Phlashing allows you to damage hardware over the Internet. This is something new and consists of flashing, as in changing the firmware, or computer code in chips on your motherboard, controller cards or other hardware. Since more modern systems allow flashing firmware over a network for quick updates, this is now an exploitable vulnerability. Previously, you had to “flash” those computer chips from the machine that contained them.
There are security features in hardware to prevent this kind of vandalism, but unfortunately some flaws enable hackers to flash destructively. Phlashing code has already been developed by security researchers and hackers. Phlashing attacks are not easy and will likely not be common, however its a possible glimpse of the coming storm of weapons of cyber destruction.
“Phlashing” attacks could render network hardware useless
Most computer security coverage focuses on the PC realm, but Rich Smith, head of HP’s Systems Security Lab, has identified a potential security flaw within a network’s physical hardware rather than a typical desktop or server system. Smith’s report focuses on a class of devices he refers to as Network Enabled Embedded Devices (NEEDS for short), and how such systems could be attacked at the firmware level through a process he refers to as “phlashing.” – more at Arstechnica