"Unhackable" hard drives?

I found a very interesting article here. If, for some reason, it doesn't work for you, go here and click on "Twin-head hard disk...." under "Today in Technology".

Quote:

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Scarabs claims that it has developed a hard disk drive (HDD) with two heads that prevents disk files published on the Web from being altered by hackers.

Scarabs put two heads on a HDD, a read-only head that is connected via one cable to a Web server for people to browse content on the disk file and a read/write head that is connected by another cable to a PC for administrators who renew the data.

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I think the idea is very good. They seem to be marketing it for web servers, but I think it would also be very advantages for other servers, including file servers, so that "disgruntled employees", etc. can't start deleting files or rearranging things on the file server.

What do you think? Do you see a future for this technology? Would you spend the extra money for the added security? Do you really think it'll be as secure as they claim? I want to hear your opinions... I've read a few articles about this lately, and I find it very interesting and want to hear other's opinions on it.

AJ

yeah if it's true it would be great

Read the article and appears to be a great idea.

Not being an expert in this field, I would guess the adminstrators machine would have to be "unplugged" at the end of each update because while it was connected to the network the hackers would target that machine and eventually find a backdoor into the system.

From what I have read the only unhackable computer is the one pulled from the power supply, surrounded by a cubic meter of concrete and buried in your backyard ... then dont be too sure :)

Whichever way, if the project gets off the ground it is certainly going to be challenge for our little graffiti artists of the WWW.

yeah, intresting article

Bingo!!

There isn't, never has been, and never will be a machine that can't be hacked, notwithstanding the condition that it is a functionable machine that serves a purpose.
Any machine that allows user input and processes that input can and will eventually be compromised.

Think of it this way. By default, a computer does everything you tell it to, period. If I am not allowed to access a machine, then someone has to create a set of criteria that tells the machine to not communicate with me (an access list, for example). I send a packet to a computer (computer being either a pc or a network device/node), and it checks the header to see if it is allowed to process my request for information. If not, it discards this information and sends a notice to me that my request was rejected. Too late, homey. I crafted my packet perfectly and exploited a buffer overflow in the packet header I learned about after two months of researching and 'scouting' that machine. Peace out to that machine.

If you followed that, the point being, there is always a way around security provisions as long as you are able to send information to a machine. It may take a lot more time, patience, and intellectual-crunching than most want to put into it, but it can be done. The admin in the example above should have been able to detect/stop me in the 'scouting' stage, and I probably would have given up and moved on to a more 'open' target on the same network as my primary target, maybe in its DMZ :)

Hope this made sense, and it didn't really apply to your hardware security topic directly, but it was an example of how anything is possible in the world of 1's and 0's.

ummm didnt you get that off slashdot??
if you read the article on their it tells you a little bit about why it will be hacked but deter most script kidde defacments

i aggree with comjo nothing is unhackable if a really skilled hacker want to get in to that hard drive s/he would nothing much would stop them if they were determined to root the box interesting article though thanks for the link avden

I have heard things like this time and time agian "UNHACKABLE" sure it will keep sKiddies off for a time but then someone will make tools to help them play with that type of box.

Rioter > The article I found was at Computer Weekly (www.cw360.com) as posted above. This article, nor either of the other articles I read stated anything about the hard drive being hacked into. The only way it would be possible for this hard drive to be hacked into is if someone were to gain access via the storage provider's local area network. Any sort of attempt through the web server would be thwarted by the fact that the user would only be able to access the read only head.

AJ

pretty neat idea and I think it could make it harder to hack but it is by no means unhackable. If you hacked into the PC with control of the read write head then it really would not matter. Just my cheap $.02

Unhackable is a strong word to use. But indeed, it is a very good idea. According to the article, I believe it will cause your system to be a lot harder to hack and in this day and age that's all you can hope for.

Guidance...

I'm Not To Sure About RAID but doesn't RAID level 5 do the same thing? I know RAID uses two DDHs though.

If they make THIS, why can't they make my toggle-read-only drive that I've been asking for!?! EVIL COMPANIES! Eeeeviiiilll!

Here's my brainfart/brainchild... have a hard drive with a front faceplace with a toggle switch. It toggles between normal and read only. It would be physically impossible to write to the drive when the switch is in the read-only position. Special drivers would help the OS determine which mode the drive was in. A secondary smaller faster drive would be used for swap space. Anyone with a fairly static website would be able to simply flip the switch to the 'read only' position in-between updates.

And for the home user? Well, you can try that suspicious whack-a-mole program without fear! If you notice something strange, simply reboot, and there's nothing evil running or in memory, and it couldn't fit itself on the disk...

*I* would buy it. Great for experimenting with I-don't-know-what-this-really-does-is-it-a-virus.exe.

avdven: from my past experiances, it is not very hard to convince a computer that you are a part of a lan (local area network) or wan, when you are actually outside of it. It is not easy by any means, but not impossable. I have gotten access to the accounting servers that only allow access from inside the LAN at my work, just takes time, and lots of research

Cross, you have a very good point. I have had such experiences myself, though for me, it was never really difficult (for some reason, ever since I was a child, I've seemed to have a innate knowledge of all sorts of electronic hardware and software). If I had web server running a drive such as this, however, I wouldn't place the computer on a computer which was otherwise accessible the the Internet (basically place it on a closed-circuit network). If set up properly, I realize it won't be unhackable (nothing ever is...) but it would be pretty close to it. If someone really had the time and energy to figure out a way in, it could be done, but it'd definately deter anyone except someone who really had a need to access the drive.

AJ

Some potentially interesting uses. True, a read-only hard drive cannot have its contents modified, however, it cannot be patched easily either.

An attacker who gains a high level of access does not need to modify files - they simply make any server programs (notably web servers) behave *as if* the files had been modified without actually modifying them.

Some worms already do this, for instance code red and its "hacked by chinese" messages - it never actually writes them to the disc just makes the web server serve the message instead of genuine files.

If the server is used to store software or configuration for other machines or business data, these can be compromised without modifying the files themselves in the above way, then used to propogate mal-ware to other machines in the organisation which aren't similarly protected.

Isn’t there a Linux disto that’s made to run web servers off a cd-r?

I think anything that deters the senseless defacements is a step in the right direction. No box is unhackable. you'd just have to target the administartors box. Since most admins want remote access. Get the admins box and write access is allowed to the server. Or that would be my theory.