On: New 100W USB 3.0 Spec Can Charge Laptops

[koenigdavidmj]

And Thunderbolt is already dangerous, given that it's essentially just serialised PCI Express (so you've got a free view into RAM).

[Tuna-Fish → koenigdavidmj]

But you don't typically plug in random, untrusted TB cables -- you do typically plug in random, untrusted chargers.

[ConstantineXVI → Tuna-Fish]

Thunderbolt's the primary display connector on Macs as of 2011 (and some PCs); so not as common as chargers but not entirely outlandish.

[X-Istence → koenigdavidmj]

There is security against that, you can limit access for thunderbolt devices to various parts of memory, same as you could with Firewire. Thunderbolt is not anymore insecure than Firewire for instance.

[sweis → X-Istence]

There is the ability to protect memory from malicious devices with IOMMU, but it is often disabled by default. My experience with DMA attacks via Firewire or Thunderbolt is that they work out of the box.

Inception is a nice tool to play with if you want to try out DMA attacks: http://www.breaknenter.org/projects/inception/

You may also want to check out the Volatility forensics framework: http://code.google.com/p/volatility/

[tjoff → X-Istence]

Considering that firewire is a popular attack vector that isn't really comforting...