So, I’m trying to setup a honeypot with a old laptop running Ubuntu. I’m also considering giving away root privileges to some default name accounts, I know that it’s possible to mess up the OS installation and file system, but I’m not worried with that. I’m concerned that there is a way to really screw up my laptop hardware with root privileges. I have some candidates like /dev/sys/firmware, cpu microcode, overvoltage, but not knowing for sure if that can be done (not really a thing I can test eh?), I figured that this is the place to ask these kind of questions.
So, how can someone really mess up a computer with Linux and root privileges?
Edit: Just to clarify, I know it’s possible to destroy the installation with dd, but like I said above, I’m not worried with that, I’m concerned with physically bricking the laptop’s hardware.
Edit 2: It’s only considering a remote connection like ssh, so no physical access to the machine therefore, no thermite
Something that affects thermals is really the only thing I can think of, but even that has safeguards that would be difficult to bypass.
I’d worry more about the network side of things, and make sure it’s not possible for anything to pivot from the honeypot into some other part of your network.
You can probably set the voltage on your CPU if you modprobe msr, but you CPU will crash pretty quickly.
You can on some laptops/monitors write to the EDID eeprom, which can brick the screen/monitor (can be restored and the screen can be forced into a valid resolution).
If the OS has access to UEFI stuff, you might be able to corrupt/remove some UEFI variables, and it will “brick” the hardware, although that could be fixed with a CMOS reset or removing the battery.
If you have access to flash firmware, you might be able to brick a GPU or the screen EDID as @mehmedbasic said. Though these should be recoverable as long as you can stick in a live Linux USB that you can SSH into. (Or swap the HDD entirely)
Yeah, I thought of overvolting. That could actually work. CPUs tend to be just fine running way over voltage, until the silicon degrades too much. Just running a bit hot.
Yeah, so then all the other physical means are applicable.
Oh, wait! Since it’s a laptop. It has a battery. And a charging circuit.
Now, some laptops have access to reflash their charging circuit. Not all do tho.
You could develop malicious firmware for the battery which could cause the battery to overcharge and either vent or catch fire. There is potential for a total loss of the equipment and also the encompassing structure, however, this is wargaming and I do not believe this will actually happen.
Heres an article from a while back outlining the issue a bit more:
Yeah that may be the wisest, but that may spoof some attackers with some of the virtual hardware id’s. Since it is an old laptop, I really have nothing to lose if I run it bare metal …unless someone can brick it…