Thus, instead of having to pass through the complete (and very slow back in the days) usual process to transfer data between the main memory and peripherals, DMA transfers rely on a dedicated BUS and a DMA hardware controller.Īt that time, one of the technologies widely used on this purpose was a multiplexed serial interface called "IEEE 1394" best known as FireWire.ĭespite FireWire being pretty outdated, some systems are still shipped with IEEE 1394 connectors and Operating Systems (OS) still provide drivers. While any ressource (hardware devices but also software components) normally relies on the processor (CPU) and the embedded Memory Management Unit (MMU) to read or write data to the main memory (RAM), some may have an almost direct access to this main memory.īest known as "Direct Memory Access" (DMA), the technology was created in order to guarantee optimum performance for data transfers between, for example, a system and a hardware device (remember your old videocamera).
M.2 to PCI-E (key B/M) adaptor (~$20 on Amazon).Thus, many technical details are voluntarily left aside (or simplified) and would actually require a blogpost entry on their own :). Please note that this blogpost is rather a walkthrough of a fun and successful pentest than a deep analysis of DMA internals. This workstation was up to date at the time of the assessment (Windows 10 Version 1709) with a strong hardening along with an AppLocker policy very close to the state of the art.Īs the operating system did not offer an easy attack surface, another vector was used to compromise it: physical attack involving a Direct Memory Access (DMA). This blogpost will give an overview of what was possible to do on an "all in one" computer aimed to be given for teleworking matters. with or without a physical access to the computer.To answer these questions, auditors usually try to consider the following attack vectors: if my system happens to be compromised, what will the attacker be able to do afterwards?.While trying to compromise an IT infrastructure, attackers usually try to first own a system then try to proceed to lateral movements in order to obtain further information and elevate their privileges.
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Thanks in particular to Xeno Kovah ( that pointed out that Microsoft Windows does not take profit of VT-d/IOMMU properties on a stock install so far (assumption that was confirmed by, in no particular order, Alex Ionescu ( Jeremiah Cox ( and Dave Weston ( Many thanks to them!).įinally thanks to Yuriy Bulygin ( for pointing out that some references were missing regarding existing hardware attacks. We are very pleased that this blogpost had a lot of feedbacks!
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