Drivers need patching too

Hard drives are often overlooked when it comes to patching. But an exploit in this area could be fateful.

Last month, we looked at how a patched vulnerability in the Microsoft DHCP client could provide the conduit for a wireless "worm". This has been quickly patched by the company. That said, there are other vulnerabilities that might be used to propagate such a worm.

There is, for example, a problem with a particular Windows driver for the Intel Centrino 2200BG and 2915ABG wireless chipsets, found in the majority of Windows laptops, that creates an opportunity for a buffer overflow. This allows for execution of remote code on a target laptop using a wireless connection.

Essentially one could hack a target machine over the air in a hotspot or anywhere else where wireless laptops are found. This discovery also unveiled a new propagation route for our theoretical worm. The public exploit code for this vulnerability is rather flaky, but it does work, and it's available on the internet. Refinement to the code will come, and will increase its effectiveness.

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