Can a virus harm hardware? 3

[spacekowboy]

recently in a thread under win98 this question arose.

normally viruses do not harm hardware of course, but as
i understand it, they can and some do. however, i am not
a software expert, hacker or security professional.

can someone give an answer to this question, or reference?

thanks

X-)

 

[butchrecon]

It can corrupt PROM chips which in turn can kill the hardware in question. But those viruses are rare (and very well written)

 

[Karl Blessing]

viruses that are capable of that, arnt the kind of virii you'd find just floating on the web, a virus I belive written to target PROM, like butchrecon mentioned, are going to be written by someone who is a pure professional, and I would think targeted at a single organization or person (since I'm sure it would have to be written for a very specific hardware)

But if you are worried about physical damage, I wouldnt worry too much. I have heard of funny ones in the past, that were to just scare people, like one said that could make a sound card emit a frequency so high, the card or speakers would blow.

Or like one that said they'd make the monitor refresh so hard, the monitor would implode.

hehe, of course if either of those two happened, I'd be very concerned about their failsafe mech in the hardware hehe. Karl Blessing aka kb244{fastHACK}

 

[rtshort]

I've heard that a few of them could. I have never seen it happen and wondered how it could be possible. Thanks for the post Butchrecon. Cleared my mind. Every day above ground is a GOOD DAY!!!

 

[Comtech]

Every April 26th, the Win95_CIH virus strikes.
It's almost extinct, but still arises once a year, and has gone through about 5 mutations.
It CAN harm hardware, specifically your BIOS chip, by scrambling it so badly, the only real fix, is to purchase a new BIOS chip or a new motherboard.
Why April 26th?
That's the anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. Cheers,
Jim
reboot@pcmech.com

http://members.cnx.net/reboot/

Moderator at

http://www.56k.com

Staff at

http://www.pcmech.com

Windows 9x/ME instructor.
Jim's Modems:

http://reboot.8m.com/

 

[acktcat]

I've heard of a virus that causes the heads in the HD to try reading a physical address several feet outside the HD casing. After smacking themselves into the inside of the casing several times the arms would bend and pretty much ruin the HD. This was several years ago, though, (like when 200MB was a *TON* of space and people were still pissed about MSDOS 5.0) so I'm not sure what new failsafes manufacturers have included. Somewhat off topic; my personal favorite virus is the Psychic Neon Budda Jesus Virus. Think I still got a copy of that little bugger somewhere around here...

Ack T. Cat

 

[jsauce]

Some of my friends and I were toying with the idea of a virus that could infect a piece of hardware via a PROM or a file and cause damage physically. For instances, a virus that would be written to a file that when run could send a blip to the monitor. Now while this is normal and a lot of program do this, the virus would repeat the process to infinity. This would cause the monitor to burn out. Also while a virus that doesn't cause damage to a piece of hardware it could also create havok, such as another idea to tap the mouse. A virus that would take control of the mouse. It would run the mouse cursor to infinity making it impossible for you to use. There are also other examples, such as a programmable modem, that could be used to hang up whenever you connect to something with it, or dial a number randomly. John D. Saucier
webmaster@johnnyfilth.com

http://www.johnnyfilth.com

Certified Technician

 

[thadwalt]

I have herd there are viruses out there that can harm hardware. One in mind causes your computer to run at an accelerated speed and basically causes a meltdown.

 

[Mudassar]

I know a virus that destroys your Graphics chip by over, over clocking it. If the chip didn't have at least a heat sink, the graphics card would melt.

Same goes for processors (especially the newer ones where motherboard can change voltages via software). IT would send high volts to the processor and melt it.
-----------------
MK

Everybody should use AntiVirus! Are you protected now?

 

[Mudassar]

So if your computer starts to speed up. Don't be TOO happy. -----------------
MK

Everybody should use AntiVirus! Are you protected now?

