Oh, geez. Not this again. Just months after everyone involved with that virus-ridden Insignia frame finally cleaned things up, here comes two new reports that select frames could indeed be shipping from the factory with malware pre-installed. For starters, the 1.5-inch Mercury Digital Photo Keychain — which is sold at Walmart and other fine retailers — seems to have some pretty nasty software loaded on, and Amazon has went so far as to issue an alert that some Samsung SPF-85H frames are leaving the dock with the 32.Sality.AE worm on the installation disc. Something tells us someone in quality control couldn’t quite get in the holiday spirit.

[Via Slashdot]

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Displays

Another pair of infected digiframes promise to ruin the rest of your holiday break originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Dec 2008 16:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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-door access to a corrupt image, causing complete and permanent hardware failure. There’s no reason to panic just yet (especially not when it comes to consumer devices, which typically don’t support remote firmware updates), but given the amount of unattended and relatively dormant enterprise network hardware out there, this could be something for admins to seriously think about.

[Via Slashdot]

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Filed under: Displays

Ugh, we were already sick of digital photo frames — and now it looks those now-discontinued virus-ridden Insignia units from Best Buy and several other models produced in China were carrying a much nastier trojan that we’d originally heard. According to an analyst form Computer Associates, the trojan, called Mocmex, is able to block more than 100 types of security and anti-virus software from killing it, and bypasses the Windows firewall to download files from remote locations, spreading them randomly over your hard drive and any portable storage device you plug into your PC — like, for example, a digital photo frame. The trojan is apparently set to only steal gaming passwords at present, but CA says it’s capable of stealing nearly any information on your machine, and thinks it might be a test for a much worse virus yet to come. Infected frames have come from Sam’s Club, Target and Costco, in addition to Best Buy, so we’d say to avoid picking one up until this mess gets sorted out — or, you know, forever.

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Filed under: Wireless, Networking

We hate to be bearers of bad news, but it looks like those of you squeaking by on a WEP-protected or unprotected wireless router have yet another reason to undertake the difficult task of selecting “WPA” on that router admin screen. A team of researchers at Indiana University have published a paper on how easily malware could spread through a densely populated area, with unprotected routers providing zero resistance, and WEP moderately more, while WPA proved generally unhackable. The spread of the malware was alarmingly similar to a biological virus, and while no such router “WiFi flu” has yet been developed by nefarious types, it’s probably only a matter of time before something of its ilk takes a city by storm. In test attacks, after the initial infection phase, 10-55 percent of the routers were infected. We can do better, people. Oh, and to the guy upstairs: thanks for all the WiFi these years, those torrents will probably never be traced back to you, so don’t worry.

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Filed under: Storage

We’ve already taught you to not use syringes USB flash drives that you find on the street, but we know all sorts of unwanted invaders can meander on into your hard drive when you’re not looking. Enter LG’s aptly-named Vaccine USB flash drive, which comes pre-loaded with anti-virus / malware protection software and provides “real-time system monitoring and hardware scans.” Aside from making sure your rig doesn’t catch any bugs going around, it also updates itself when plugged in to an internet-connected PC. Regrettably, we’ve no idea how much these things will cost (nor if Medicare will cover), but they will be offered up in sizes ranging from 512MB to 8GB.

[Via EverythingUSB, image courtesy of Pocket-Lint]

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