The Computer Virus That is Puzzling the Internet | BadBIOS
Summary
TLDRThe video explores the mysterious origins of BadBIOS, alleged to be the world's first computer virus capable of spreading through the air. It analyzes the controversial claims made by its supposed discoverer, including its ability to infect any operating system and transmit wirelessly. The script examines the technical feasibility and limitations of such malware, the skepticism surrounding its existence, and the divided opinions it has generated within the tech community.
Takeaways
- 😱 The story of BadBIOS - a mysterious computer virus allegedly able to infect systems without internet access
- 🤯 Claims to be the first ever computer virus that spreads through sound/air
- 😶🌫️ Originated from well-known hacker Dragos Ruiu noticing strange activity on his devices
- 😵 Very technically complex and contradicting story that left many scratching heads
- 🫣 Spread through high frequency sounds played by speakers and picked up via microphones
- 😬 Capable of persisting even after wiping systems clean by hiding in BIOS/UEFI
- 🤔 Highly controversial - some believe it, others call it an elaborate hoax
- 🤨 Lack of evidence and high complexity lead some to believe it doesn't actually exist
- 🕵️♂️ Audio transmission has technical flaws making malware very impractical
- 😐 Remains an unsolved mystery whether capabilities are real or an exaggerated hoax
Q & A
What is BadBIOS?
-BadBIOS is a mysterious and controversial computer virus first reported in 2010. It allegedly spreads through sound and is able to infect the BIOS of computers, making it very difficult to remove.
How does BadBIOS allegedly spread?
-According to reports, BadBIOS spreads through high frequency sounds transmitted from an infected computer's speakers. Nearby computers with microphones can pick up the sounds and become infected.
Why is spreading through sound controversial?
-Spreading through sound is controversial because sound waves are susceptible to interference and degradation of data. The feasibility of transmitting malware this way is debated.
Who first reported BadBIOS?
-BadBIOS was first reported in 2010 by Dragos Ruiu, a well-respected computer security expert and founder of the Pwn2Own hacking competition.
Why can't anti-virus software detect BadBIOS?
-If real, BadBIOS infects the BIOS/UEFI rather than the operating system or programs. Anti-virus software scanning those layers wouldn't detect it.
How could BadBIOS bypass air-gapped computers?
-If real, experts theorize BadBIOS initially infected air-gapped machines via USB drives. Once infected, it could potentially spread via sound.
Why is there skepticism about BadBIOS?
-There is skepticism because the technical feats claimed seem far-fetched. Also, no samples of BadBIOS code have been analyzed publicly.
Could BadBIOS be an elaborate hoax?
-Some believe BadBIOS could be an elaborate hoax or prank, given the seemingly outlandish claims and lack of hard evidence made public.
How difficult would it be to create BadBIOS?
-Experts estimate it would require millions of dollars and many years for even advanced hackers to develop malware as sophisticated as claimed.
Is there a way to fully protect against BadBIOS?
-No security measures can fully protect against it if real, but keeping BIOS/UEFI firmware updated and avoiding suspicious devices can help.
Outlines
🤔 How computer virus panic spread in the 90s
Paragraph 1 discusses the fear and misunderstanding around computer viruses in the 1990s, and how some took advantage of this by spreading exaggerated claims. It mentions a Weekly World News story about a fictional virus spreading to humans, highlighting the implausibility.
👨💻 Explaining how computer viruses actually work
Paragraph 2 explains how real computer viruses operate - they are malicious code that spreads by replicating and infecting connected computers over a network. The key is needing a connection.
🎤 Transmitting data using sound
Paragraph 3 provides background on communicating data via sound, relating it to old telegraph systems. It explains how dial-up modems also used sound to talk to each other. The concept is simple but engineering a virus this way would be complex.
💬 Challenges with using sound for transmission
Paragraph 4 details issues with using sound for data transmission - it's prone to interference and degradation. The noise ratio makes it unreliable over distances. Multiple conversions also reduce quality. Even minor distortion can lead to failure.
