CAPEC-402: Bypassing ATA Password Security

Description

An adversary exploits a weakness in ATA security on a drive to gain access to the information the drive contains without supplying the proper credentials. ATA Security is often employed to protect hard disk information from unauthorized access. The mechanism requires the user to type in a password before the BIOS is allowed access to drive contents. Some implementations of ATA security will accept the ATA command to update the password without the user having authenticated with the BIOS. This occurs because the security mechanism assumes the user has first authenticated via the BIOS prior to sending commands to the drive. Various methods exist for exploiting this flaw, the most common being installing the ATA protected drive into a system lacking ATA security features (a.k.a. hot swapping). Once the drive is installed into the new system the BIOS can be used to reset the drive password.

Extended Description

When correctly performed the RFID chip can be disabled or destroyed without visible damage or marking to whatever item or device containing the chip. Attacking the chip directly allows for the security device or method to be bypassed without directly damaging the device itself, such as an alarm system or computer system. Various methods exist for damaging or deactivating RFID tags. For example, most common RFID chips can be permanently destroyed by creating a small electromagnetic pulse near the chip itself. One method employed requires the modifying a disposable camera by disconnecting the flash bulb and soldering a copper coil to the capacitor. Firing the camera in this configuration near any RFID chip-based device creates an EMP pulse sufficient to destroy the chip without leaving evidence of tampering. So far this attack has been demonstrated to work against RFID chips in the 13.56 MHz range.

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Detailed

Relationships with other CAPECs

This table shows the other attack patterns and high level categories that are related to this attack pattern.

CAPEC-401: Physically Hacking Hardware Physically Hacking Hardware

Prerequisites

This table shows the other attack patterns and high level categories that are related to this attack pattern.

Access to the system containing the ATA Drive so that the drive can be physically removed from the system.

Skills required

This table shows the other attack patterns and high level categories that are related to this attack pattern.

Taxonomy mappings

Mappings to ATT&CK, OWASP and other frameworks.

Related CWE

A Related Weakness relationship associates a weakness with this attack pattern. Each association implies a weakness that must exist for a given attack to be successful.

CWE-285: Improper Authorization

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