Hacking a computer when it's turned off?

Hi everyone.

I have made a bet with my friend. He claims, that it is possible for super hackers, to hack someone while his/her computer is turned off! (It is necessary that you have an AC-adapter plugged in of course), but it can't be possible, because a hacker can't acces the hard drive when it's turned off! As long as I know, it isn't possbile to start a computer without touching on any button.

What do you say? Am I right, or is he right?

Kind regards Peter

 

Yes, it's possible. You don't need to be a "super hacker". I'm afraid you lost your bet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lights_out_management

 

Wake On LAN Yea I think you might have lost your bet.

^^^ Never heard of that LOM Brandon...news to me..and I don't think I understand how it works. I guess it might be similar to WOL.

 

Wake on Lan is defnitely more feasible for most computers.

Lights out is used mostly for servers. Say you have server in New York and you're in LA, and it crashes. Instead of having someone in New York hit the power button, you can turn it on from LA. Also useful as you can get into the bios, etc. Standard configurations usually have it where the lights out card has its own power connection, separate from the server power supply so even if the servers PS went bad, you could still run diagnostics on the server.

 

WOL is a method to remotely turn on a computer which could then be hacked, not hacking a computer that is powered off.

I have heard that data residing in the computer's RAM remains there for about 5 minutes after the system is powered off; longer, if the module is subjected to very cold conditions. With physical access to a computer that's been recently powered off, one could theoretically take out the RAM modules and copy data off them.

 

for any of this to work the 'owner' of a machine has to do a number of very, very stupid things in order to open things up to a hacker.

 

Still, he said with the computer turned off. It it were awaken it would be on.

 

Yup, I understand, so maybe he is not 100% correct, because you can't acces files when it's off, and he said a hacker could, but nope, he has to turn the computer on first

 

Who says you have to access files to 'hack' a computer? It depends on what is meant by hacking. The most basic sense of hacking is just gaining unathorized access.

Using a RILO/ILO/LOM board I could remotely make changes so that the computer would never even boot to the OS. Could I steal his email password? Probably not, but one could do some damage to the software/hardware configuration causing some serious problems.

 

^ Right, but the OP specified methods of hacking when the machine is powered off, not just any methods of hacking. Wake-on-LAN is not an example of that as it is merely a antecedent to hacking the computer while it is turned on

 

I'm not refering to wake on lan, read my post.

 

You refered to WOL as being feasible in post #4.

 

Basically, it's possible to hack into certain computers without turning them on. For your typical consumer grade computer, impossible.

 

is taking out the hdd and plugging it externally onto my laptop allowed?

 

This will be a PHYSICAL Hacking. More to say, you need to steal/rob his HDD like crazy to fulfill this task.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't call walking into the IT closet and stealing drives "hacking." It's more like breaking and entering.

 

I guess that swiping a RAM module doesn't count as hacking either, then.

 

Nor is setting off the sprinklers

 

actually, all this "is powered off" gets completely mood with his last statement:

as this is false, espencially for mission critical systems like servers. as admins need to have some way to access them, and start/restart them from home if something goes completely wrong.. more important than the slight increase of chance of someone hacking in.. as those systems normally are on all time anyways...

 

Anyone know how to hack here? LOL.
Wish to hack my school servers. XD

 

easily possible, just take ownership over system32 and delete as many files as possible, then install firefox make google.com frontpage and make sure you print out the TOS, fax them to your email and then change password

 

additionally, many/most routers are pre-set to block the WOL magic packet.

So not only does the owner of a machine have to be horrendously stupid, the network admins have to share in that stupidity.

Time to shut this straw man down.

 

So while we can't give any definitive answers to the OP's question, we can say that idiocy renders possible the things that are impossible.

Thanks for the inspiration, newsposter.

 

Thanks for the very good answers!

I have told all this to my friend, and it ended up, that I won the bet! =D

You know what I won? 2 rum truffles xD! Wooohooo!

But yes, it is apparently possible, but you have to incredible stupid, and you have to turn the computer ON using WOL.

 

I'm sure I'm being overcautious but I take no chances...I always turn my wireless card off and unplug the ethernet cable from my laptop before sleeping/turning it off....

 

Nice. I'd had made by friend buy me a few snickers bars. Or a BigMac.