🤨 Questioning how the virus actually spreads
Paragraph 5 notes inconsistencies in the story. The virus likely didn't use sound but instead spread via infected USB drives. Claims of it working across different BIOS systems seem implausible. Many doubt the story's validity.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Computer virus
💡Air gap
💡BIOS
💡Data transmission
💡Hoax
💡Background noise
💡Signal-to-noise ratio
💡Airborne computer virus
💡Proof-of-concept
💡Contradictory claims
Highlights
BadBIOS malware allegedly spread between computers via sound frequencies humans can't hear
Dragos Ruiu first reported BadBIOS in 2013 when his computers exhibited strange behavior
BadBIOS supposedly infects Mac, Windows, Linux and BSD systems and persists after wiping drives
BadBIOS transmits through computer speakers and microphones via inaudible frequencies
Communicating data via sound is possible but challenging due to signal degradation
Background noise can interfere with sound data transmission between computers
Computers need protocols to listen for and interpret sound data transmission
BIOS systems are secure, so unlikely malware could access to transmit itself
BadBIOS inconsistencies have led some to believe it's an elaborate hoax
BadBIOS would be extremely expensive and time consuming to create
No definitive evidence exists proving or disproving BadBIOS
BadBIOS remains controversial - some believe, others skeptical
Online communities exist investigating and hypothesizing about BadBIOS
BadBIOS capabilities and existence remain a complete mystery
BadBIOS parallels 1990s virus hoaxes but more sophisticated
Transcripts
Since the dawn of time, the world has been filled with threats
(EXPLOSION) and those who try to
understand them. And this applies to the digital world as well, and there was certainly a time,
not too long ago in fact, where most people didn’t understand these threats at ALL. So,
throughout the 1990s, on the NEW worldwide web, you end up having these mass panics of computer
viruses with alleged capabilities that go beyond the screen, almost SUPERNATURAL. And of course,
many people rode on these fears either in jest or to obtain some kind of control on those who
are gullible. Just like how the satirical tabloid “Weekly World News” once published a story about
a computer virus that can spread to humans. Because that’s ridiculous! We all know how a
computer virus works, it’s a malicious piece of code that is able to replicate itself and infect
other computers on the same network, whether it’s the internet or some kind of local network,
where it can then do whatever it is programmed TO do. And that’s the key, you need SOME kind
of connection to another computer. It’s not a REAL virus in the literal sense;
it can’t SPREAD through the AIR…right? Well in October of 2010,
something very unnerving allegedly happened. A man named Dragos Ruiu, the main developer behind the
annual Pwn2Own hacking competition. He had just installed a new copy of Mac OS X on his MacBook
Air, and it was then that he started to notice the computer suddenly had a mind of its own. For
starters, his CD drive was no longer working, he couldn’t boot from any CD placed into his
system. He thought okay, maybe this was just a hardware issue, but then noticed that all of his
system configurations kept undoing themselves. His system data then started getting deleted. He was
starting to think that this wasn’t a hardware issue, but instead some kind of malware. So he
went ahead and completely wiped the hard drive and reinstalled the operating system, but sure enough,
the problem still persisted. As it turned out, this issue wasn’t coming from the hard drive,
but the BIOS, the motherboard of the computer, meaning that even a full system restore couldn’t
fix it. But it doesn’t even stop there. He noticed that this malware was now spreading across other
computers on his network, even ones with different operating systems. He quickly disconnected them
from his network, but it just kept going. And so, as a last resort, he disabled his Wi-Fi
and Bluetooth and even unplugged the power from his wall, relying only on the battery. This is a
technique called “air-gapping,” as these computers were now completely independent from one another,
in their own separate worlds…yet the virus was still spreading, even to computers who were never
connected to the internet in the first place. The malware became known as
“BadBIOS,” which was capable of infecting Mac, Windows, Linux, and BSD systems,
and word quickly started getting around the internet that it may just be the very first
instance of a computer virus spreading through the air, quite literally. Through its strange,
completely unknown engineering, it was somehow able to bypass these “air gaps.” Surprisingly, it
gets even weirder…actual word of the virus seems to have spread faster than the virus itself, and
that’s because we...don’t even know if it exists. BadBIOS has become an incredibly controversial,
divisive subject within niche parts of the tech community, with some people swearing by it,
others scoffing at how ridiculous it is, and then those who believe it to be nothing more than an
elaborate hoax. And today, we are going to talk about this strange origin story. This is BadBIOS,
the world’s most mysterious computer virus. Now browsing the internet can be quite scary,
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your online presence today through Aura. Now, tracing the origins to
BadBIOS is seemingly impossible, as there is quite literally no prior documentation prior to
Ruiu’s claims from 2013, (the year he first posted about it) and he himself is unsure of where this
strange malware came from. Consequently, this makes the entire story a “he said,
she said” situation, which is the main thing that has raised many eyebrows about its authenticity;
there’s no way for it to be tested. And all that doubt is for good reason! I mean,
a computer virus that can infect ANY operating system and still shows up even AFTER wiping the
computer clean and can still transmit without an internet connection? That’s every computer
user’s worst nightmare. It sounds a little too over the top to be true. But surprisingly,
this is NOT the first time that something like this has happened. To be clear, really the only
way a virus would be able to reinstall itself even after the drive was completely wiped would be if
it was installed anywhere else other than the hard drive. In this case, Ruiu claims the virus
was installed within the BIOS, hence the name, meaning that it was installed on the MOTHERBOARD,
not the hard drive. This is the main reason why it can infect virtually any computer regardless
of its operating system or if the system is restored, as those things aren’t really relevant
to begin with. Now BIOS malware is INCREDIBLY rare, to the point where it is almost unheard of,
and this is because of the fact that nearly every computer’s BIOS is different. That virus would
have to be programmed and tailored for that specific BIOS, which is already programmed
and tailored for that specific computer. Not to mention this type of malware would also need
backdoor access to the BIOS in order to flash it, which if you’re using a company like AMD, that is
definitely going to be something that’s encrypted. BIOS malware was more common back in the 80s and
90s when there were a lot less options to choose from computer wise and when encryption technology
wasn’t NEARLY as secure. Most computers nowadays don’t even use a BIOS, but instead a UEFI,
which offers more features and enhances hardware performance, but the general concepts do still
apply. UEFIs will not update properly unless they get a digital signature that’s actually
from the manufacturer, which means that if malware were to sneak in there, this would
be caught right away. If these private signature keys were to somehow get leaked to the public,
then yes you could have a problem. The malware developer could very well “forge” this signature
so to speak and create a fake update with this bad code, but these leaks are quite rare and
even if they did occur, these companies have protocols in place to quickly fix things. Now,
I did want to acknowledge the distinction between BIOS and UEFI systems, but they are often used
interchangeably in the everyday language, for the sake of simplicity, I will be referring to it as
a BIOS throughout this video. But in short, even if there was some extremely sophisticated BIOS
malware that DID exist and somehow bypassed these backdoors, it just wouldn’t be able to
spread that far, BECAUSE of these limitations. There’s only ONE Microsoft Windows, there’s only
one Mac OS. There’s like a million different types of BIOS. If a malware developer wants to
target a specific computer, it is much easier to just think of a smarter way to do it through the
operating system; it’s simply just not worth it. Now in order for this to be considered a “virus”
in the technical sense, it needs to be “spread” itself and communicate to another computer. So,
how do you do that through the BIOS? Moreover, how was it able to communicate to other computers in
the room that had no internet connection, no Bluetooth, no physical connection,
not even connected to a charger in the wall! Yet they still caught it. The first airborne computer
virus. This was the version of the story that made all the headlines and a mystery that took
years for Dragos himself to figure out. So how did it work? Well, the virus spread…through sound.
Dragos alleges that the virus transmitted its code through the computer’s speakers and the computers
in the other room were able to pick it up through their microphones, but these sounds are played at
high frequencies that our ears cannot hear. This idea probably sounds so ridiculous and
over the top, like something out of some crappy detective show. But it technically is…possible.
Now, the actual programming and engineering of such a virus that sends and receives data this way
would be VERY complicated and frankly I don’t even fully understand it myself. I’m not a programmer.
I run a tech channel and I don’t know how to code. I’m like that guy that wears Nirvana T-shirts and
is like “Oh, I LOVE Nirvana! They make the BEST clothes!’ Anyway, the point is I am omitting a
lot of important technical details here, BUT the basic concept of how transmitting data works is
actually remarkable simple. And because…I’m the creative type (wink), I’m gonna use an example
of this that makes the most sense to me. We’re gonna be transmitting pictures using sound. (SHOW)
Communicating information with sound is not at all unheard of. We’ve been doing it for hundreds
of years. The telegraph systems in days of old used dits and dahs against pieces of metal to
communicate letters and numbers. A very primitive example of dating real world information,
modulating it into something objective and more tangible, and turning it back into that real
information on the other side, for the receiving human to understand. And this approach has…kind
of just stuck ever since. It’s actually quite similar to how dial-up worked back in the 1990s.
Those irritating sounds you heard logging on are literally the modem and your computer TALKING to
each other through sound. These special sounds communicated protocols that the modem and computer
were programmed to understand, allowing them to “essentially” negotiating what your internet
speed was going to be, letting you online! This didn’t necessarily HAVE to be played out loud,
but doing so did provide helpful diagnostic information in case the user needed to fix
anything on their end. But in short, communicating data with sound is not weird at all. In fact,
you’re even doing it right now…well, sort of. If you’ve seen my video about the history of
the internet, I provide a very basic explanation of how this works. Computers are basically SUPER
advanced telegraph machines. But instead of using morse code, they use something called
binary. As we know, binary is a language made up of 1s and 0s, a high electrical voltage means 1,
low or none means 0. And it does all of this almost instantaneously. If you’re on Wi-Fi, the
same concept applies but instead with radio waves. 1 and 0 would be on slightly separate frequencies
that are distinct enough for the computers to understand. But instead of sound waves, they are
electromagnetic waves, and instead of speakers, they are modems, Wi-Fi cards, etc. But the general
concept still applies, and these are frequencies our bodies cannot see or hear, making it look like
magic. So the virus is basically doing exactly this, but instead of pictures, it’s binary,
a binary version of the malicious code, and the sound is playing at frequencies that we can’t
hear, but the computers can, which the listening computer takes in and translates. But sometimes it
IS audible. Dragos himself complained of hearing a high pitched noise in his lab and it took him
THREE YEARS to find out that THIS was what was happening. So yes, this is all very much possible.
But there are problems with this approach. Sound waves in general, just aren’t nearly as good with
this kind of communicating. Using the Audacity example, when I transmitted this image this way,
there is a clear sign of degradation, loss of quality compared to the original, and this is
because of something called a “signal to noise” ratio. You’re probably well aware that microphones
can often pick up sounds that we either tend to ignore or can’t even at all. You’ve ever noticed
how you could be in a room that is just so quiet and you can hear your voice clearly, but as soon
as you record yourself talking, you hear all this loud static in the background, yuck just sounds
terrible. This is of course “background noise” and the more there is, the more it is going to
interfere with that data, and sound in particular is VERY sensitive to background noise. This is why
a lot of old school modems had these insolated cups around their microphones and speakers,
it was specifically to eliminate this background noise. I tried this experiment again but put my
laptop in the other room, and sure enough the image quality was even WORSE. The distance and
more added background noise of just the ambience, my ceiling fan, all that stuff, were external
factors that interfered with the transmission of the image. Just how like the farther you are away
from a Wi-Fi router, the weaker the connection. It’s the same thing. But again, things like Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth, stuff like that communicate using electromagnetic waves. A speaker is essentially
just a translator. It’s taking these electrical signals from the computer and turning them IN to
sound that we humans can hear. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are straightforward for data transmission,
as it just needs to modulate the data and then demodulate it when it reaches the recipient. A
speaker in this case, would have modulate, then demodulate, and then modulate again, and then
demodulate again…yeah. It’s kind of like making a photocopy of something and then making a photocopy
of THAT photocopy and you just kept doing that. The quality is just gonna get worse and worse. And
if the data being sent is distorted enough, the computer’s just not gonna know what to do with it.
Computers are much more objective problem solvers, much more sensitive to accurate information than
we are. If I cover part of this picture of me with my thumb, I still know that it’s a picture of me,
but if I cover part of this QR code, it’s no longer recognizable. In other words, even the
SMALLEST bit of interference with this form of transmission could lead to failure. Some kind
of data loss through this type of communication is pretty much inevitable. If you REALLY wanted
to minimize the level of background noise and interference, you would basically need to have
these two computers in some kind of anechoic chamber, not a busy coffee shop, and out of
these two places, let’s be honest, where are you more likely to find someone with a computer?
