• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

Microsoft linked attacks on SharePoint flaws to China-nexus actors

 | 

Cisco confirms active exploitation of ISE and ISE-PIC flaws

 | 

SharePoint under fire: new ToolShell attacks target enterprises

 | 

CrushFTP zero-day actively exploited at least since July 18

 | 

Hardcoded credentials found in HPE Aruba Instant On Wi-Fi devices

 | 

MuddyWater deploys new DCHSpy variants amid Iran-Israel conflict

 | 

U.S. CISA urges to immediately patch Microsoft SharePoint flaw adding it to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Microsoft issues emergency patches for SharePoint zero-days exploited in "ToolShell" attacks

 | 

SharePoint zero-day CVE-2025-53770 actively exploited in the wild

 | 

Singapore warns China-linked group UNC3886 targets its critical infrastructure

 | 

U.S. CISA adds Fortinet FortiWeb flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 54

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 533 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

Radiology Associates of Richmond data breach impacts 1.4 million people

 | 

Fortinet FortiWeb flaw CVE-2025-25257 exploited hours after PoC release

 | 

Authorities released free decryptor for Phobos and 8base ransomware

 | 

Anne Arundel Dermatology data breach impacts 1.9 million people

 | 

LameHug: first AI-Powered malware linked to Russia’s APT28

 | 

5 Features Every AI-Powered SOC Platform Needs in 2025

 | 

Broadcom patches critical VMware flaws exploited at Pwn2Own Berlin 2025

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Hacking
  • I will hack your systems with an SD Card

I will hack your systems with an SD Card

Pierluigi Paganini January 01, 2014

The hardware hacker Bunnie Huang presented at the Chaos Compute Club Congress how to exploit SD cards microcontrolled for malicious purposes.

How is it possible to exploit SD Card, USB stick and other mobile devices for hacking? Another interesting hack was presented at the Chaos Computer Congress (30C3), in Hamburg, Germany, while yesterday I’ve published a post on an hack against ATMs via infected USB sticks, today I’m writing on the hacking of SD Card flash storage.

The researchers demonstrated how to hack the microcontroller inside every SD and microSD flash cards to realize a man in the middle attack.

SD cards contain powerful micro controllers that are exploitable by hackers to make them insecure.

The hacker Bunnie Huang described the procedure to do it and published also a post on the topic, it seems that to reduce SD cards price and increase their storage capability, engineers have to consider a form of internal entropy that could affect data integrity on every Flash drive.

SD card hack

Almost every NAND flash memory is affected by defects and presents problems like electron leakage between adjacent cells.

“Flash memory is really cheap. So cheap, in fact, that it’s too good to be true. In reality, all flash memory is riddled with defects — without exception. The illusion of a contiguous, reliable storage media is crafted through sophisticated error correction and bad block management functions. This is the result of a constant arms race between the engineers and mother nature; with every fabrication process shrink, memory becomes cheaper but more unreliable. Likewise, with every generation, the engineers come up with more sophisticated and complicated algorithms to compensate for mother nature’s propensity for entropy and randomness at the atomic scale.” wrote Huang.

A hacker could exploit the firmware loading mechanism, usually used only at the factory, to load  malicious code, a techniques largely adopted by counterfeiters who create SD cards that report a larger capacity than they have.

The firmware on the SD cards can be updated, but according Huang’s revelations most manufacturers leave this update functionality unsecured.

The hacker during the presentation at 30C3 reverse-engineered the instruction set of a particular microcontroller to inspect firmware loading mechanism.

The attackers suitably modifying the firmware could hack any device that uses the compromised SD card (e.g. A mobile device, Wi-Fi equipped camera), the flash memory will appear to be operating normally while hacking the hosting equipment.

The SD card could make a copy of the contents in a hidden memory area or it could run malicious code while idle avoiding detection mechanisms.

When we speak about USB hacking or SD Card hacking we must consider that we are approaching the hacking on a large-scale due the wide diffusion of these components. Microcontrollers cost as little as 15¢ each in quantity, they are everywhere and every device that use them could be hacked.

Another consideration that must be done is that Governments and high profile hackers could be very interested in this type of attack for both cyber espionage and sabotage purposes, arrange a countermeasure against these types of threat it is very hard.

 

A curiosity for the “hackers inside” …  these cards could be reprogrammed to become Arduino open source microcontroller and memory systems.

“An Arduino, with its 8-bit 16 MHz microcontroller, will set you back around $20. A microSD card with several gigabytes of memory and a microcontroller with several times the performance could be purchased for a fraction of the price,” he writes.

Look closely at the presentation … and distrustful of SD cards from now on.

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs –  SD card, hacking)


facebook linkedin twitter

Chaos Computer Congress (30C3) Chaos hacking cyber espionage Hacking man-in-the-middle Pierluigi Paganini SD card Security Affairs state sponsored hackers USB sticks USB sticksCongress (30C3)

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 23, 2025
Microsoft linked attacks on SharePoint flaws to China-nexus actors
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 22, 2025
Cisco confirms active exploitation of ISE and ISE-PIC flaws
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    Microsoft linked attacks on SharePoint flaws to China-nexus actors

    APT / July 23, 2025

    Cisco confirms active exploitation of ISE and ISE-PIC flaws

    Hacking / July 22, 2025

    SharePoint under fire: new ToolShell attacks target enterprises

    Hacking / July 22, 2025

    CrushFTP zero-day actively exploited at least since July 18

    Hacking / July 22, 2025

    Hardcoded credentials found in HPE Aruba Instant On Wi-Fi devices

    Security / July 22, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT