Comment by eichin
4 years ago
So... how would you get anything into the system that way that you couldn't get in via an actually recorded floppy? You're still waving analog magnetic fields in front of the read head, it's not like usb or firewire where you have inappropriate levels of access to the system bus...
> So... how would you get anything into the system that way that you couldn't get in via an actually recorded floppy?
One thing I can think of is people have done tricks with programmable storage like changing file contents after the first read (to bypass scanning). The link I posted above lists that as "7) RIT attack via USB mass storage - attack described in a research paper. It relies on changing the content of files while the USB mass storage device is connected to a victim's computer."
> it's not like usb or firewire where you have inappropriate levels of access to the system bus...
That's a good point. The main benefit of dumb media isn't so much that the storage is dumb, but that it connects to a far more restricted and inflexible interface. Though lacking a CPU does provide a smaller benefit (i.e. preventing that "RIT attack").
Put a generator on the hub to get power from. Then a readwrite head instead of media. The head is the hard part, you need to make it thin.
It should be possible, but I don't have the electronics to attempt it. Nor do I have the time.