Generally caused by the exploitation of
features having been put into the hardware to differentiate it from the
competition or to aid in the support and maintenance of the hardware. Some
exploitable features include terminals with memory that can be reread by the
computer and downloadable configuration and password protection for all types
of peripheral devices, including printers. It is the crackerÂ’s creative misuse
of these features that can turn a “feature” into a “vulnerability.”
See Also:
Exploit; Hardware Attacks Paper by Ishai, Sahai, and Wagner; Vulnerabilities of
Computers.
Pipkin, D.L. Halting the Hacker: A
Practical Guide to Computer Security. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice
Hall, 2003.