Can a BIOS virus bypass OS detection?

[R2D2]

Would a BIOS virus be able to enter through an open port and pass directly to the BIOS flash memory on the motherboard to bypass detection from the operating system? I don't think either a firewall or port detection software would detect such an event since they are part of the bypassed OS. Maybe a router is the best defense against it. I don't know...just something I thought of.

[BlueZannetti]

-{ Quote: "Would a BIOS virus be able to enter through an open port and pass directly to the BIOS flash memory on the motherboard to bypass detection from the operating system? I don't think either a firewall or port detection software would detect such an event since they are part of the bypassed OS. Maybe a router is the best defense against it. I don't know...just something I thought of." }-Short answer, no.

Ports don't work that way (i.e. as a physically distinct pipe). If you have a firewall active, how does this avoidance actually happen? Also, an application needs to write the viral code to flash memory and that needs to run off of the CPU, which means it needs to be loaded by the OS. No, PC's basically don't work the way you seem to have in mind.

Blue

[R2D2]

Hi Blue,

Thanks for that info. Good to know.:)