Apple's hacked keyboards

Ever heard of virus in keyboards, I did. Apple is the latest victim of the exquisite attack.

A new hack that was demonstrated at DEFCON 2009 doesn't attack the software of Apple computers, rather it attacks the hardware.

Strangely it doesn't attack hardware inside the computer, rather the attack focuses on Apple's USB and Bluetooth keyboards. That means that once infected, the keyboard can’t simply be repaired with a firmware update. The man who devised the hack goes by K. Chen and says he goes by that name because of fear that he would be harassed by Mac fans.

Ingenious indeed. The said man is working with Apple to fix the issue, something unusual since these kind of hacks sell for gazillions of dollars in the black market of internet frauds. The said hack can allow the installation of a keylogger as early as the system starts to boot, allowing to steal passwords from encryption of HDDs in the system or internet accounts passwords.
The hack seems to take advantage that Apple allows the firmware of the keyboard to be rewritten, something that is not usual for such a data input critical peripheral.

Original news post via Dailytech