But let’s say you SOMEHOW found a way around this, and figured out a way to transmit this
information to ALL these computers, without any interference. Even then,
how would you know that the other computers are even listening? The reason this image was able to
show up on my computer was because I had Audacity open; it’s recording software that’s specifically
programmed to record and look for patterns from the sounds in my environment, hence why these
images show up. If I just left my computer as is and played this sound, it would just sit there,
because it is not being told at that present moment to do something with that information.
The same applies with transmitting this code. You can’t just DO that. The computer would need some
kind of protocol that programs it to listen for it. It’s one of the big reasons why that one scene
in Bones is so ridiculous, where a computer literally BLEW up because one of the bones
it scanned had malware sketched into it. Wait. Why is it on LiveLeak? (laughing)
What? (laughing) What?!
(EXPLOSION) “Oh my God!”
“Whoever did this wrote malware on bone and destroyed a million bucks worth of computers.”
“I DID NAHT. OH HAI MARK!” Yes, it is technically “scanning” something,
but the code on its own doesn’t mean anything. The computer actually has to be taught how to
do something with it. It’s like if I walked up to somebody that only speaks English and started
speaking in French telling them to go make me a sandwich. Yes, they can see that I’m speaking to
them, but they don’t know what I am saying (SHOW). But if that person decided to take French classes,
well…I like extra mustard. Computers are the same way. They have to learn or be “programmed”
to actually execute this code. The 3D Scanner in Bones likely wasn’t programmed to execute
something resembles code that may or may not show up on a bone. But if the hacker somehow got a hold
of the scanner’s source code and found some kind of vulnerability that says to execute THIS script
if it finds THIS pattern during a scan, then…sure, that’s plausible. I don’t think the computer would
blow up though. [EXPLOSION]
The same thing applies to BadBIOS; and because BIOS and UEFI systems are so secure and locked
down, the odds of a malware developer getting access to the source code of not just one but
nearly every BIOS to ever exist, is virtually zero. But Dragos himself said that as soon as
he unplugged his speakers, the data transmission stopped. In other words,
it couldn’t have transmitted through sound at all without the computer already having been
programmed to listen and be on the lookout for this specific code from the malware, beforehand.
Which implies that it spread through another way. Dragos claims that as soon as he completely wiped
the BIOS clean, the malware would still show up again, and after further investigation,
he concluded that as soon as he plugged in a USB, the infection immediately started again. So,
it seems most likely that Dragos somehow had dozens of his USB drives infected with this
malware and when he plugged these drives into the other computers, they got infected as well,
which allowed for these computers to listen for these transmissions. But again,
that still doesn’t account for the fact that all these computers run a different
BIOS and that BIOS would be locked down. This whole story has left so many people
online scratching their heads. A story based on so many proof-of-concepts that, at face value,
sound straight out of science fiction as well as things that are flat out contradictory. The
whole thing sounds like something from a badly written TV show, but Dragos is not some nobody,
he is quite well respected, reputable individual within his field, and other reputable sources who
work with him have confirmed its validity as well. Which is why so many people are both mystified
and starting to think that this may be part of an elaborate hoax, or some kind of prank. For
the longest time, Dragos never actually provided evidence outside of his written entries about it,
which left people very skeptical, and when he finally did post something, people claimed it
wasn’t really anything that unusual. Some of them even hypothesized that the sounds he was
hearing were just coming from his hardware and that he was trying to find things that weren’t
there. Not to mention that this type of malware would be INCREDIBLY expensive and time-consuming
to create. If it did exist, it would be even more advanced than Stuxnet, which took multiple
people years to put together and costed tens of millions of dollars. Just doesn’t seem likely.
To this day, BadBIOS has earned a very mixed reputation with the tech space. Many of those
laughing at the absurdity, those on the fence who are simply trying to learn more, and those who
swear that its real and claim to have experienced themselves. There are even entire communities
around it. For now, BadBIOS remains a complete mystery both in its capabilities and whether or
not it even exists. Perhaps we’ve come full circle to all the virus hoax shenanigans the internet saw
back in the 90s, but manifested in a much more convincing and well thought out way. Remarkable.
But there is ONE thing that will FOR SURE protect you from this malware if it does in
fact exist…and it’s through becoming a Patreon or channel member. Just click “join” or go to
Patreon.com/NationSquid. Trust me! It works! A special thanks to my patrons and channel
members for making this video possible. Thank you so much for watching! If you enjoyed this video,
please subscribe, and click the notification bell, so that you never miss a future video.
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