 

[Alt255]

I commented in a seperate thread that a rapid series of calls to Interrupt 13h, Function 19h could hurt the hardware. I have to admit that this was speculation on my part, based on information that might not apply to the most modern hard drives. Not so long ago, drive manufacturers recommended that users stop using "park" utilities on their HDs because they could damage a head or even a platter by forcing an unexpected seek to the landing zone. Modern hard drives incorporate an "auto-park" feature that moves heads to the landing zone on power-down to prevent damage from kinetic shock. Hence, park utilities joined a growing genre of software superceded by improved hardware.

Interrupt 13h, Function 19h causes a drive to park instantaneously. Function 00h causes a disk system reset, forcing a seek to track zero. Now, imagine the effect produced by alternating between these actions several times every second. The strain on the hardware would be roughly equivalent to powering-down the drive and then powering-up again several times per second.

The first noticable effect would be a BSOD. Windows would not be able to read or write to the swap file. But that wouldn't stop the hypothetical virus... a terrible grinding noise would accompany the blue screen. This would be the sound of a drive committing suicide.

Again, this may be pure speculation on my part. I don't have many hard drives I can sacrifice in the name of science. But if anybody is absolutely dead certain that a virus can't damage hardware, contact me and I'll write a small program that I feel may be up to the task.

Alt255@Vorpalcom.Intranets.com​

 

[osuman]

My parents have an old 270 meg drive they might want to give me. I haven't quite got em convinced that it's worthless but I think i'm wearing em down. Get started on that program. Maybe they'll let me have it in the name of an experiment. Justin

Feel free to email me at:
beckham@mailbox.orst.edu

 

[Mudassar]

I have an enemy.. I MEAN Friend that wouldn't mind using his HD as an experiment. Send it to me! -----------------
MK

Everybody should use AntiVirus! Are you protected now?

 

[jsauce]

http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/19980730/21151164.html

Q. Can a virus damage hardware?
A. The simple answer is no, not directly. Theoretically, your hardware could be affected by a virus that exerts unusual stress on your system by doing something like accessing the hard disk continuously or switching your video card to unsupported settings. Realistically, however, the risk of hardware damage from a virus is minimal.

http://www.help.com/cat/2/285/287/tip/3919.html?tag=st.hp.ht.txt.tip

Can a Virus Damage My Hardware?
There are no viruses that damage hardware by modifying how the mechanical parts run or their electro-magnetic characteristics. There are reported instances of specific hardware being damaged by the misuse of specific software. A virus that exploited such a problem would have to be so selective and complex that it would be unlikely to survive in the real world.


While both sites agree that viruses do not damage hardware, they both say that it is not totally impossible. And the first site even talks about the kind of stress Alt255 is speaking of. Alt255 get that program made and working, become famous, and show the world what you already know... John D. Saucier
webmaster@johnnyfilth.com

http://www.johnnyfilth.com

Certified Technician

 

[Mudassar]

Jsauce. (and to everybody else)

You have heard of viruses that can create bad sectors in a hard drive right? However they can be repaired if you low level format it (because they are only Logical Bad Sectors, not Physical or whatever you call it).

But do you know what happens if the virus created bad sectors in the beginning of the drive?

Well, when you power up a hard drive, it reads the first few bits (or sectors) at the beginning of the drive before it sends information to the motherboard that it is ready to be used. Unfortunately if there was an error then it would not send a message at all and BIOS will either give an error message or just not detect it at all.

I still have that drive and if you do know how I can fix it please tell me. But I have tried many things and the BOIS or other Utility Programs just can’t detect it anymore, or it gives an error message number. (107 I think)

Looking forward for a reply.

Thanks!
-----------------
MK

Everybody should use AntiVirus! Are you protected now?

 

[spacekowboy]

this doesnt seem to be answered yet

or the answer is usually no, except for...

is there a definitive answer? or help for last cpl issues listed above?

X-)

 

[edfair]

This fix is from the old days when Seagate ST225s were hot stuff. Only critical sector was bootstrap. With MSdos through 3.3 and possibly later you could create multiple primary partitions. So you made 1 that overlapped the defective sectors. Then you made one that you really wanted to use and made it active. I suspect that it would still work. Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.