bored teens have development systems for embeded processors?

I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.

 

[AvayaNovice]

As far as a virus infecting a cable modem...

Sure. The larger concern is that if a virus infected a CMTS or UBR... we'd be in big trouble, because that could result in broadcasting new instructions to EVERY cable modem within the cable system's network.

As far as individual modem being affected... i'd find that much more difficult considering the layers invovled.

A modem however is NOT flashed when the cable company "upgrades" or reprovisions (issues new instructions) to a modem... that is non volatile memory, and those effects can be reversed.

 

[PowerPlay]

The thing with a cble modem is it can always be "hard reset" meaning it can simply be put right back to the way it was when you got it. really no big deal. So most foo's makin viruses doent even bother.

 

[fs483]

Well maybe a virus can corrupt the firmware. Many manufacturers allow flash upgrades to their products making them vulnerable to these type of attacks. Remember the Chernobyl virus messing with the bios of motherboards ?

 

[AvayaNovice]

The only writable memory on a cable modem is erased upon reboot... because the modem downloads a new instruction package every time it syncs...